Sally & Jackson

Chapter 2

She sighed before moving away from the edge and getting off.

"Happy now?" She asked with a fake smile.

"Why were you there?"

"Ugh..." She rolled her eyes. "It's none of your business." She picked the apple off my tray without asking and bit into it. I stared at her, hoping she'd remember me, but then who would want to remember the person who bumped into them on the sidewalk? She stopped chewing as soon as she noticed me. She dropped the apple back on the tray.

"Oh, you can have the apple," I suggested, and she picked it back up.

"I'm Jackson, but people call me Jack." Nobody actually called me that, and I don't know why I said, "What's your name?"

"I'll tell you if you find me again." She said as she walked past me towards the door, "Thanks for the apple, Jack." She smirked as she opened the door and left. I stood there for a couple of minutes, trying to reorganize my emotions. There was something about this girl that made me feel odd. She made me feel different; I'd never felt like this before.

I finally managed to leave the roof and rush into another class. I'd say that I paid attention in class for the rest of the day, but that would be a complete lie. I sat in class, but all I could think about was her. I've never seen her before, but I never really looked at her face. Does she even go here? How would I know that? I didn't even get her name. I guess I'll just have to find her again somehow.

It was only a matter of time before the day came to an end, and that is my favorite time because I get to return home and rest within the confines of my room, but today I wouldn't be doing that because, apparently, I have detention. If I had it my way, I would be on my way home, but that also comes with consequences of its own, and I don't have the mental capacity to accommodate more situations that put my social anxiety into overdrive. I sat down in the almost empty classroom with my bag on the table, and his face was buried in it. I would scream, but that'd make me look like a psychopath, but who isn't?

"Hey stalker," I said, raising my head to find her staring down at me. I took off my glasses, cleaned them, and put them back on, and she was still there. She chuckled as she sat beside me.

"Technically, you're stalking me, seeing as you came to meet me here," I blurted out before I stopped myself. She looked taken aback, but her facial expression morphed into a smile, and she then threw her head back as she laughed.

"Shhhh!" the teacher exclaimed, and we shrank in our seats, still giggling. We sat there in silence because I didn't have the courage to say anything, and I was already getting tired from still being in here.

"Alright, delinquents, get out of here." The teacher groaned. He didn't have to say it twice. We grabbed our bags, and we're out the door.

"Oh sh*t," I groaned as it dawned on me that I had missed the bus. I was so engrossed in her presence that I had completely forgotten about my means of transportation. "I missed the bus."

"Can't walk?" she asked.

"It's just far. Hence the bus." I dragged my feet as I followed behind her.

"Are you a junior?" I finally broke the awkward silence between us.

"Yep," she replied nonchalantly. I had never seen her before, but then again, I barely pay attention to people.

"I've never seen you before."

"Me too," she chuckled.

"So, tell me, what do you do for fun?" She asked. When people ask me that question, I always have a quick, honest answer for them, but there was something about her that made me think about everything that I was into.

"Nothing really. I'm more of a homebody," I muttered.

"Oh". She said as she kicked the rock in front of her, and it rolled down the street. "No friends?"

"I'm more of a lone wolf," I answered.

"So, you're lonely," she said, and that somehow stung me.

"It depends on who you ask."

"Let's be lonely together." She looked over at me with a smile on her face that seemed to make me melt on the inside.

"This is me," she announced as we got closer to a two-story building painted white.

I walked her to her door, and she turned, staring into my eyes, and it felt like she was uncovering my entire being with one gaze.

"Phone." She stretched out her hand. I quickly took out my phone and handed it over to her. She typed something on it and looked back at me with a smile. Then she handed it to me, and it was her number, but there wasn't any name.

"I never got your name," I asked.

"Sally," she whispered.

In that moment, her name was somehow etched across my heart. I remember how I smiled the rest of the way home because of her. She felt like sunlight, and for the first time in a long time, I felt alive.