➕ Beauty ➕

Appearance

I'm afraid of going to school and finding a memorial at Gemma's locker saying something like 2001-2017 and I have to make a novel that adapts itself into a film series that totally contradicts its purpose. But nonetheless I visit her possible tombstone seeing if she has come back to life yet. I figure she couldn't be away when our exams are getting real close.

The sky is cloudy, but the sun's starlight still shines through the corridors. Jake had to go to the other side of school for one of his P.E. classes. I come through the hallway to our lockers, already crowded with people moving into each other. I take a gasp, allowing all the air to enter into my lungs. With my bag in hand I limp towards my locker.

I see a familiar hairline between two guy's' shoulders; brown, small blonde highlights...OH GEE ITS ACTUALLY GEMMA!

I try and smudge between each persons back, "Gemma! Gemma!" I say. I catch Gemma's attention as she lightly flinches. "Gemma! Gemma! Hey." I smack against multiple people, disrupting their conversations.

It takes me a while to get to Gemma's area as she hides her head inside the locker door.

I catch up to her. She stood still. "Gemma..." I huff, "Hi!..." I cough, "where were you..." I huff again, "for two... weeks...? Don't you know how much missed you? You really worried me."

She slowly turned around, that face I wanted to see so much. She was rolling her eyes. Something looked off about her however, but she was smiling brightly, so I tried ignoring it. I'm not that great at ignoring things though.

I gain my breath "Why does your eye look so... patchy? Is it makeup?"

The first words I hear from her again, "Yeah... it's fucking makeup." She says solemnly. She bites her lips trying to keep herself from crying(?). Both our chipper faces flush down, I try and ask her why it's there, but she quickly says, "it's a black eye." She's looking out somewhere where she doesn't have to face anyone, "I didn't want anyone to see it, but I guess it's THAT obvious huh?"

She can't hold it in, she was beginning to cry a little, her eyes turned puffy making it looked glazed.

I didn't want her to feel this way, I never would have wanted her to feel this way, even if we fought; I didn't want her to feel alone, trapped from having a real friendship. I open my arms out for her.

She notices what I'm offering, and she takes it without question. Her head buried in my chest, we hug as we hear the bell ring for the first class. Neither of us payed attention to it, we continued to stay together.

She sobbed in my arms, and I held her tight. We don't say a word, enough is being said.

The halls are almost empty of people, but with only two of us existent in the room, we paint the walls with the colours of our emotions. I don't want this moment to end, I don't think she wants it to end either.