𝙩𝙧𝙪𝙩𝙝 𝙤𝙧 𝙙𝙖𝙧𝙚 | ✓

i

DAY 1:

Rough.

It's a word that can describe a lot of things about the two girls who manage to fit both of their bodies into the largest stall in the only girl's bathroom on the second floor. Rough movements. Rough relationship. Rough kissing.

And of course, there's the poor girl in the stall next to them, who's watching the flimsy wall between them shake and taking shallow breaths. She had come in to mourn the poor grade of her recent art project but was greeted by something worse instead.

She knows one of the girls next door, or, well, next stall. She actually knows her quite well. The two are friends-with-benefits but without the friends part. So maybe they are just "benefits".

Akanke Donovan and a sophomore she's only ever talked to twice are locking lips in the stall and Lila Burleigh just wants to go home. If this isn't a typical day, Lila doesn't know what is. Except that on most days, Lila is the one in the stall with Akanke, pressing against her and moving their lips in perfect sync.

Lila watches the two pairs of sneakers moving against each other beside her. One are a golden yellow, the favorite color of a certain girl who Lila thinks looks stunning in it. The other are just a plain grey. They blend into the background of the tile floors just perfectly.

Her eyes fall to the shoes on her own feet, which are a dark red, the color Akanke had said complemented her eyes. She wants to take them off and flush them, but they were expensive and she has no interest in wasting money. It's the same way with the big, red diamonds that adorned her ears, a gift from you can probably guess who. (Hint: It's the girl in the next stall)

After a few minutes of loud noises next to her, Lila sighs silently and stands, pressing the handle on the toilet, and exiting the stall. The two girls next to her go silent upon realizing that they aren't alone. Lila taps her foot a couple of times, each one quieter than the next to give the impression of walking away, and then waits and sure enough, a few seconds later the two return to what they were doing. The lone girl feels a pang in her chest every time she hears a familiar voice whisper an unfamiliar name so she turns to leave, but it's like a car crash that she can't look away from. She keeps listening until she feels a single tear run down her cheek. She doesn't wipe it away and instead watches as it drips onto her red shoe.

The bell lets out a loud ring above her and she realizes her lunch period is over, which means Akanke's is too. She wants to wait and see what Akanke would say if she were caught but doesn't. Lila knows that if she would catch sight of those hazel eyes, the ones that glittered behind thin-rimmed glasses, or saw the tight-ringed curls that stuck out of the other girl's head at every beautiful angle, she'd want to run her hands through that hair and stare into those eyes. But no. It's dumb to think that way.

Lila knows she's nothing but another distraction for Akanke Donovan. The girl has a million others, but Lila seems to forget this every time they get together. Her mind pushes out the fact that her lips are meeting the same ones two dozen others have met and that her hands move in the same places Raine Carleson's, Charlie Duke's, Aaron Hendrick's, and countless others have been. Because in the moment everything feels so much better. Because in the moment her mind doesn't think of the girl in front of her as a distraction but instead as her love. Because what she has with Akanke Donovan is special, right?

The awkward creak of a stall door being opened echoes off the tiles in the bathroom and Lila draws in a sharp breath. She hears the whispered giggles of the others and ducks out of the only girl's bathroom on the second floor. She doesn't want to think about the fact that she has Chemistry with Akanke in a mere five minutes. She's also avoiding the fact that they're in the middle of a big project that the two have been putting off for days.