Peripheral Vision | ✓ [NOW PUBLISHED AS HUNTINGTON AVENUE]

Chapter 2

C H A P T E R  T W O

Zach's P.O.V.

The number of people in the cafeteria was immense.

Voices were everywhere, and they all meshed together so I wasn't exactly sure what was going on. Weaving through a bunch of people when you can't see anything other than darkness is an extremely difficult task.

I must've bumped into seven or eight of my peers. They all didn't seem very happy with me due to their unfriendly tone of voice.

I felt bad for not preventing myself from hitting people unintentionally, so I made sure to sit by myself. I can't cause any harm doing that, right?

I pulled out a chair and sat myself down at a table in the corner. Everything seemed quieter over there, and very peaceful. I set my water bottle down on the table and took my lunch out of my bag. I started to slowly consume the contents, which was a sandwich of some sort. After a few minutes, I thought I heard a bit of noise by my table, and some subtle laughing, but I waved that thought away.

I opened the lid to my water bottle and took a sip. In almost an instant, I gagged a bit. The water tasted quite a bit like soap, and the taste was absolutely horrible. It wasn't like that a few minutes ago.

"There's soap in that, you idiot!" I heard Jonathan exclaim in between laughing fits.

That must have been what the laughing was about.

Jonathan must've poured some soap or something in my water. I let out another sigh and pushed the bottle away, continuing my lunch. I tried to brush off the fact that these people were taking advantage of my inability to see, but that didn't work so well.

Life just isn't fair. At least to me, it isn't.

The bell rang after a few more minutes and I heard chairs being pushed everywhere. That must've been the signal for the end of lunch. Quickly, I put what was left of my lunch back into my bag and got out of my chair.

Following the sound of the other students, I found my way towards the exit. When I was about to go through the door, I slammed into someone on my way out. I heard her back away and let out a small gasp. Instinctively, I apologized, internally berating myself for being such a nuisance towards literally everyone in this place.

I was used to ramming into people by now. She responded to my apology, and her voice was extremely clear and soft. It was the type of voice that you would want to hear. It was calm, yet filled with emotion, and I could tell exactly how she was feeling in that very moment.

Am I crazy for noticing that much about someone's voice?

Long story short, it was a gorgeous voice, which to what I would imagine, belonged to a gorgeous person in turn.

I wanted to start a bit of a conversation with her, but I heard someone else, who must've been one of her friends, call her away. I heard her footsteps quickly guide her away and I walked off to my first afternoon class, running my fingers through my hair.

She's the first person who's actually been nice to me here, and I didn't even know her name..

~•~•~

"Zach!" the familiar voice of my mother called. "Time to go!"

I rushed towards the familiar sound of her car's engine and thrust the passenger side door open. I placed my book bag onto the floor by my feet and plopped myself down into the front seat, ready to get out of that overwhelming place called a school.