Cigarettes (girl x girl)

Chapter 16

"Loren Carson, to the office."

All eyes immediately shifted to the blonde, sitting leisurely in the back of the classroom, arms crossed, and expression neutral, like she didn't have a care in the world.

If only that were true.

The blonde grabbed her bag off the tiled floor, and made her way out the room. It wasn't like this was the first time she had been called to the office.

Even the short walk to the office allowed her mind to drift to the only person that seemed to occupy her mind for the past three weeks.

Thanksgiving break came and went, but only left Loren to wallow in her thoughts longer than she wanted to.

"I love you."

Silence.

Pleading blue eyes stared into hollow brown ones, begging the brunette to say something. Anything.

The blonde reached forward again, trying to hold the other girl's hand that wasn't holding her towel up, but to no avail. Cindy quickly stepped back, the same vacant look in her eyes.

"You can't say that." Cindy said quietly, a hidden brokenness in her tone.

"Why not?" The blonde said, matching the brunette's tone.

"B-because-" The cheerleader threw her hands up in exasperation.

Loren could hear the brunette groan and curse under her breath as she sped walked out of the bathroom.

"Where are you going?" Loren questioned, the same frustration and anger from earlier seeping into her tone.

Cindy didn't reply as she let the towel wrapped around her curvy body drop, and hastily threw open her dresser, picking the first oversized t-shirt she saw, and throwing it over her head, not bothering to wear any other article of clothing.

While she was in her dresser, she reached to the bottom of the drawer and grabbed a cigarette, pinching it between her lips while she looked for a lighter.

"Stop running away from me!" Loren groaned, following the brunette into her bedroom.

The brunette stayed hunched over the bottom drawer of her dresser, still searching for a lighter.

The blonde rolled her eyes and snatched the cigarette from between Cindy's lips.

The brunette stared daggers at the blonde, almost making her feel intimidated. "What the fuck?!"

Loren winced. "You have to quit, Cindy." Her voice softening.

Loren's soft tone however, did nothing to calm the fuming brunette. "The whole school thinks you sell pot for fucks sake, Loren! Why are you all of a sudden so scared of a fucking cigarette?!"

Loren opened her mouth to answer, but closed it, not entirely sure how to respond.

"Because you're the one smoking it, Cindy! These are terrible for you!" Loren yelled, holding up cigarette stick.

The blonde sighed, defeated. "I just don't want anything bad happening to you."

For a split second, Cindy's features softened, her eyes suddenly shining their normal warmth, but it was soon replaced by her previous cold and stone gaze.

The cheerleader scoffed. "Since when did you give a fuck about anyone but yourself, Carson."

The brunette turned back to her dresser and pulled out another stick, along with the lighter she was looking for, and quickly lit it, slowly inhaling the smoke into her lungs.

Cindy then abruptly began picking up Loren's discarded clothes, scattered on her floor, from the precious night, and shoved them into the blonde's arms.

"Get dressed and leave." She deadpanned.

Loren stood motionless, not believing how quickly the brunette had slipped from her fingers. How just the night before, the blonde was holding Cindy tightly in her arms, to now, where the brunette could hardly spare a gaze at her.

How in a matter of twelve hours, her life went from blissfully content, to completely shattered, and she vowed that she would never allow herself to be put through this pain ever again.

So with a zombie like motion, Loren retreated back into the bathroom, letting the towel drop, and began pulling her clothes back onto her body.

She picked up the towel and neatly folded it, setting it onto the sink counter.

Exiting the bathroom, the brunette was nowhere in sight, probably wanting to be anywhere the blonde wasn't.

A suffocating sadness began to seep into Loren's bones.

They were really done.

Turning towards Cindy's desk, Loren grabbed a sticky note and a pen, and began to scrawl a message.

"Three months was all it took for me to fall for you, but it's going to take a lot longer than three months to get over you.  I love you, Cindy.
~L"

She stuck the sticky note onto the brunette's pillow, and quickly exited her bedroom.

She kept her head down as she made her way into the car, finally letting the bottled up tears fall freely down her cheeks.

Pulling her thoughts back to reality, Loren had made it to the office.

The secretary gestured towards the principal's office, "Principal Harris wants to-"

"Yeah yeah I know the way." Loren cut her off.

Without knocking, the blonde sauntered into the principal's office, plopping herself down into the chair in front of his desk, as she had done countless times before.

The balding man raised his eyebrows at the girl's actions, but didn't comment, knowing that his reprimands would be in vain.

"Ms.Carson." He greeted with a sigh.

"Principal Harris." The blonde countered, a slight sass in her tone.

He interlaced her fingers on his desk, piercing his gray eyes straight into Loren's blue.

"I think we both know why you're here today."