Dark Halls

Chapter 2

I swore I had never seen her before. I didn't know her name because I froze up like an idiot and couldn't even ask one question, but she was never in the lunchroom. I never saw her in the halls as I made my way back to my room to hide for the rest of the day. She didn't seem like the type of person to use the common room, so where the hell had she been? I would have noticed her.

I couldn't stop thinking about the mystery girl that my focus on my current book was nonexistent. I wasn't too frustrated about it because I was about one hundred pages in and still found it disinteresting, but I was frustrated by my lack of knowledge of her. I had never felt like that about a person before, so that was why I found her so intriguing. And our conversation, more like hers, was even so short. What the hell was I supposed to do about that?

"Ms. Wickson," a nurse said from the door. 

I glared up at her, and she gave me a practiced smile.

"Time for breakfast."

I got up and followed her down the hall. I eyed others around me in the hall, searching for the familiar face that was imprinted on my mind. I failed to find her during my walk, so I did the same in the cafeteria. And I found her.

She was sitting alone in the back... at my table.

I didn't know what to do, as I found sitting beside her would be too direct or something. We had only talked once, and I wasn't sure how she would react to a pretty much stranger sitting beside her like they were friends. People didn't just sit by others in a place like this; that usually caused an episode of violence. Most of them were unstable and, I didn't know, but maybe she was too. She was in here for a reason.

I grabbed my tray and sat at a table two away from hers that no one occupied. She still hadn't looked up from her food that she was picking around at like I usually did, so I was thankful for that. I wanted her to talk to me, but I was also entirely nervous about it. There was no winning.

A tray clanked in front of me, and I clenched my jaw as I looked up with narrowed eyes. A smiling, familiar female was looking right back at me. I only knew her from the number of outbursts I watched her have, but she sure was a lot smaller than me. I wasn't worried about what would happen next.

"You better find a new table to sit at," I said lowly.

"What if I want to sit here?" she challenged.

"Well, you can't."

"I'm Marissa."

"And I don't care." I rolled my eyes and looked beyond her to see the mystery girl staring at us. More specifically, she seemed to be staring at Marissa. It was anything but a friendly look, and I was glad it wasn't directed at me.

As Marissa kept blabbering on about how she had the right to sit wherever she wanted, the mystery girl slowly stood from her seat. Never once did she look away from Marissa as she approached our table. When she got close enough, she clapped a hand on her shoulder and leaned down to bring her lips to her ear. She spoke in a quiet whisper and as each word went on, the more her hand tightened on her shoulder. Once she was done, Marissa ran.

I raised my eyebrows at the mystery girl in question, and she just smirked.

"She looked like she was annoying you," she explained.

"What did you say to her?"I asked because I was mildly impressed by how fast she got her to run.

"In short, I told her to scram. Mind if I sit?"

I shook my head.

"So, what were you on the roof for yesterday?" Her hazel eyes focused on mine once she got comfortable sitting on the bench seat.