Early Bird | ✓

26 | blackbird

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Lizzy | JJ

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           OF course the first person Lizzy encountered the next day at school was Reece. Once he spotted her attempting to blend with the myriads of students, hiding behind the textbooks she clutched to her chest, he waved at her. His bright smile tugged at her heartstrings and Lizzy remembered why she was trying to avoid him in the first place: She didn't want to see him and be reminded of the secret that was zipped up securely in her head and behind her lips like a dollar in a coat pocket. Lizzy mentally cringed when he approached her, easy-going and pleasant, completely unaware of the torture occurring in her. She cursed Teagan for ruining the delicate spiderweb that resembled her friendship with Reece. They'd only just became friends again one day ago!

           "Hi, Lizzy," he greeted, quickly relieving Lizzy from the bundle of books in her arms.

           Why does he have to be so nice? Lizzy grumbled to herself, but she plastered a smile on her face anyway to try to conceal the troubling emotions she was currently feeling. "Thanks for taking them, Reece. I've got a lot on my plate right now."

           Reece quirked an eyebrow as he walked alongside Lizzy. "How so?"

           Lizzy's jaw dropped open while her mind drew a blank. At the moment, her plate was teeming with Teagan and her plan involving Reece. She couldn't reveal that to him, however. She scrambled for some excuse, blubbering incomprehensible gibberish along the way. "Well—you see, I think—I'm not sure—Life is just—you know...Plates and stuff. Full of food. And things—" Lizzy searched for a way to recover but was failing, falling off the edge of a cliff into a pit of lions. Finally, a lightbulb sparked in her head and she was grateful that her mind had finally caught up with her blindly running mouth. "My dad's been on my mind a lot, I guess. And college crap. The usual high school sob story."

           Reece nodded understandingly, not fazed at all by Lizzy's strange and furtive behavior. "I'm in the same boat with all that college stuff. But what about your dad? What's up with him?"

           Lizzy turned to face him (She had been avoiding eye contact with him as long as she could.), her eyebrows furrowed together. Thoughts of Teagan and her plan dissolved upon Reece's question and Lizzy was thankful for the second time in less than a minute. "Did I not tell you?"

           Reece shook his head, wrapping his arms tighter around Lizzy's books. The tips of his ears were dipped in red and Lizzy swiftly swooped in to save him from any doubts he might be feeling about their shaky friendship that they were trying to rebuild. "My dad lost his job," Lizzy told him bluntly, stopping abruptly since they had arrived at her classroom. Reece's lanky body stumbled forward in shock, Lizzy's textbooks almost slipping from his grasp. She speedily steadied him, her hand grasping the edge of his Adidas jacket.

           After they transferred Lizzy's books from his arms to hers, Reece pushed his slipping glasses to a more secure spot on his nose. "Oh—I didn't know—"

           "It's okay, Reece. I've only told Mateo and Teagan." Hearing her speak Teagan's name, Lizzy was overwhelmed with a sense of guilt and she shifted on her toes restlessly, itching to escape to the classroom that was only a few feet away.

           "If there's anything you need, don't hesitate to ask. Okay, Lizzy?" he asked of her, his gaze penetrating and innocent, his eyes reflecting the words betrayer, betrayer, betrayer. Lizzy gulped and forced out a weak smile.

           "Okay," she managed to sputter out despite her protesting throat. She watched his retreating figure, a slight skip in his step that she guessed was from Teagan. She sighed and forced herself to proceed into the classroom, dread accumulating like sand in her gut.