She Is Transient (Unedited)

Chapter 5

October 25th, 2010

It was the day before Lauren and Bonnie's get-together. Lauren has been dreading every day leading up to it. Lauren hasn't been into the whole social aspect of school since she last saw Fay. She noticed that Jacob was rarely in class or sitting beside her, and after that incident, she wouldn't either. Although she gave all of her bad feelings to God, she still felt pity toward him, wanting to make sure he was okay. She was planning on asking him if he was okay when she got into class, but since he wasn't there her plan couldn't be fulfilled. After class, she walked over to the abandoned janitor's closet that no one uses anymore.

A few weeks into her first year of school, she overheard one of the teachers talking to the janitor that there was an old closet in the building and it will be left with no storage inside. After school when everyone had headed to their dorms, Lauren decided to take some art supplies and grab Fay to break into the school. She wasn't going to steal anything, but this was something she couldn't do with everyone looking at her. She had Fay pick the lock to the window of the janitor's closet. They climbed through the window and landed in the closet, it only had shelving but everything was gone. While Lauren was bent down looking through her supplies she heard a door open and shut. Lauren flinched and quickly turned around. No one was there, not even Fay. Lauren couldn't go after her since she would definitely get caught so she let Fay do her thing while she set up her stuff. "Wow, it's gorgeous. Thank you God for not letting me get caught" she whispered, as she did the final touches. The room had string lights taped up on the shelves, a small fluffy white carpet, a step stool they used to get in, and sticky notes on the wall with inspirational bible verses. Lauren looked out the door window and saw Fay in the hallway, closing a door behind her. She put something in her pocket and started to run over to the door where Lauren was. She signaled for Lauren to open the door, and Fay ran straight through. She closed the door and faced Fay. She was hurled over and her breath was heavy, "that was the most running I've done in the past 2 years. High school gym was so hard," they both laughed as Fay caught her breath. "Wow, it's amazing Lauren. I couldn't do this for the life of me, you're too creative" Fay said, jaw open looking around. Fay quickly turned around to look at Lauren "I'm so happy you have a safe place," she smiled. They did the finishing touches, talking with each other and laughing as quietly as they could.

Turning everything off, Lauren waved goodbye to the closet and hopped out of the window with Fay in front of her. They closed the window and rested against the wall staring into the night sky. "Thanks Fay," Lauren sighed as her blue eyes glimmered from the light post ahead of them. "Laur this is nothing!" Fay exclaimed, rubbing Lauren's head. Fay is an extrovert most of the time with her close friends but when she's serious, she gets very serious. "No, I really mean it Fay, thank you for everything," Lauren said, her eyes bubbling up. "No, no, I should be thanking you Lauren. You've helped me so much, ever since we met," Fay said getting up and putting her hand out to Lauren's. Lauren grabbed her hand and was pulled into a hug. "You're gonna ask for the key, aren't you?" Fay asked, but knowing how Lauren is, she already knew the answer. "Why yes I am, I'm not gonna just steal it," they both laughed.

Now this closet has been Lauren's safe spot. She tries to pray in the closet every day, but sometimes it's a struggle for her. She closed the blackout curtains on the door, as well as on the window at the back of the small room. Lauren threw her backpack next to a box underneath the shelving and turned over to the battery pack of the string lights clicking the button to turn them both on. Lauren took out her prayer journal from the box, and sat down on her mat. She placed the journal beside her and opened her bible. Today she read through Psalms seventeen, eighteen, and nineteen. An hour passed by and Lauren's phone started buzzing in her back pocket. She put her bookmark in the center of her journal page and closed it. She pulled out her phone and turned off her alarm, the bell was about to ring. Lauren turned off the lights and the room went pitch black. She left the closet and locked the door behind her. "Hey, weirdo," Sabrina called out as she walked down the hallway. She stood still as Sabrina looked at the door behind her. "What are you doing locking up the old janitor's closet?" She asked Lauren. She shrugged at Sabrina, "I was just sitting in there for some quiet time," she explained truthfully to her. Sabrina was unconvinced, "who gave you the key?" She said questioning Lauren's statement. "I got it from the office, they let me keep it," she explained, pointing over to the office. Sabrina looked irritated at Lauren for telling the truth. One of Sabrina's childhood friends, Kate, called over to her, waving her hands around. "I'm going to get the truth out of you Wilson," she said, pointing at Lauren. She skipped over to Kate, jumping into a hug as they spun around. Lauren took a deep breath as she left the main building. She grabbed her phone out of her pocket and looked through her text messages, some from her mom, one from her dad, and a couple of emails from her teachers about a couple of her assignments. As she was looking through her new assignments she bumped into someone. "Oh I'm sorry about that," she said, looking up from her phone to see who it was. She was face to face with Jacob. "It's fine, Lauren," he replied, looking back down at his phone and walking away. Lauren turned to start walking back but she spun her head around to see if he was too, but he was already gone. "Are you kidding me right now!" She quietly screamed into the air. I'm so stupid I should've apologised again for how I rejected him. Lauren felt someone looking at her, an eerie feeling crept over her. She turned her head to see if anyone was there. A tall figure in all black, stood still across the field. They were holding up a phone with bold writing on it. Lauren squinted her eyes to see what was on the screen, but before she could make out what the words said, they flipped the phone and placed it in their sweater pocket. "Huh, that was weird. Was that message for me?" She whispered under her breath. Someone suddenly tapped her on the shoulder making her spin around in fear. "Hey are you okay? You haven't moved from this spot in like two minutes," the boy said putting his hands behind his back. "Oh ya thank you so much. I must have been zoning out, how embarrassing!" She said awkwardly. She looked up at the person who was talking to her, wow he is really handsome, he seems a bit familiar but I can't make out who he is. He had short pitch-black hair, forest green eyes, and light freckles on his cheeks. Lauren blushed at the sight of him, "I haven't seen you around here before, are you new?" She asked him just as he was about to walk away. "Yeah! I'm an exchange student from Australia, this is my first year," he replied in a thick Australian accent. Lauren has always loved when guys have accents, any kind of accent she adored it didn't matter which one. "That's so cool! I actually used to have an Australian Shepard, he was adorable," she exclaimed, her face lighting up with excitement. The boy started to laugh, "you know that Australian shepherds are not actually from Australia right?" He said as he took out his phone from his bag. "Well, where are they from Mr. Smarty pants?" She replied sarcastically. "I'm pretty sure they're from Spain, but I'm looking it up to make sure," he said tapping at his screen. "Let's go! I was right," he yelled in excitement. Lauren clapped her hands to applaud him. "Thank you, thank you," he bowed down before her. "Well I do have to go now, my friend keeps calling me," she explained fixing the front strands of her light blonde hair. "So you ignored your friend to talk to me, how cruel of you," he joked. "Well, I-" Lauren stopped talking, not knowing what to say to him. "Well if you ever want to talk again, I will gladly get your phone number," he said reaching his hand out with his phone waiting for her to grab it. She stepped back, "Look, I don't know if you're hitting on me or something, but I don't randomly just give my number out to strangers," she replied. "What made you think I was hitting on you?" He asked her. Lauren's palms began to sweat, "well, you did ask if you could have my number. I'm sorry if I misinterpreted the situation," she explained reaching into her back pocket for her phone, "I'll give you my phone number, but only for school purposes. If you need any help with anything, text me," she said looking for her phone number in her contacts. The boy looked shocked, "really?" He asked. Lauren looked up from her phone, "if you ask again it's not happening," she laughed, grabbing his phone and putting in her contact. "I guess I'll see you around, no name," he grinned, turning around to walk the other way. Lauren squealed inside. I have to tell God about this.