7: All Around Me Are Familiar Faces

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Jim patted himself down and walked through the quiet streets. Some could say the silence was deafening, but in actuality, he found the calm silence provided comforting. It was like the dark. For five minutes, he could just breathe and pretend there were no issues in the world. He knew eventually life would find a way to smack him in the face like a ton of bricks as it always did. He chained up his bike and took to meandering down the road at a casual pace. Maybe he'd cut class today, he was feeling slightly rebellious. He rounded the corner towards Benoit's, deciding to pick up breakfast. This decision was reached shortly before he collided head on with somebody.

"Shit, sorry." He spluttered apologetically.

"Ugh, do you mind dorkface?! You totes ruined my selfie!"

A girl just shy of Claire's height stood to his side with a pissed off expression etched into her features. Her face was perfectly made up, framed by long curtains of straight black hair that draped over her shoulders.

"Are you gonna say anything?! Uhh HELLO?!" Her tone was still annoyed.

Jim offered her an apologetic grin. The girl he'd run into was none other than on of the popular girls, Mary Wang. They'd never particularly gotten on with each other.

"Mary? Why the fuck are you here so early? Don't you have a literature class with Miss Janeth in about an hour?" He suddenly asked.

She rolled her brown eyes in response and lowered herself into her seat, "Same as you I guess. Ditching. Or at least I'm gonna ditch. There's a test today and there's no way you'd catch me in that classroom for that test. Also are you just gonna stand there like a loser or sit your ass down?"

Mary pointed at the seat opposite. Jim laughed awkwardly and seated himself across from the wannabe influencer. She seemed to pick up on his shifty demeanour, but didn't say anything.

"How'd you know I was gonna ditch class today?" He asked.

She lowered her phone and shot him a death stare, "Omg, as if you aren't. You clearly are Jimmy boy, I'm not blind, I know a fellow truant when I see one."

"Ah yes, because you are such a reliable source of information like that, aren't you Mary?" Jim retaliated rhetorically.

"Don't try and sass me Lake, you know I could destroy your social standing with one post." She tried to sound threatening, but Jim really wasn't affected.

"Yeah, I'm sure your 400 Twitter followers and 500 TikTok followers give a shit about someone like me." His voice dripped with sarcasm.

As he pushed the chair back in annoyance to walk away, Mary called after him, "Actually I have 557 Twitter followers, over 10k TikTok followers and 75k Instagram followers."

"Well done." Jim responded sarcastically once more.

He walked inside the café, the air conditioning blew down his neck. There were a few people dotted about the place. People he knew. He noted the likes of Stuart, Logan, the two old guys that Toby's nan played chess with, a few other people from the school and Darci's dad. It felt weird seeing everyone just living normal lives without any trace of trolls, extraterrestrials or magic to be found. Part of him wished things could stay this way. Just...normal. But he definitely missed seeing the trolls wandering around the town.
Upon approaching the counter, Jim came face-to-face with someone he knew all to well. Someone he'd once been insanely jealous of and still was to a degree - had anyone seen the guy play guitar? He was awesome!
This morning however, the familiar face of Douxie looked bored out of his mind. He was staring blankly into space, his hazel eyes glazed over as if he were deeply invested in a daydream.

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