Sitting Alone, Sitting Apart

The girl sat alone - glancing at the whisperers beside her. The crowded desks and disgraceful laughs. The subjects of her yearning. But she sat alone. She watched some of the chatter cease, some heads raise to stare at the figure entering the room. Others continued - seemingly unaware of the prowling shark. That which fed off their conversation; and the punishment it caused.

The girl sank as the teacher stalked closer. She knew however that the shark would not look at her when their was such loud prey nearby. But she still shivered in fear, though it was irrational. For she could not control her irrationality.

"MR JONES!"

The teachers notes stabbed into the girls mind, the start of a mind wrenching headache. The girl whimpered, only barely glancing over to the victim of the censure. She watched the boy lounging on his chair, unafraid unlike the rest of his surrounding party. She admired it, she craved it. To be unafraid would surely be the most potent state of freedom.

"Yes Miss Clementine?"

The boy looked completely innocent, and the girl honestly had no idea why the teacher was so mad at him. However, the rest of the class seemed to.

"Is there a REASON my CAR is COVERED IN YOUR NAME?!"

Ah that was an idea.

"You told us to practice our spelling, I practiced"

The whole class snickered. If the girl had not been too busy trying to calm her shaking hands, she would've been quite amused as well. The teachers carnivourous face went red, and she pointed her finger. The girl - who had almost fully succeeded in silencing the banging the seemed to appear whenever she was in this class - found her efforts at self calming useless once she realised that the woman was pointing at her. Well more accurately the seat beside her.

"GO SIT OVER THERE AND DON'T DISTURB ANYONE! - We'll discuss the details of your punishment after class."

The people surrounding him said sarcastic wishes of good luck as he packed up his stuff and made his way over to the girl. The girl however couldn't hear them over the sound of her own heart. She barely heard his greeting. But she did, and her reply started a long series of conversations.

She still can't fathom why she interested him in the first place.

----- 2 Years Later -----

The girl jumped, every bit of her on fire at the arm now very suddenly stretched across her shoulder. She looked up - ready to pull out her karate chop but found herself stopped by the familiarity of the face.

"Seriously! I told you not to do that, you freaked the be-jeasus out of me!"

The boy laughed. He'd always found her strange mechanations amusing. In addition with her inability to swear.

"What type of a welcome back is that?"

"Maybe I'd be more inclined to welcome you back if your disappearance wasn't your own fault"

The girl had been quite upset about this actually. She always found herself worrying about him, and this was the worst of them all. He'd been sent to jail! Just the idea of him in jail with all those people at the age of 15! She'd told him not to do these sort of things, hang with those sort of people. But he just wouldn't listen to her. It was beyond frustrating. And when she couldn't meet with him, couldn't see he was okay. For the past 4 weeks she could barely focus on, well anything.

"Don't look at me like that! Like I knew the coppers would come?"

"To hell you didn't! You're smart enough to know that when you do stuff like that the police will come"

She'd moved out of his grasp. The girl couldn't let him touch her. Whenever they touched she couldn't stay mad, or stressed. And honestly that was usually fantastic but now? She wanted to be mad, she had been worried out of her wits about him. She'd told him this was gonna happen. He KNEW this was going to happen. And he'd kept doing it anyway.

"Lily calm down-"

"Calm DOWN! I've been so bloody insanely worried! I haven't been able to calm down since the moment you got locked up! You can't keep doing this!"

The girl then noticed all the eyes on her, she hadn't realised how loudly she'd been speaking. The girl averted her eyes, her heart beating rapidly. The boy put an arm around her, grounding her. Keeping her upright. He carried her along.

--- 1 Year Later ---

"Josh! What the HELL is going on!?"

The boy looked up at the girl with utter shock. He looked down again at the appliances before him, realising what she had just seen and rushed to her. Blocking her view.

"Lily, what are you doing in here?"

"Um I-I-I thought I'd surprise you"

The girl held up a bottle of wine and the bouquet she'd brought. It was his birthday he suddenly realised, that's why she was here. She however didn't seem to be looking at him anymore, but over him to the illegal artifacts scattered around him.

"That's awfully romantic of you"

Her attention returned to him.

"Josh - what are you doing?"

"Currently? Flirting. You?"

She gave him a look, a look that said I'm going to slap you if you don't give me an explanation right now. And it better be a good one. That may sound like a very specific and complicated look to perform, but she'd had alot of experience being the perpetrator of this look. She'd pretty much perfected it.

"Well - you see - I - um-"

"Josh? Stop trying to come up with a lie and tell me the truth"

"My father was out of town and asked me to take care of business for him so yeah"

He said the sentence quite fast, as all confessionists do. He looked at her, and she could tell how hopeless he felt. He looked at her in complete misery, soon embracing her. But no amount of chocolate or joking could remove the deep pit that had embedded itself in her. And she knew he felt the same way.

This wasn't a movie. People don't escape in real life.

They both knew how this would end.

--- 2 Years Later ---

It was bars that surrounded her. And everything was a sickly shade of white. Their where people fluttering around, fluttering over her. It all felt so claustrophobic. So closed. Everyone touching her. She was silent, she found it was all much more bearable in silence. It was different in the room they where guiding her to. But only slightly. It was lavender, and everything smelt of oils. The bars more ornately decorated she supposed. But she was greatful for the break from the noise. And the smell.

They all walked on eggshells around her. Not literally. That might actually be amusing. But it was how they spoke to her, how they touched her. Like she might break. A little ornate glass figurine.

She entered the room.

She always found these people alot like teachers, except they grade your mental state rather then you're tests. She definitely scored worse in that. Though she'd stopped caring about her grade long ago.

They say she's in denial. That she needs to agknowledge what happened. She found it amusing, that they thought she didn't know. She heard them speaking of her sometimes, when she roamed the halls at night. They said she was hopeless. She wholeheartedly agreed. She'd been hopeless from the moment she met him.

She sat. She glanced at the people beside her - but didn't hear them. She didn't hear their whispers. She only heard the banging.

She sat apart.