Deep Thoughts

Scratches

Silence. The faint sound of birds calling to each other following the new light rising in the sky. The wind rustling through the trees causing brown leaves to gently fall to the ground. Then silence. Slow breaths are inhaled and exhaled. A rough turn creates the soft sound of cotton against polyester. Then silence again.
Finally, a disturbance. A man's voice rang throughout the room. He had a tenor, melodic voice accompanied by a variety of musical instruments. The tempo of his song began to pick up, but was rudely ended by a hand slapping the off button on the alarm clock.
Serena practically rolled out of the bed while groaning the whole time. She trudged to her bathroom and closed the door. She looked in the mirror and was mortified by her complexion. Crust decorated the edges of her lips; boogers resided in each corner of her eyes; her tangled dirty blonde hair sprung out in all directions. She looked disgusting.

Serena quickly turned the faucet on and ferociously rinsed her face. She pushed on the nozzle of her anti-acne wash bottle and applied the wash to her face, careful to not get any of it on her mouth or in her eyes. She then quickly washed it off, hoping it fixed her appearance a little bit. She looked up. It barely did. The crust was gone, but her hair was still a pig's pen.
She reached for a comb that was resting on her sink counter. She combed at her hair furiously, taking out a couple of chunks, until it fell smooth to her shoulders. She looked at the mirror again to see if she looked better. A little bit. But she knew what would fix it and make her pretty.
Serena reached for her palette of red shades and lifted the lid. She scanned the different reds and stopped on a bright red hue. She put a generous amount of the powder on the applicator and began drawing the typical scratch pattern on her eyelids. The teen then grabbed the red cosmetic pencil and drew tear drops under her eyes. She clasped a different applicator and drew x's and wounds on her cheeks. And to top it off, she grabbed another red pencil and drew what looked like bloody spots on her lips. She was pretty now.

Serena checked the time and realized she had 10 minutes until her first class started. She threw on some faded ripped jeans and a pink flowy top, grabbed a granola bar, and ran to her car. She tried to keep her driving at the speed limit, but she stopped caring when she realized she only had 3 minutes to be in the Morris Hall and have her butt in a seat. Her heart rate rose. She knew Professor Schneider was a stickler when it came to attendance even though there were a good 350 people in the class, but she didn't want to ruin the teacher's impression of her just in the first month. Thus, she panicked until she found a parking spot, ran inside the enormous lecture hall, and took a seat in her usual spot: in the back. She sighed a breath of relief. And when she did, her professor walked out and started talking. She made it just in time.
And now her job was to just sit and wait until the class was over. They were apparently just watching some dumb video today, so Serena just planned to get on her phone and hide it behind her stuff. (Prof. Schneider hated phones too.) But when she turned to get her phone out of her bag, she caught something blue out of the corner of her eye. Serena looked up and saw someone she had never seen before. Of course, that was highly possible in a big class like hers, but this guy stood out too much for Serena to not notice him before.
This new lad had shaggy black hair, tan skin, a sharp jawline accompanied by high cheek bones, and a pair of piercing blue eyes that were set on her. His head was tilted, leaning on his right hand as his stare seemed to be questioning everything about her. In all honesty, it made Serena fairly uncomfortable, and if the setting were different, she might've thrown something at him. But she contained herself, turned back around, and pressed the power button on her phone.

She stayed like that the entire class, and the whole time she could feel the icy stare of the stranger. She would occasionally take a break from her phone and look around though. She noticed that Claire, some girl she met a few days ago, did not have scratches on her face today. Boy did she need it. She looked to her left and spotted Mary, one of her friends. She was caked in red, and Serena kinda admired the look. Finally, she spotted Anne, one of the nicest girls she knew. She was one of the few girls that could not wear scratches and still look good, and Serena was jealous.
Finally, the class ended and Serena practically ran out of there, relieved to finally be able to escape that guy. But when she was walking to her car, she felt a gentle tug on her arm. She swiftly turned around, clearly surprised since something like this wouldn't usually happen. And to add to the shock, when she turned, she was greeted by the face of the blue eyed stranger. Even though he was just a few inches taller than her, he was very intimidating. And his eyes were still slanted, as if observing her.
"Um...hi...?" Serena said quietly, very uncomfortable with the situation. Why was this guy here? Did he follow her? Why? He stood still for a moment, still staring at her, until he reached into his bag and pulled out a flimsy small square of what looked like paper. A wipe maybe? Unexpectedly, he leaned forward and wiped away the scratches on her left cheek. She was frozen. He just did that. And to make matters even better, he placed his hand on her cheek and smiled.