Falling Slowly

Chapter Four: Shadows of The Past

Chapter Four: Shadows of The Past

Liam

She looked like shit today.

Her skin was abnormally pasty like the color of a blank sheet of paper. I watched from the other end of the hall as she stared at her locker mirror, pinching her cheeks to add a bit of color into them. There was a sheen coat of sweat matting her skin as the small hairs on her forehead clumped together in disarray. She was also acting more like a klutz than usual - dropping her books when she meant to put them in her bag, tripping over her own feet as she took a seat in Calculus, and stopping in the middle of the hall as if she was a lost puppy.

I knew that I shouldn't have been watching Anya, but something had changed.

Everywhere I turned she was there at the end of the hall or in my line of sight. During homeroom, from the corner of my eye I had caught her attention towards me - her lips parted, as if she wanted to say something to me, but no words were every uttered. In the last four years I hadn't seen or heard a squeak out of her, and now she was EVERYWHERE. She was like the plague - no matter how hard I tried to rid myself of the disease it would always inflict its torture wherever I was.

The past is always difficult to forget; the scars would always remain.

"So you took Anya Vanchester home yesterday?" My best mate Collin inquired, leaning up against the wall next to me. "What gives?"

"Since when did you begin to question my decisions," I remarked flippantly, tapping the pack of Methol's against my palm. I took three steps to my locker and punched the top of the metal, making the door swing open.

"Don't jump my dick, man" he said raising his hands in surrender. "I was just asking. Everyone is talking about it. Karla is pissed."

Great. Karla was going to give me hell for giving Anya a ride on my bike. She was probably seething in anger and riling up her cult of blond dimwits to go and-

Shit!"

"Looks like Karla is going to start trouble with vamp girl," Collin said as I spun around to see Karla and her groupies surround Anya and her best friend, Gemma. Anya's back was turned to me, hindering her facial expressions, but I did see her back stiffen when Karla leaned in close to her face.

My feet began to involuntarily make their way towards the scene, but someone caught my shoulder. Collin.

"Don't. They'd just see it as her being your next slam-piece if you go and get between that."

He was right. I shouldn't even be concerned. Why did I care? I shrugged off the thought and turned to Collin, nodding in agreement. "You're right. It's her problem," I said through clenched teeth.

Collin eyed me warily as if silently asking, "What's with you?"

I turned back to my locker, stuffing miscellaneous items into my backpack. It's not like I was going to use any of this crap. But I needed to do something to mask what I really wanted to do. I shut the locker and the sound resonated throughout the now empty hall. Collin was gone - actually everyone was gone. The only person who remained was Anya, slumped down on the linoleum floor - banging the back of her head repeatedly on the lockers.

Swiftly, I turned on my heel but something stopped me. Maybe it was guilt, perhaps pity or it might have been curiosity - that made my direction change towards her. Logically, I knew this was a bad idea. If one of Karla's bimbo lacheys saw me word would spread faster than wild fire through these halls. Putting it out would result in damages being done in return, and that was something I would not take part in.