Paradox • afi

until i found you

Until I Found You - Stephen Sanchez

I was lost within the darkness, but then I found her
I found you

~

That Friday morning everyone looked tired. Most students were used to sleeping in on Fridays, but knew how important this project would be for their grade. It was all their professor had talked about every day at the beginning and end of class.

Jade was worse. She felt half dead. Usually she'd be fine without coffee, she'd be able to make it through an entire day of classes. But she felt like she needed it for the twenty minutes that her professor said they'd be in class that morning. Luckily for her, Michael knew exactly what she needed. Both physically and mentally, he knew.

When a coffee was silently placed in front of her, she barely had the energy to look up to meet her boyfriend's eyes. She assumed it was some sort of peace offering. That it was him telling her that he's ready to talk about what she had mentioned.

Michael may not have liked the fact that his girlfriend was sitting beside Luke instead of him in her usual seat, but as he watched her bring the drink to her lips, he felt accomplished in some way. It was his bait, and she took it.

One coffee wasn't going to fix or change the fact that he cheated, but in Jade's eyes it was a step in the right direction. He cared about her, and that was huge. She was excited to talk to Michael, hoping that the coffee was a sign that he wanted to be with her.

She was shaken from her thoughts as their professor stood at the front of class, talking to all the students. But the four boys could barely focus on their professor at the front of the room, the girl with some blue hair stealing their attention every few minutes. By doing nothing besides sulking and barely paying attention herself.

Finally, as the girl's name was mentioned, Talbot had caught all five of their eyes on her. She smiled again, eyes landing on the girl with her head against the wall and coffee in her hand. "Miss Carmichael, you'll be working with Hood." She paused. "Hemmings will be working with Evans, and last but not least, Clifford and Irwin will be working together."

Jade glanced over her shoulder at the tanned boy sitting beside Ashton, giving him a weak smile. Then as she took another big drink of her coffee, she turned back to look at her professor.

"Feel free to come to me with any questions after I go over everything one more time." She raised her eyebrows. "This is the first half of a two part project. You have until the first weekend in November to complete it and hand it in. When the time comes, we'll go over the second half." She paused. "But for now, I need you to get together with your partners and discuss your music influences and what kind of music you feel comfortable writing. You don't need to get anything written yet, but I need you to get to know each other, become comfortable with each other."

The students were all nodding along, beginning to feel like this would be the easiest grade any of them received in all of college. "You have just over three weeks and I fully expect all of you to know your partners like yourself by the time November comes around." She paused again. "I'm not saying this as a teacher, but just some friendly advice you didn't hear from me. Halloween parties will be popping up like crazy, it's a great time to get to know someone in a different setting."

The entire class let out quiet laughs, looking around at each other and nodding at their friends. Most students already knew what parties they were going to, Jade didn't plan on going to one at all. But at that point she hadn't been to any parties without Michael. He was always there, always having another girl flirting with him. Sometimes even disappearing the perfect amount of time for a girl to get on her knees and choke a little before Jade even realized Michael was missing at all.