𝐬𝐮𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭 || 𝐬𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐚𝗺.

twelve.

twelve.

When school let out, the sun finally decided to shine. The sun rays broke through the clouds and students filled the parking lots and walkways as we began our way home. Tatum had left early for a doctor's appointment and there was no practice today. For once, I was able to join my peers and just go home.

The second half of school was pretty uneventful. The gossip surrounding the murder case had gotten stale very fast and was replaced with cheesy rumors surrounding Lena. Rue and Kevin never ended up telling me what her deal was or why she was so important to the student body and with that lack of knowledge, she disappeared from my mind.

"Hey, you dropped this." Someone said.

I continued to walk down the sidewalk, not knowing who the person was talking to.

"Hey!" Someone grabbed my shoulder. "You dropped this."

I stopped walking and turned around, coming face to face with Lena. She looked at me and then down at her hand. My eyes followed and I saw my lipgloss in her hand. "Oh shit, thank you."

"Not a problem," She smiled as I took the small tube from her hand.  "Hey, you're the girl from my history class!"

"Yeah, you sat in front of me." I returned her smile.

She nodded before her mood switched from warm to confused. It was obvious that she wanted to say something else and was holding back; she was very easy to read with her curious expressions. "Are you okay?"

"Oh," She cleared her throat. "I saw you at lunch. Do you talk to Billy?"

"Yeah, something like that..." I shrugged, not understanding the significance of her question.

"Oh, cool, I didn't know him and Sidney finally called it quits." She forced a smile. "I remember when they first got together."

I stood there, not hiding my slight discomfort. I didn't understand why Lena was mentioning Billy. "Do you now?"

Lena saw the look on my face and cleared her throat again. "Sorry, it's just..." She got quiet.

"Just what?" I asked.

Lena cleared her throat again and went pale as she stared behind me. Her eyes grew big and her body went still. She looked like she saw a ghost.

Something was very wrong with this situation but I wasn't sure if it was her and the potential rumors being true or someone behind us, making me want to turn around and see what was going on. "Are you..."

She stopped me abruptly. "No, I'm fine!" She stammered, quickly snapping out of her trance. "Look, I'm sorry. You have your lipgloss, I'll see you later..."

Lena didn't give me the chance to protest before she walked off, obviously in a hurry. Her walk proceeded into a slow jog and she too disappeared into the sea of students, leaving me with a million questions.

Unsure of what to do, I began to follow the rest of the students as we began our ways home or onto the yellow school buses. Everyone walked at a different pace, some were running to sneak up on their friends, or so they wouldn't miss their bus, and others walked slowly in their small groups or all alone like I did.