ＴＨＥ ＤＩＮＥＲ || 𝙢𝙘𝙠𝙚𝙣𝙣𝙖 𝙜.

chapter 3

Hazel stood off to the side, leaning against the wall. She took a tiny sip of punch from her red solo cup. It didn't even taste that good; she just wanted to look preoccupied.

A poster tacked to the wall boasted the dance's theme, Under the Sea, in huge orange bubble letters. Dark blue disco lights danced across the floor, giving the gym an underwater feel. Couples were slow-dancing to some cheesy love song. Hazel looked around at all of their happy, lovestruck faces. She felt like she was underwater, alright. She felt like she was drowning.

Arya tapped her date's shoulder. "Cooper, do you, um...wanna dance?"

Cooper shook his head, barely turning around to look at her. For the past ten minutes, he'd been talking to an uncomfortable-looking girl with thick black hair, who just rolled her eyes anytime he attempted to say something witty. He couldn't seem to take the hint that this girl, whoever she was, wasn't into him. Hazel couldn't help but wonder; why wasn't he spending time with his actual date, a girl who was, in fact, into him?

She felt a lump forming in her throat. She was so tired of boys, so tired of her boy-obsessed friend. Suddenly, her legs were carrying her out of the room. She dodged a dancing couple on her way out, barely even noticing when the girl, who was backing up to do a twirl, rammed into her.

"Ugh, watch it!" The girl grunted.

After Hazel had escaped the gym, she looked around the empty hallway for somewhere to go. The bathroom. She stumbled through the door, locking herself into the nearest stall. She pressed herself against the wall, tears beginning to make salty trails down her face.

Breathe, Hazel. Just breathe.

She sobbed softly for a few minutes, pressing the palms of her hands to her eyelids, wondering when Arya was going to knock on the stall door, asking if she was okay. When that didn't happen, Hazel began to wonder if her friend had even noticed her leave.

Probably not.

As soon as she realized nobody was coming to comfort her, she managed to calm herself down a little. She contemplated what to do, where to go next. She knew there was no point in staying for the remaining two hours of the dance. She was tired. She was a mess. She wanted to go home. The thought of being at home, watching a movie, curled up under her thick sherpa blanket, gave her just enough motivation to come out of the stall.

Except for Hazel, the bathroom was empty. She was in the middle of washing her hands when suddenly, she heard the door open. Looking up, Hazel saw the girl, the one Cooper had been talking to, quietly slip into the room. Red liquid poured down her chin. Hazel panicked as the word blood entered her mind. No, not blood, she thought, looking closer. Just fruit punch.

The girl grabbed a paper towel off the rack, dabbing her chin with it. She wore cherry-red lipstick, combat boots, metallic rings and necklaces, and a corset paired with a long, flowing gown. She was fair-skinned, paler than any girl Hazel had ever seen. Her eyes were piercingly dark. Hazel jumped a little when they suddenly met hers.

The girl stared intensely at Hazel's face for a second. Hazel expected her to say something about her smudged makeup, or her teary eyes, but then the girl's gaze drifted downwards.

"Your dress."

"Oh, uh—what?"

"Your dress," She said again. She had a thick Russian accent. "It's pretty. I like it."

"Oh! Um, thank you."

There was a long pause. "So, uh..." Hazel cleared her throat, still a little hoarse from crying, "This dance kind of sucks, right?"

The girl shook her head, taken a little by surprise. "Mm-mm. I'm having a great time," she said with a hint of a smile.

Suddenly, the bathroom door swung open. "Ugh! There you are," Arya said, taking Hazel by the arm, yanking her into the hallway, "I've been looking all over the place for you. I thought you ditched me or something!"

"What? No." Hazel muttered, partially distracted by the girl, who was now touching up her lipstick in the mirror. Hazel stared at her until the bathroom door had fully shut. Arya began to drag her friend down the hallway.

"Let's get out of here. I'm done."

Hazel didn't even bother asking where Cooper was. She assumed the two had gotten into a fight.

They began the short walk back to Arya's house. The night air was cool. A misty rain came down. The moon was partly visible behind a thin, passing cloud. The more Arya walked, the more she seemed to calm down.

"So...why were you talking to her?"

"Who?"

"That girl. In the bathroom."

"Oh, um. I wasn't talking to her, really. We were just...it doesn't matter. Who is she, anyway?"

Arya scoffed. "Valerie—something? She's new this year. I think she's a foreign exchange student. Anyway, she's a total psycho. I heard she bit somebody at her old school."

"She bit someone?"

"Yep. Not even in a kinky way, either. Like, actually bit. Stay the hell away from her, Hazel. She's...not okay in the head, I don't think."

Hazel somehow didn't believe that was true. In the bathroom, Valerie seemed...normal. Nice, even. Hazel realized that she now knew the girl's name.

She looked up at the moon, a beacon of light, a glimmer of hope, in the otherwise pitch-black night.

Valerie, she thought to herself.

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

Hazel quietly shut the door to her bedroom, careful not to wake her mother, who was asleep on the living room sofa. She changed out of her dress, into her worn-in pajamas. Then she fell onto her bed, pulling a thick blanket over her legs. She turned on the tv, flicking through channels, looking for a movie to watch. She stopped her search when something on the news caught her eye.

A blurry photo of a maimed body covered in leaves, some red from the temperature change, some from blood, took up half the screen. A reporter spoke in a flat, monotonous voice over the image. Hazel could barely make out what she was saying over the ringing in her ears. The caption read, in all caps, 17-YEAR-OLD BOY FOUND DEAD OUTSIDE LOCAL HIGH SCHOOL.

The last few words of the reporter's scripted speech rang out.

"...the high school student has been identified as Cooper Hayes."