Explicit [GirlxGirl - Complete]

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

There is no real reason I should be thinking about Lianna right now. Whatever rivalry Lianna and Zoey have is none of my business. I should keep my nose out of things lest it seeps into my own life and ruin it more than I've already. It is far too late for that now. She is already in my head.

Lunch drones on like every other class. It's no better at taking my mind off things.

Liza and I dump our trays together.

"I'm gonna hang out with Riley tonight," Liza says as she scrapes mash potatoes into the trash.

Riley is one of the three girls currently sitting at our lunch table. The one with brown curly hair and straight bangs that fall over her blue eyes. I've never heard her talk about anything besides theater and the clearance items at the mall.

"Okay," I say because I can't think of anything clever to say. Maybe I should make a self-deprecating joke.

She might take me seriously.

She's looking at me, probably wondering why I'm such a loner-type. The trash smells. I'm too un-bothered to scrunch my nose.

Liza sighs and tosses the tray onto the dirty dish cart. It slams into the stacked trays.

"Can you just cheer up? All you ever do is pout and stare." She glares at me and crosses her arms.

I can't get any words out. What does she want me to do? It's not like she's going out of her way to change things either.

"Whatever."

I watch her walk back to the table. She shoots a few quick words to Riley and slings her bag over her shoulder. I'm left there, standing by the trashcans, unsure what to do.

Liza walks out of the cafeteria.

The worst of it doesn't come later when I'm walking down the hall towards my locker. The world is crumbling, one layer at a time, and I feel nothing. I'm stripped bare, but I can't feel the pain or the fear. Liza made it seem so simple.

Cheer up. Get over it.

I wish I could. The warmth of the sun mixed with Liza's warm smile had made me feel as if there wasn't a thing that could hurt me. I felt safe within the shelter of innocence the season had given me.

I would do anything to get it back.

I open my locker, ready to toss my bag in and be done with it all when a note falls to the cold linoleum floor.

At first, I think it's a mistake. I shut my locker door and look around the hall, but there's no one. A chill runs down my spine. I pick the note up anyway.

It's regular line notebook paper, the kind anyone can find in any store. But the more I look at it, the stranger it looks and feels in my hand.

I raise it to my nose.

It doesn't smell different. It's just paper.

I glance once more down the hall. Still no one.

My hands are shaking as I peel the paper apart. Every sound, every crinkle, sounds like thumps as if the sound of my heart has moved to my ears. And it might be, but I'm too focused on the note and the pretty cursive writing that I forget. Her name is on my mind before I read it completely.

Lianna Coates.

I don't know why it's her who flies through my head. It could have been anyone.

She's here, flashing in my head, with her signature smirk. She could knock me down with a look, could kill anyone with her walk, and for some reason, our paths have crossed.