Lauren Sanders has been left to start a 'new' normal life with her aunt and cousin after her family died. Everybody knows almost everything except for two things: Lauren's parents' mysterious death and her schizophrenia.
Lauren goes out on a mission...
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I sat in class with my head clouded by another train of thoughts.
Yesterday's thoughts lingered in the back of my head before being replaced with a different collection of thoughts that I had never thought of before.
Kelly and I began texting each other two weeks ago. She told me after our conversation, which took place almost a month ago that she would be leaving school for a while to go to an eating disorder clinic. I promised I'd keep her up to date with schoolwork from the same classes we both take.
I catch Aaren looking blankly at the board as I glance over my shoulder. He was there, but you could see he wasn't in his right mind. It was as if the darkest series of thoughts had already clouded his mind.
Ms. Romeo is tapping the board to reclaim our attention. I immediately turned back to find Ms. Romeo staring at the entire class before turning around, her back facing us, and started talking about what she had written on the board.
When the first bell rang, we immediately stood up from our chairs as Ms. Romeo wraps up the discussion quickly there and announces a quiz on Wednesday.
Half of the students left the room already, while the other half were either busy talking to their friends or gathering their stuff up before heading out. I grab my bag on the floor and immediately walked over towards Aaren, who seems so busy gathering his thing.
I tap his shoulder. He shifts his gaze towards mine, shaking his head as if he were shaking his thoughts out of his head.
My eyebrows, drawn together into confusion, "Are you all right? You seem to be out of it," I say as I try to find some latent emotion on his face, but who am I to determine if he is sad, lonely, or none of the above since I can't tell which of my emotions is which?
He smiles at me, "Yes. I am okay. Why?" He says as he swings his bag to his shoulder. We both left the room and started walking silently beside each other.
I keep staring at him as I say, "Something's bothering you. I can clearly tell."
He spares me a glance, "N-no," he stammers, and it was evident to me now that he is lying about it.
"You're lying," I say, pointing my index finger at his face. He stopped walking as I continue, "You stutter when you lie, and it's too obvious just to ignore it," I crossed my arms to my chest.
He turns and looks at me quietly. It was as if he was trying to think of the proper excuse to dismiss the topic quickly. As I walk alongside Aaren, he sighs and starts walking instead.
I gently and playful bump into his shoulder. When he decided to ignore me, I grabbed his arm and dragged him to the opposite side of the hallway, where his next class was supposed to be.
We walked into the library and were quickly greeted by the earsplitting silence. I quietly waved my hand at the librarian, who smiled back. I continue to pull Aaren into the hidden room at the back of the library.
