The cold, plastic chair sat against my body as I sat at the desk, scrolling through my social media pages blandly. The sound of students speaking within my homeroom class acted as background noise, my mind too tired to comprehend the words they were saying. The posts about different sketches and art pieces filled my eyes, but behind them was a bored, uninspired soul. The sound of a voice coming through the loudspeaker cut through the air, the muffled sound of voices now growing louder as I silently listened to the loudspeaker.
"Good morning," the female voice stated, "please stand for a pledge of allegiance." A small group of students actually stood for the pledge, the rest of them sitting in their seats and talking to their friends or looking through their phone. Once the loudspeaker was done saying the pledge, she continued speaking. "There is no news about today but here is a message from the principle." The sound of the mic turning towards the principle filled the entire school before an older man spoke into it.
"Good morning students," the principle said, a tired sounding voice filling the entirety of the school. "It is a burden upon me to say that we have lost a student within our roster, their death being caused by an intoxicated driver on Saturday night. May we have a moment of silence and a prayer for all of that students' friends and family members who are suffering right now." There was a long pause among everyone, my eyes looking down at the blackened screen of my phone as I sat there in a tired daze. A deep sigh slipped from my lips as I sat there, my mind an empty vastness except for the thought of her.
The moments I spent with Janine and the feelings I had with her flowed through my mind, the emotions within me growing as I sat there. My heart began beating faster, my emotions growing with the ever-deafening silence. But this emotion was soon put to rest as the silence was thwarted by the sound of the principle thanking everyone on the loudspeaker.
"Have a great rest of your day," the principle said, before the clicking sound of the mic filled the air, my teacher standing up to begin their lecture. But the entire time he spoke, my mind was off in another realm...
* * *
The image sat in my mind as I rubbed the lead of my pencil against the sketchbook paper. The light strokes of the hair lightly flowed on the image as my gut wrenched in silent mourning. My mind was empty except for the image of Janine, standing on the edge of a cliff looking out at the night sky. I had already traced out the small dots that would later act as stars in the night sky, my pencil slowly completing the silhouette of her. Upon doing so, the sound of the bell cut through the air, my eyes going wide as I started gathering everything together.
Swiftly putting everything into my bag, I swiftly carried it with me out of the room, making it to my third period class. The class she and I shared. My feet got the faintest bit heavier as I stepped towards the physics class, my heart beating faster as my mind began racing with the different interactions I shared with her...
* * *
"Thank you again for helping me," Janine stated, her smile brightening the bland room. There were just a handful of desks covering the perimeter of the tan-colored room, giving it an old, bland feel to the space.
"Oh, you're welcome," I replied, looking down at the worksheet with the different graphs and scenarios. "It's nothing really, I'm always willing to help."
"Oh cool! You want to sit with us at lunch?" Janine questioned, placing her worksheet within the dark green folder. Along the front was the word Physics made from a black sharpie, the words now fading away with time.
"Yeah sure," I stated, my heart beating slightly faster upon the idea of sitting with a group of people. "Is there a lot of people?" I asked, Janine lowering her eyebrow. She seemed like the type of person to attract a large amount of attention from her kind, pure-hearted nature, but the confused expression she sent towards me conveyed that this was not the case.
"No? Just me and this guy named Kevin," she said happily, her tone rising with the mention of this guy. I let out a slight sigh, the expression slipping past Janine as we continued our conversation. "If you want to sit with your friends though then you can, I won't be upset," she chuckled.
"Oh no, I want to," I explained, maintaining my focus on the sheet of paper. "I don't sit with anyone anyways," I muttered, Janine overhearing the words that were meant to be kept to myself.
"Wait really? You're so fun to talk to though!" she exclaimed, her wide-eyed expression and shocked tone forcing my attention away from the sheet of paper and onwards towards her.
"Am I really?" I questioned, Janine nodding her head up and down faster than lightning.
"Yeah?" she began, "You're really cool actually. First off, you are really nice which is rare among people our age you know?" My heart beat quickened as she spoke, the overwhelming compliments and positive comments from her filling my ears.
"Oh no, please, it's just because I want to," I explained, the two of us chuckling as the minute hand inched closer to the end of the class period.
* * *
Stepping into the light tan room, my eyes scanned over towards Janine's seat a couple of desks away. The emptiness of it caught my attention, the absence of her bright hair alongside her jovial aura brought the weight of dread on my shoulders. Its pressure growing as I stepped towards my seat, I dropped my bag against the floor, but that did nothing to relieve its weight. My heart beating faster as I felt my eyes getting oddly warmer, I swiftly walked towards the teacher.
"Mr. Harvark, can I run to the bathroom right quick?" I questioned, the older man turning towards me. His bald head glistened with the lights above as he spoke in a deep, sophisticated tone of voice.
"Yeah sure, just be back here shortly," he said, my feet already out the door as he permitted me to leave. Swiftly rushing down the pale white walls, my feet slamming into the tile, I swiftly turned into the girl's bathroom. Stepping into the dirty girl's bathroom, I slipped into a tiny stall, taking a deep sigh as I sat on the toilet seat. With the walls hiding the peering eyes of the outside world, I let the tears flow from my eyes, the sadness within my body reflecting from the soft water droplets. The bathroom was silent except for the lonesome tears that fell down my face and the soft sounds of my depression...
YOU ARE READING
𝒮𝓉𝒶𝓇𝑔𝒶𝓏𝒾𝓃𝑔 (Stargazing)
Romance"There's always a light at the end of a dark tunnel." Kevin is now a husband and father, but as he looks through the attic, a necklace brings him back to his former years. Thinking about the impact the people back then had on him, he explains to hi...
