Saving the Girl With Lilac Hair

Austin

Monday, December 4th

Cambull High

8:50 a.m

"Mr. Harrison, when will our projects be due?" a girl in my class asks the question that everyone had been wanting to ask.

"The due date is still to be determined"

"Well then how are we suppose to know how much time we have left to get it done?" the girl asks another question without being called on.

"Alright. The project will be due on the last day of the month of January." Anyone can tell that Mr. Harrison just blurted out the first date that came to mind.

I turn to see Camila's desk empty once again. At this point I'd be surprised if she actually shows up for once. Fuck. Once again I somehow ended up thinking about Camila. It's been happening all weekend and no matter how hard I try I can't stop. Camila is all I've been able to think about.

"Alright class. Let's talk about our weekends. Who wants to go first?" Mr. Harrison asks, but everyone remains silent. "How about you Anya. Tell us about your weekend"

"Okay well this weekend I went to a party and I think I made a new friend. She was pretty, although I just met her I could've sworn I had seen her before. But that's not even the best part. She has this cute college guy friend and I think we actually hit it off!" Anya said as she looked like she had been struck with a love arrow. I rolled my eyes at all of her enthusiasm about liking someone. She makes it all seems as if it's easy, but it's not. At least for me it isn't.

I called Luke over the weekend and told him about the kiss I shared with Camila and how I have already fixed everything with Savannah. I also told him about how I saw Camila at the party, but all he said was that I need to stop running from my true feelings. I don't even know what he meant by that. I thought Savannah and I were perfect, but after I saw Camila with that guy I began to doubt my feelings for Savannah once again.

"Austin how was your weekend?" Mr. Harrison asked, snapping me out of my thoughts.

"Oh um...it was the usual" I stated bluntly. I obviously wasn't going to be like Anya and tell him about my weekend detail by detail.

"Oh really? And what's the usual to you?" Mr. Harrison continued to push me into going more in-depth on my weekend details.

"You know. I went to a party, I hung out with friends and family. The usual."

"Anything else happened? Possibly something that could have changed your whole life?"

"What are you trying to say?"

"What I'm trying to say is that if you're going to start daydreaming in my class you better be ready to give me a complete response when I ask you a question. That is what I was trying to say Mr. Park" just as he said that the bell rang and everyone began to leave the classroom. Just as I got ready to leave Mr. Harrison spoke up once more. "Mr. Park, can I see you for a minute?"

"Sure" I turned around and stood in front of his desk.

"I have become aware of the fact that Ms. Stein hasn't been at school for a while. Now I know she's off visiting her parents. I just wanted to know how your project is going?"

"Oh it's going great." I said sarcastically but Mr. Harrison doesn't seem to understand sarcasm. I know for a fact that Camila isn't visiting her parents, unless they're at Glistening Woods.

"That's good to hear. You can go now" Mr. Harrison said with a smile. He's so clueless, he doesn't even know that his own student is out partying instead of attending school.

**********

12:40 p.m

I sit at the same lunch table as always and pick at my macaroni and cheese. "Are you sure you're okay?" Brandon asks as he across from me. "You've been a bit off since the party"

"I'm fine. Everything is fine."

"Well I wouldn't say everything is fine. Have you seen Jaden and Savannah? They've been extremely close since the party"

"Not again Brandon" I say trying to hide how annoyed I am. "What do you have against Savannah that you always have to accuse her of something?"

"Dude I'm just looking out for you" Brandon says as he holds his hands up as if showing he didn't mean any harm. "I'm also sorry about making you go talk to Camila"

"It's alright. It was-" I begin to say but I'm cut off by someone's loud laugh. I turn to see Jaden and Savannah walking by as she continues to laugh. Neither of them notice that Brandon and I are sitting at our regular lunch table, instead they continue to walk and laugh until they leave the lunchroom.

There is an awkward silence between Brandon and I as we both just saw them together. By this point I'm beginning to believe that there may be some truth to what Brandon has been trying to tell me all along. But the last thing I want right now is for him to be right.

The silence continues until Brandon can't handle the urge to prove me wrong. "Now do you believe me?"

"Shut up Brandon."

**********

4:30 p.m

"Austin, babe, I promise we'll hang out tomorrow after school" Savannah says as she makes up another excuse to not hang out.

"Why? Did you already make plans with Jaden?" I ask not being able to hold back my jealousy.

"You don't get to do that. Last time I checked you're the one kissed Camila!" she yells back at me. Our peaceful conversation has now turned into a screaming match for her. I take a deep breath before I decide to say another word. The last thing I want is to make a scene in gym full of people.

"I already told you I was sorry-"

"Well sorry doesn't cut it anymore!" she yells back.

"Alright then. If that's how you want it to be. But that doesn't give you an excuse to cheat on me. If you think that you cheating on me makes us even then you're wrong, it will just prove that this relationship is hopeless and we've just been wasting our time on nothing. We can't ever move forward if we're always trying to get even" I stop for a moment and look over her expression. her eyebrows are furrowed together to show that she's not budging. She still thinks she's right and I'm wrong, no matter what I say it won't make a difference. "Savannah I just-"

She cuts me off before I can finish my sentence. "Are you accusing me of cheating?!" she yells at the top of her lungs. By now everyone in the gym has turn to look at us.

"You know what? Forget it. I'm done." I say in a low and firm tone. I turn around and make my way out of the gym slamming the doors behind me.

"Fine! Run away! That seems to be all you're good at!" she screams at the doors I had just walked through.

Once in the hallway I notice that is so empty, it almost seems abandoned. There is no one in sight since everyone is either in the gym or outside of the school. And that's when I see it. Photos cover the lockers of the whole hallway. I slowly walk closer to a photograph and rip it off the locker. The photo is of Camila in her bedroom, she is putting on her shirt but it shows the bruises on her back, the same bruises that have haunted my mind since I first saw them. Almost as if my body could think for itself, I found myself running through all of the hallways of the entire school taking down all of the photos and stuffing them in my backpack.

After I make sure I have grabbed every single photo, I burst through the front entrance of the school and sprint across the parking lot.