youngblood // p. hockstetter // 0.1

//eighteen

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Katia stood beside Rosemary, her hands anxiously fiddling with the strap of her bag. It was a cooler day, the darkening sky contradicting the quickly approaching summer season and Katia found herself enviously eyeing Rosemary's dress as she shivered in her denim shorts, singlet and Rosemary's cardigan.

The school was all but completely deserted with only a handful of remaining students across the front of the school. "Kat, you don't have to stay" Quite frankly, Rosemary didn't want her to. "It's getting colder" Katia shook her head, smiling before she felt a strong gust of wind rattle through her.

"But Rose I said I'd stay until-"

"I don't want you getting sick because of me" Katia sighed in defeat, tucking a strand of her blonde hair behind her ear.

"Fine, will you be okay with Bowers though?" She whispered, leaning in closer.

"Henry!" Rosemary smiled past Katia whom froze, letting her hair fall to partially conceal her face. Having walked out of school later after being berated by a teacher, it was quite easy to see that Henry Bowers was in a foul mood. He slouched as he walked, his lip tucked inwards in irritation and his hands shoved into the pockets of his pink jacket. Katia stared intently at Rosemary's shoulder, wondering whether he was clutching his infamous switchblade. "You good to go?"

"I still don't see why were going to the library. Why we can't just go to yours"

"Because my brothers would flip if I brought a guy home" Henry's eyes flickered to Katia's shaking form.

"Who the fuck are you?" Staring at the trembling girl in her revealing clothes, Henry was reminded of his father's words. She looked like one of the whores his father would warn him about befriending in her provocatively short clothes and the unnecessary make-up caking her face. Rosemary was undoubtedly an exception to this rule, as she was possibly the purest being Henry had ever had the pleasure of looking upon.

As if to prove that point, Rosemary frowned at him slightly and placed her hands on her hips, "Henry, there's no need for that"

He scoffed, leaning against the bannister of the staircase with a mask of indifference. "Whatever"

"This is my friend Katia" Katia smiled slightly, giving a quivering, tight-lipped smile to Henry. Henry stared at the pair and almost laughed, it was like looking at the before and after shot of an infomercial. Katia's hair hung flatly around her unattractively round face, whilst Rosemary's shone in the afternoon light, pulled neatly back into two long plaits which framed her angelically defined face.

"I'd better be going" Katia mumbled, giggling nervously as she looked at Rosemary, evidently scared. "Do you want your cardigan back?"

Rosemary smiled, shaking her head. "It's fine, you'll freeze otherwise. Just give it to me tomorrow" Katia didn't waste a single moment rushing away from the pair, not glancing back for a second as she tried to put as much room between herself and Henry Bowers as humanely possible.

"What was her problem?" Henry sneered slightly, looking at Rosemary who shrugged.

"She must've been in a hurry to get home" She walked past Henry, nudging his arm. "C'mon, let's go"

The moment Henry stepped into the library, he felt out of place in every way possible. If not for the fact he'd just stepped into a building created for the purpose of reading, then because he'd also just stepped into the safe haven of many students whom at one point or another had been a victim of his aggression and ego. Several librarians did a double-take as Rosemary and Henry walked through the doors side-by-side, none quite able to understand why such an innocent girl was with such a horrid boy. "This way" Rosemary ushered Henry to follow her.