The Skylar Experiment : Dead Ending (second draft)

Chapter Fourteen-Surprise, Bitch

RILEY

I WAITED FOR Luc to show up in time for first period and he never did. At first, I thought that maybe my comment about dealing with his issues had angered him and he wanted to leave—maybe to get some air. He couldn't have been truly disturbed just because Devin bashed him with her backpack. There was no way—I knew that wasn't it. 

To test out my theory, I'd wandered away from my locker and towards the exit door to check on him. Ben had immediately blocked me, sweeping me away with a nervous laugh, and I couldn't shake him off since.

I headed off to Biology without Luc and sent him a text asking him what he was doing. We were now an hour later, and still no reply. My stomach churned with a sense of unease as I stepped into the Chemistry classroom, both from Luc's radio silence and from seeing Mr. Spencer calmly standing by his desk.

We made brief eye contact as I took my place, and his reflected a muted hatred. But I was so choked up at Adam's empty seat that I didn't even care. I stared at my right and at our table, lost in my mind as I pictured us exchanging notes when our old teacher turned his back, the smiles he'd give me, or the time I asked him out for Homecoming. His funeral lingered, everpresent, in my thoughts—the words on his epitaph, the people gathered, the gripping sorrow of losing someone so young and caring. 

Despite the fact that things didn't end well between us, he'd apologized sincerely without trying to excuse himself. Adam had never wanted to hurt me, and he'd worried for me until his very last breath. I dropped my forehead in the palm of my hand, inhaling deeply against my burning eyelids. I wasn't going to fall apart in front of everyone, and especially not in front of Spencer.

 Students continued to stream inside from the hall, and they'd focus on the vacant space beside me without a second to spare. My shoulders hunched as I averted my attention to the window, a mere attempt to escape it all. 

I didn't know for how long I kept staring at the sky when rumors elevated in the classroom, becoming so loud they turned into an infectious buzz. For a while, I refused to look back but then I heard the girl behind me speak to her partner.

"Oh my God..." she gasped. "Jo, look..."

I switched my attention back towards the entrance only to be confronted to a tall, slender girl with sleek brown hair flowing neatly down her shoulders. Gleaming eyes sparkled as they connected with Spencer's, a wry smirk pulling at her lips like she could see right through him.

My mouth dropped. And I would have dropped everything, had I been holding something.

She returned and she was here, in school, against all the odds. And the odds of matters hitting the fan were increasing by the second while she stood there. Kids ogled at Lauren as she walked past the threshold like she never left the place.

No face that was ever plastered on the doors made it back until now.

It was like watching a ghost all over again. Her feet glided over the floor, towards the teacher's desk. Spencer narrowed his stare on her, seeming like he wanted to step back and put greater distance between them, but Lauren appeared to be taking as much space as possible. 

She displayed an unnervingly radiant smile as she slid a transfer paper across the table. Under everyone's hungry, dazed scrutiny, Spencer examined the transfer paper and glared at her.

"Take a seat," he issued through clenched teeth.

I hadn't fully grasped how real she was until Lauren strutted over to my table and claimed Adam's seat. I vaguely fought the urge to jump out the window as I recalled what this girl was capable of.