Page 31 of Lessons In Grey

Not one step.

Had they spoken to me?

Had I answered?

I glanced back down the hall, trying to pull up even a singlemillisecond of the walk, but there was nothing. My mind just stopped for that entire expanse of time.

“Em?” I heard Ash ask when I didn’t walk in.

“Hmm?” How could I not remember the walk? It was ten minutes from the parking lot to the lecture hall. I should have remembered something.

“Are you okay?”

I stared at the end of the hall for another second before turning back, clearing my expression and nodding. It was fine, just a fluke. I hadn’t slept more than a couple of hours last night, that had to be it.

I walked by her, glancing towards the stage out of habit to find Remi where she always was, leaning over his desk, talking to him flirtatiously.

“I’m using her.”

Twice he had said it with no other explanation. The obvious answer was that he was using her for sex or drugs. Rags, however, was anything but obvious.

I turned away from them, feeling that familiar twist and hating every second of it.

I headed up the stairs, my foot catching on a step halfway up, causing me to trip and land on my bad wrist. I hissed in pain, giggles erupting from the group as I stood and clutched my hand to my chest, my face burning bright red. Fuck.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Ash asked, sliding a hand over my back.

“Talk about hungover,” Katelyn laughed. “Getting drunk on a Wednesday night? That’s sad, Emily, even for you.”

I flexed my hand and adjusted my bag. “I’m fine,” I mumbled hearing the hoarse thickness of my own voice. Shit.

“You sharing with the rest of us?” Cam asked when I finally found my seat. “We can get cross-faded before school starts. Remi says the Professor is cool.”

I pulled my notebook out. I had no work to turn in today, andI had to start replacing the notes I had lost last night.

I cleared my throat the best I could, trying to hide the wince of pain. “Ash, can I borrow your notes for this class?”

“Um, sure, yeah. What happened to yours?”

“Probably spilled her bottle on it,” Katelyn teased.

Ash shot her a glare and slid her own notes over. “Here you go. Get them back to me when you can.”

I gave her a pressed smile and leaned over my work. Focus. Blink away the dizziness and exhaustion, and focus. Destroyed homework didn’t mean an automatic ‘F’. I could still keep my grades up. I could still get ‘A’s’, I just had to focus.

9

Rags

September 22nd, 2021

Ifound her in the alcove, curled up in the corner, her head down, thatfuckingballcap hiding her face from me.

She must have sensed me coming because her body physically relaxed the second I stepped up to the alcove, as it had every day this week.

Something inside of me ignited at the thought that her body reacted to mine without her permission. That in a universe full of people, her body could sense mine.

I could tell that every ounce of her was now paying attention to me, as it always did when I was around. She knew exactly where I was, she was paying attention to everything I did, said, how I breathed. Yet her head remained down, her hair curtaining her face, that ballcap protecting her from the world.