Flicker (H.S)

07.

07.

"One day, she just got up and left. She didn't tell anyone where she was going, when she'd be back, why she was leaving. She just kinda looked at me with those eyes of hers and she walked out. And I haven't seen her since."

[Pause].

"It's all because of that Harry kid. He ruined her. He ruins everything in his path. So be careful: monsters are real, so are ghosts. And sometimes, they win."

-Interview of Louis Tomlinson on disappearance of Everly Green. [aired September 1st, 2016].

_______________________________________

Everly looked like harsh angles and bitter coffee when she walked into school that morning.

The sweater she stole from her sister was hanging off of her left shoulder, exposing that little freckle that dots the olive-coloured skin there, and jeans that refused to stay on her hips made her trip over her feet more than once. People noticed- they didn't care. The boys still slapped her bum as she walked up the stairs. Her little brother Ethan still made fun of the bump on her nose. Dana still rejected her request of a job.

And Everly looked like harsh angles and bitter coffee when she walked into school that morning.

People that smelled like bedsheets shoved past her in the corridor, anxious to get to hour one and out of the crowd. She wanted to do the same, but her sleep-ridden legs refused to move faster than a leisurely stroll. So she waited for the mass of bedsheet-smelling students to thin before booking it to her next class, sitting in a creaky wooden chair just in time for the bell to ring.

The classroom was small and crammed full of sleepy-eyed teens and a teacher who seemed much too cheery to be up at this ungodly hour. The overhead lighting seemed to drain all the life Everly still had in her body out, making her want to melt into a puddle on the floor.

And it's all a big mess, really.

"Olivia Allen?" Mr. What's-his-name called out, referring to the attendance sheet he had attached to a clipboard in his blistered hands. A small girl secluded in the far right corner raised her hand meekly before putting it down and setting her gaze to her desk.

Name after name rolled by until his painfully monotone voice reached the 'G's'.

"Ever-"

"What makes you think you can say that about a person?" A deep, entirely familiar voice echoed throughout the classroom, turning every head towards the open door. Everly had to strain to see over Damien Blevin's head. "About a woman, no less?"

A loud crash bounced off the walls. "You wanna push me again, Styles?"

Everly stood up on her knees on top of her desk chair to see the scene outside, but so was everyone else. And it was at this time she wished she hadn't sat so far in the back.

"Yeah I fucking do. You say one more fucking thing about her and I will make sure you never speak again."

"Was that a threat?"

Mr. What's-his-name sat his clipboard down on his desk before exiting the room. He muttered something like 'stay in your seats' but no one listened. Like a damn broke, the students pushed and shoved to get to the front of the class as soon as the man closed the door.

Everly stayed put, waiting for the crowd to clear. Plus, these people smelled like bedsheets. She wasn't entirely sure what bedsheets smelled like, but that's what they smelled like so.

Instead, she tuned out the squealing of chair legs on the tile of the classroom and tried to find Harry's voice. It was so deep and gravelly, so beautiful. The words he chooses to say with that beautiful voice were much different. But that didn't matter. Because he was probably, maybe, just possibly talking to Joshua Stevens. And probably, maybe, just possibly Joshua Stevens was harassing her not ten minutes ago, like he does every morning.