Brothers (Phan)

7

   There's somebody in my seat.

   I don't recognize her.

  It's Monday, and I went back to school, forgetting about what had happened the week before. People were whispering and pointing fingers at me. Jason and his gang of idiots are nowhere to be seen. It feels nice to walk through the hallways without fear, but I still don't stick around the halls for if they do show up. I go to my class with about twenty minutes before class begins.

   But when I get to my first class, I see a girl sitting in my seat in the back row. There's so many other empty desks. I chose the one in the very back with nobody else around, because I don't really like people.

   I sit in the seat next to her. I glance over at her, taking in her image. She's very pretty, if I were into girls, I would date her. She has long, lavender, baby pink, and light turquoise colored hair, a dark purple and black fake flower tucked behind her ear. She's wearing a heather grey shirt with something on it I can't make out. She has on very dark purple skinny jeans on, tight enough to cut off her circulation. Her grey converses are on top of the desk. White earbuds are shoved into her ears, which are adorned with dozens of piercing. She has dark eye makeup, but her soft brown eyes make her look kind, and her complexion makes her look non intimidating. Balanced on her nose are black "hipster" glasses. She's dotted with millions of freckles on her face and neck. She has black snakebites under her bottom lip, and a shiny stud adorning her button nose.

   She looks over at me. Her long slender legs swing off the top of the desk and she turns towards me. "Hey, you're pretty cute." She says to me. I blush at the compliment. "Thank you, but I don't swing that way." She laughs, it's loud, but light and melodic. "Oh honey no, I could tell. I'm just observing the fact that you are very attractive. I have a girlfriend, and I love her a lot so back up." she laughs as she says this. I can't get enough of her laugh. She's so friendly to me, I'm jut drawn in by her.

   I look down and realize that her shirt says "ghost town" in big purple letters that match her jeans. "Hey! I love ghost town!" She smiles, flashing her straight white teeth. "Oh my god! Before I saw you, I thought everybody in this school was uninteresting. You're like my new best friend." She says, filling the air with her contagious laughter. She pulls out one of her earbuds and hands it to me. I put it in my ear and I'm instantly welcomed by the blaring sound of A Skylit Drive. We discuss our favorite albums by them, she tells me hers is Adelphia, and I tell her that mine is Identity on fire.

   After the song ends, the star of the show, Ghost Town comes on. "Oh my god, this is my favorite song!" I say to her excitedly. She laughs at my reaction, her warm eyes sparkling. I lip sync and enthusiastically dance to Internet Pirates, as I hear her howl in laughter at me. It's so nice to make her laugh. I've never clicked with somebody this well, not even with Phil, although we became friends very quickly.

   We discuss our favorite bands for the next ten minutes. People start to trickle in, still whispering about Phil defending me. They're confused when they see her in my seat, a new girl, talking to the freak in pastel clothes. They ignore us and keep up their gossip. Our teacher, Mrs. Higgins comes in and we quiet down. She pauses the music and grabs her earbuds and crams them into her pocket. She leans back in her chair and pretends to listen to Mrs. Higgins. She stares up at the ceiling.

   I realize that I had never caught her name! I jot down my question on a scrap of paper, and stealthily pass it to her while our teacher drones on. She unfurls it and reads it, then writes back to me. We pass it back and forth for a few minutes. My scrawled and sharp handwriting is unreadable, but she somehow understands it. Her curly, cursive handwriting contrasts mine.

"Hey new girl, I never heard you say your name. I'm Dan"

"I'm Violet. Hi dan."