Black

XXX

I stood in front of my locker trying to get the books I needed for next class without causing everything inside it to the fall on the ground. I needed to tidy this thing up, it looked messier than my life.

Harry didn't pick us up today for school. In fact, I haven't heard from him at all since he dropped us back at the motel yesterday. So this morning in order to arrive to school, we walked for a while until Zoe started whining about how she was tired from walking, and that was when we stopped a cab and made our way here.

"Oops," someone said and the sound of a lot of stuff hitting the floor filled the almost silent atmosphere. I took a step backward to take a look at what happened and found Dylan gritting his teeth as he looked down at the books that laid beside his feet. I shifted my gaze to the group of guys who walked behind and away from him, high fiving each other.

Dylan turned around and raised his middle finger to them, "Oops," he muttered and crouched to gather his stuff.

The hallway was almost empty as class has already begun, so anyone still out here was just those who were late for class aka I have to hurry or I will get detention.

I breathed, looking at the inside of my locker one more time to check that I had what I needed and didn't leave anything, then closed it shut and made my way to him, crouching down hesitantly and gathering his scattered stuff.

I picked up a couple of books and headed to the papers that were thrown too, immediately recognizing the lines that joined together to form various pictures.

"You draw?" I asked, my voice laced with shock and awe as I admired the drawings that were displayed on each paper, each of them capturing a moment and speaking words unsaid.

He snatched the papers from me and took the books from my hands, not bothering to look at me as he got up.

"Thanks," he said, his voice barely audible, and walked away. I got up as well, adjusting the bag on my shoulder and looked at his direction, sighing.

I rubbed my face, remembering I had a class that started 10 minutes ago. Huffing, I walked in the other direction and made my way to class.

~

I sat beside the auditorium like I usually do at lunch break, secretly hoping to see the annoying creature that I have hurt come and sit beside me, but he didn't.

The day passed incredibly slow, nothing ended fast, and everything dragged for way too long, especially these 7 minutes that felt like seven hours.

I placed a few strands that blocked my vision behind my ear as I got up and stood in front of the auditorium door for a while, before opening it slightly and peering inside, then closed it when I didn't find anyone there.

I Iooked around, deciding that I should just sit outside and listen to the calming sounds of nature, and the obnoxiously loud teenagers. I walked around, trying to find a place that had the least amount of people nearby and found him instead.

He was sitting against a tree, eyes closed and earbuds in his ears, completely out of this world. I debated going and sitting beside him but then shook my head and proceeded walking a few steps before stopping abruptly.

"Ugh," I said as I retracted my steps and made my way to him. He didn't notice my arrival until I sat beside him.

He opened his eyes and looked at me then closed it again as I opened my mouth to say something, "Next time know that when people have their headphones on, it means that they don't want to be talked to," he said.

I cleared my throat and played with my fingers. Black or Josephine, whomever I was, what I said was rude—and painful to him, and I refused to just leave him like that when all he was doing was look out for me.