The Phenomenon of Entity

chapter four - clementine

Clementine sat on the toilet seat listening to the two girls argue angrily. She wasn't sure who it was, but she felt slightly awkward as it was obvious they were past friends and this was a serious matter to one of them. It was a good couple of minutes before she heard the smoker finally give in and leave the bathroom, with a few swear words, of course, and used this as her queue to leave the safety of the bathroom stall. Clementine unlocked the metal clasp and walked out, seeing a tanned, short girl looking in the mirror with a cardigan and skinny jeans, which further surprised her. Clementine had much expected a nerdy, motherly looking student, or even a teacher's assistant! Walking over to the sink, she couldn't help but glance over at least five times, making unfortunate eye contact at the last moment. She quickly blinked and looked at the sink head, still getting noticed unfortunately.

"Sorry for staring...but..was that you? Telling the girl to put out her vape?"

The tanned teenager rolled on her heel and gave Clementine a hard stare, "Yeah. We have a past and I know the absolute last thing she should be doing is smoking. Not that I should've said anything about to a stranger..." The girl hadn't lightened her glare on Clementine and Clementine was getting antsy.

"Oh! Sorry - I swear I won't mention it to anyone, it was just really nice of you to do that for her...a tad invasive, but nice," Clementine turned red and got slightly sweaty, warning signals blared in her mind, telling her to get out. She definitely did not want to come off as a nosy person. "Sorry if it seemed like I was stereotyping you! I like your tan! It looks good! I mean usually only the preppy, druggy girls get tans, but you pull it off! And, and, the facts you listed off. I mean, I almost thought you invented vapes," the girl's eyes got wide and adjusted themselves into a questioning manner as her mouth gaped open the slightest bit, "I...never mind. Sorry. I ramble." Clementine unconsciously mumbled the last part and turned around towards the paper towel dispenser with deep regret of saying that whole statement. 'What if the girl never even thought I was stereotyping?' Thought Clementine, "Oh my gosh...I ruin relationships before they are even started! "

"Oh, no, you're fine!" The girl started to laugh awkwardly and lighten up. "Thank you, though. Even though we obviously don't talk anymore, I didn't want her to get into past habits." She relaxed in her spot and smiled up at Clementine.

Clementine balled up the paper towel and gave a slight smile back, feeling her body start to cool off as warning signals stopped blaring in her head. An awkward silence filled the air as Clementine bent down to grab her backpack. She was never much of a talker. "Well...I guess I should go back to class...see you around." The tiles seemed to move in an odd pattern as she hurried out of the restroom.

"Nice to meet you!" The stranger's voice rang through the restroom exit and into the hall, following the bobbing afro that belonged to Clementine. Clementine wondered if they would ever meet again, she seemed much better than anyone she had ever met before in her high school experience. Genuine and opinionated, very rare.

Clementine glanced up at a clock, noticing that there were only two minutes left in the class period and so she started to take direction towards her next class. She only hoped her current class teacher would understand the reasoning and not be mad tomorrow, they had a good bond and she would hate to ruin it because of possible distrust. Bad thoughts invaded her mind and she stopped for a minute, pacing back and forth in the empty hall trying to decide what class to go to. "Ahg! Maybe I should just go back to class! I can't just walk away, even if it's two minutes early! Alright. That's it. I shall go back to class. But actually, that will just be a waste a time. I am going to gym. More time to dress out is always good. But if I dress out in the given time every other day, it shouldn't be a problem today if I went back to class." Clementine was in a stump and just about threw her phone, a bad habit she had when frustrated.