[Lily; pictured above]
An agitated groan escapes her lips as she finally reaches the courtyard portion of the school building. The spot where Lily usually sat in her own company under the eldest tree in the school yard was occupied by one of the football player's, Caleb Whitmore, and his woman of the hour. She could feel her body temperature rising as she inched closer to the obnoxious pair. Lily managed to usually stay out of everyone's hair even when they toyed with her the most, but everyone knew that this was her spot and she was not going to hold her tongue.
She stands beside the couple, staring the two of them down as they sit engrossed in one another, with their tongues down each others throats. The blonde girl catches Lily out of the corner of her eye and she breaks the kiss completely, staring up at her with an unamused face as if she wasn't in the wrong.
"What the fuck do you want, freak?" Caleb spat, with a smirk up at Lily.
He attempts at holding eye contact with her but Lily's dead stare was way too uncomfortable for anyone to compete with for too long.
"This is my spot." She says simply, adjusting her bag on her shoulder.
"Not if I'm sitting here, right?"
"Well maybe you should get off of your dumb ass and go take your make out session somewhere else."
Caleb stands to his feet, inching his body as close to Lily as possible, staring down at her small figure.
"Listen, how about you find yourself a seat somewhere else yeah?" He pauses in between his words. "I wouldn't want to have to show you what bad things could happen if you get in my way again."
Grabbing the side of Lily's jaw, Caleb whispers in her ear. "Oh wait, I forgot you're into that kind of stuff."
Blood rushes to her face as her throat begins to tighten. Lily extends her elbow into Caleb's abdomen with as much strength as she can muster, gaining back the control of her face and a groan out of him. She rushes away quickly, hunting down a replacement seat in the vast courtyard, finally she spots one in the very back by the trashcans. Lily releases the breath she'd been holding since he had his hands on her, but no good did it do. She could feel herself sinking all over again, panicking but she had no gateway to calm her down.
Reaching in the first pocket of her satchel, Lily's finger tips graze the bottle full of prescription pills. Although the medication wasn't typically recommended for anyone under the age of eighteen because of Lily's severe anxiety, she was prescribed the medication at fifteen years old. In the beginning her uses were strictly for an aid to her problem but in the last year she began to use her diagnosis for recreational purposes.
She couldn't do it. Not now— in the open with hundreds of kids who already hated her enough. One more allegation on her back would bring them endless glee. Lily releases the pull bottle from her fingers and grabs for a pen instead.
Cracking open her notebook, Lily began to continue working on the sketches she worked on hours earlier. The drawing depicted a woman sitting alone in a corner, knees to her chest with her arms wrapped around her legs. Only the side of her face, including her eye is shown as she peeks between the small space from where her arms are. In the background there are multiple faces, terrifying faces surrounding the woman almost as if they were cornering her there.
As in tune with her artwork as possible, Lily almost didn't hear the voice that attempted to gain her attention.
"Excuse me, miss," he says, a little louder now, causing her to instantly shut her book giving him a hard stare in the process.
"What are you doing?"
At a lost for words, Jesse stands there awkwardly with a lunch tray balanced in one of his hands. He stumbles over his words looking for the right thing to say to her.
"What's up?" she demands still staring him in the eyes.
"Can I please sit here with you? I'm new here and I don't know anyone, and I don't know what I'm doing actually."
"And you don't know me either, so why did you choose this spot out of every other place around here?" She says curiously with sarcasm laced in her tone.
Watching the new kid squirm as she interrogated him took Lily's mind off the previous events she'd experienced. She didn't trust him, but considering he was nearly shitting himself at the moment gave her the comfort in knowing that he wouldn't be picking with her next.
"I... I'm sorry I asked I'll just-"
"Stop." She says a little louder than intended causing him to flinch a little. "Just sit down."
Relief spreads through him like a wildfire as he places the tray on the table, plopping down on the opposite side of Lily. "Thank you."
She watches him as he eats, observing his quirks as he does so. As he takes a bite of his supreme pizza, his shoulders slouch and he moans a bit; quickly concealing his satisfaction with a cough after noticing her eyes on him. When Jesse finally makes eye contact with her, she gets a good look at his features.
His eyes where the color of amber in the lighting, with specks of green on the outer edges of his irises. He had olive skin and dark hair, dark scruff to match. Although his pink lips were quite small, the bottom one protruded the more she stared at him.
Breaking their stare down, Lily brings her eyes back down to her notebook, vigorously sketching the edges of the paper.
Jesse's eyes light up as he watches her draw. Art was one of the things that he loved yet he could never do himself. Swallowing, he fits his mouth to finally talk to the girl since he sat down.
"What're ya working on?" He leans his head closer to the table to see her artwork, only to have her close the book in his face.
"None of your business." Lily answers sharply, tossing the brown book into her satchel after sealing the band over top of it.
The light in his eyes and the smile on his face diminishes after Lily's harsh tone. She notices this, mentally cursing herself for ruining yet another persons perception of her. She can't bare sitting with him any longer although they had ten minutes of lunch left, she felt bad but she couldn't bring herself to apologize in that moment. Typical stubborn Lily.
She stands, smoothing the wrinkles out of her shorts. Gathering her possessions, Lily backs away from the table failing to make eye contact with the pitiful boy, she turns and heads towards the main building. Jesse felt a pang in his chest as he watched her walk away. Though he didn't do anything at all, he couldn't help but feel guilty for trying to start a conversation with her.
He figured, whatever it was that she had in that book was personal and maybe he over stepped his boundaries a bit. Great job Jess, you try to make a friend and you loose her in a nanosecond, he mentally shamed himself.
Sighing, he takes his phone from his jean pocket, plugging in his earphones to rid the silence that spread around him.
