I had a bad feeling about this new girl. I don't know why. I mean, she seemed cool enough, but something about her just made me feel uneasy. I decided to shrug my suspicions off for now. It must be nothing, right? I asked Taylor and Hayley to keep an eye on Gerard for the day, as they had most of the same classes as him. They agreed to it. I was glad.
The rest of the day went by pretty smoothly, except Gerard was acting a little strange. I kept telling myself that maybe it was hormones. That maybe it was normal for teenage boys to act weird every once in a while, but no matter what I tried to believe, I still had a bad feeling about his current behavior.
"Hey... Um, Lily? I don't feel good, so I think I'm gonna head out early," he said.
"You're ditching?" I asked.
"Um... No, I um... The office knows I don't feel good," he said. My suspicions rose even more.
"Okay. I hope you feel better, babe," I said, adding a harsh tone to the word 'babe.' He flashed me a nervous smile and walked away. I flipped him off when I was sure he couldn't see.
When Mrs. Davis did our usual role call in art, I was relieved when she didn't call Lindsey's name. That means Lindsey doesn't have this class. Although, all of my relief came to a screeching halt when I finally got to music class.
Mr. Samuels took role just like he usually does. Everybody said "here!" when their last name was called except two people.
"It appears that Ms. Ballato and Mr. Way are not present. That's strange. The system says they were at all of their other classes today. Does anybody know where they might be?" Mr. Samuels asked.
"Gerard told me he wasn't feeling well. He said he checked in with the office and they let him leave, but that would show up on your system, wouldn't it? Did it not show up?" I chimed in.
"There's no record of any excused leave here, Ms. Gage," Mr. Samuels said. My blood boiled. What the fuck was he doing with Lindsey?
I got up and told Mr. Samuels that I needed to go to the office to talk to the principal. He bought the excuse and I went running out of class. I heard footsteps behind me and froze.
"Relax, girl. It's just me," I heard a deep female voice behind me say. I immediately recognized the voice as Taylor's.
"Oh, hey. How'd you get out of class already? Did Mr. Samuels let you?" I asked.
"I don't give a shit if he lets me or not. I ditch classes all the time," she scoffed. "That's why I always have after school detentions, duh!" she exclaimed.
"Oh," I said.
"But isn't Hayley kind of a... Good girl? How are you two best friends?" I asked curiously. She shrugged.
"Opposites attract, I guess," she said. "It's actually really funny because she's this good, straight-A student who avoids trouble at all costs, and I live for trouble. I constantly fight with teachers and ditch classes to go smoke. I get mostly F's. I don't give a shit, and she gives too many shits. I think if we both influence each other enough we'll end up with somebody who gives just the right amount of shits," she explained. I laughed.
"That made no sense," I giggled. She shrugged before laughing. "Wait you smoke?" I asked.
"You didn't know that? Girl, I have the voice of an old woman and I'm only sixteen. What did you think?" she laughed.
"But you don't have a smoker's voice, you just have a deep voice!" I protested.
"Well, I do smoke. Now you know," she laughed. I nodded. "Now let's go find that prick boyfriend of yours so I have time to take a smoke break," she said. I laughed and we went around the school to search for Gerard. I was getting more and more nervous as we didn't find him. Eventually, we had searched the entire school.
"They must have left," she said.
"I know where they might be," I said, thinking back to the day I found Gerard unconscious in the forest. I grabbed Taylor's arm and took off running.
"Whoa, slow down, girly. I've got smoker's lungs over here. I'm not exactly The Flash, if you know what I mean," she groaned.
I slowed my pace a little bit but still dragged her with me by her arm.
Once we reached our destination, we each put all of our effort into kicking the door open. It creaked and slid open.
Then all of my suspicions became a reality.
Gerard was sitting on the small couch in the cabin, with Lindsey on his lap straddling him. She seemed to have her tongue down his throat.
"That's it, Gerard! That's fucking it! I gave you your second fucking chance, and you blew it!" I shouted, startling them both.
"Wait! Lily don't-" he started. He pushed Lindsey off of him and stood up to walk over to me.
"Don't bother, Gerard. I'm done," I snapped.
"Lily please don't-" he said. I cut him off once more.
"Save your bullshit apologies, Gerard. I don't want to hear it. Don't bother calling or showing up this time. I won't answer. I'll never listen to you again," I spat.
And I never did.
