Discovering "Her"

Absolution

I Shuffled through the door with my backpack weighed down from every textbook known to man. Thankfully my parents were busy organising some shit for a church service so I had pretty much free reign of downstairs since their study was on the top floor.

I throw the backpack onto my bed and start to rummage through it. I can barely remember receiving any of this stuff from my teachers. Apparently I have packet filled with math questions due tomorrow? All of this stuff seems alien to me. I know why though.. I wasn't focused all day. I can't tell you if there was ever a time that I wasn't thinking about that mystery girl. The short glimpse of her orange shirt, the way "hey" rolled off her tongue and bounced from her lips, or the saintly way she swayed as she walked away from me.

Now.. I know what you're thinking. "Marissa, you have barely said a word to her and haven't even made eye contact." yes.. I know this. But there is just something about her. I can feel it. My heart beats faster and I feel lighter than air when I think about her. I'm going to say something to her tomorrow. I swear it.

Ugh. My stomach growled and thoughts of food took over my brain. It doesn't seem like mom will be cooking tonight.. I'll have to go and make myself something easy.

I'm walking through the dining room and notice something out of place. There is a huge stack of papers.. Well.. Pamphlets to be exact. I take one and casually start to read it while searching through the cupboards for anything edible and at least sort of healthy. A few words and phrases in large letters catch my eyes first. "savior" "righteous freedom" "kingdom of god" "absolution" ... You know, all of that religious bull crap everyone raves about.

There was one other phrase that caught my eye right before I was about to put down the pamphlet. "abolishing gays" I don't know why I took several extra seconds to examine this phrase.. And even read parts of the text right below it, but I suddenly felt very sick. Was it because I had been thinking of that girl all day? That I knew I probably liked her more than girls should?

Whatever the matter was, she went to go lay down. Sleep called to her moments after.

******

She opened her locker and didn't do anything but appear to be busy. She waited and waited until she heard the locker next to hers open... But she was nervous. More so than she thought she would be. Slowly she lifted her hand to close her locker but it was shaking. No matter how hard she tried she couldn't control her body the way she wanted to. She decided to just turn her head and say something. Something small and easy.

"H-hey" she managed to squeak.

The mystery girl looked over and for the first time Marissa could see her beautiful brown eyes.

"Did you say something?" The girl asked with a slight tilt of her head and a confused expression.

"I'm Marissa."

The mystery girl smiled. "Haily"

And walked off.