《the wallflower》

the fight

BLYTHE CAMPBELL 

"The curious fish gets caught." 

Blythe saw Lydia talking to Ryder Andrews. Why she was talking to someone like him, she had no idea, but at this point, she didn't care. She had class to go to, and she didn't have the time to stick her nose into something that didn't concern her. 

Psychology was boring as usual, but at least lunch was after this, so then she could ask Lydia what she was doing with Ryder. Once the bell thankfully rang, Blythe collected with things and marched her way out to the school library, where Lydia and she would usually eat lunch. Most people didn't spend their lunches in the library, so it was a nice place for the two friends to hang out, away from everyone else. 

Blythe and Lydia became friends after they did a math project together as freshmen three years before. The two had been passing by each other for years at church, but after that time in class together, the two became close. Now, they worked in the coffee shop together and participated in kids' ministry together. Lydia was always good at helped Blythe with her, well, issues, as well. 

Blythe had anorexia, the awful eating disorder that ruled over her life for a long time. Lydia had helped her over the last three years and was one of the only people who actually knew about the problem- besides her mother. They told each other everything. 

And now, she knew something was up when she saw Lydia sitting in the library, looking extremely worried as she scrolled through her phone. "Hey. What's up?" Lydia glanced up at Blythe and smiled, patting the next to her. 

"Do you know a girl named River June Michaels?" 

Blythe shook her head, confused as she saw her friend scout closer to her and look around warily. "She's a friend of that guy, Ryder Andrews. They apparently talk every day, and he hasn't heard from her since Friday night." 

"Okay," Blythe said, "But what does that have to do with us?" 

Lydia stared directly into Blythe's eyes, her stormy blue eyes seemingly looking straight into her soul. "She went to that party Andi went to. And now," Lydia looked around one more time. "She's missing." 

Blythe felt herself blink once or twice. "What?" 

"You heard me." Lydia said, sitting back in her seat. "Apparently she and Ryder have been friends for years. But she keeps it in the quiet because she's 'popular'." Lydia made quotations with her hands. "I saw on her story that she was hanging out with Arabella on Friday night. But no one's seen or heard from her since." 

"Have you talked to the police? Your parents?" Blythe asked, pulling her backpack on her lap and zipping it open. Lydia shook her head. 

"No, but I talked to Zack on Sunday. He said that since she's eighteen, she can technically leave town." Lydia explained, opening up a tube-a-ware full of strawberries. She offered some to Blythe before continuing. "Ryder said that they talk constantly. And I've been following her on Instagram for years, she posts something almost every day."

Blythe nodded, opening a bag of chips. "Why did you talk to Zack about it?" 

Lydia shrugged. "I don't know. He works with teenagers, maybe he knew something I didn't. It just seemed like the right thing to do. Besides, I trust him. And I know that if something was really bad, he'd be able to do something about it." 

Even though Blythe wanted to believe that they had nothing to worry about, she couldn't shake the fact that something was terribly, horribly wrong. And she could tell Lydia felt the same way too. The two stayed in the library for the rest of lunch, talking about graduation and prom- which Lydia said she wouldn't be attending. She told Blythe that she really didn't care about stuff like that, that she was more focused on leaving in July, not about some high school tradition. 

"Is Andi gonna go?" Blythe asked cautiously. She heard about what happened on Friday night between Andi and some football player, it spread like wildfire all over the school. Lydia scoffed, grabbing her book and standing up. 

"Who knows? Probably. I just surprised," she said as the two began to walk to their government class. "I thought I was the social outcast. But after what happened between her and Miles, she's looked down upon more than I am," 

Blythe laughed. If there was one person in the entire world that shouldn't have been looked down upon, it was Lydia. Lydia never did anything wrong to anyone, she frankly just didn't conform to the patterns of the world. 

Lydia used to be the most liked girl in the entire school, but once they graduated middle school, she just stopped caring about what other people thought. She did her own thing, focusing on trying to make the world a better place and wanting to live out a purpose that seemed so far-fetched that it probably intimated everyone who hear about it. 

The truth was that she wanted to go help battered women and children in other countries. She wanted to go to the most dangerous places in the world, helping build houses and provide protection for the lost. She was obsessed with becoming a Crime Scene Investigator, wanting to solve mysterious and bring justice to the oppressed, stuff that people their age barely ever talked about. She was so sent on changing the world, that she didn't even look at the change that she was already making on the world around them here at Ridgewood. 

Blythe never knew someone could care so much about others yet care so little about their opinions. 

The two made it to the 500s building on the other side of campus, walking up through the quad that she saw Lydia and Ryder talking at only a few hours before, and were about to go into class when a scream ripped through the loud atmosphere. 

Everyone went silent, looking around trying to figure out where the scream came from. Blythe looked at Lydia, who had concern painted all over her face. Then they heard another scream, and the haunting words, "I hate you!" echoed across the quad. People started crowding in a small lawn nearby, some cheering, some shouting. 

Lydia dropped her backpack and raced towards the crowd, Blythe hot on her heels. They heard more screaming, and insults being thrown, and saw phones shooting up in the air, recording what looked to be a fight of some sort. 

Lydia pushed her way through, stopping right at the front of the crowd. Ducking through the crowd, Blythe saw two girls, one blonde and one brunette, shouting and fighting on the grass in front of her. And it was then that she recognized who it was. 

Arabella Quince and Andi Noble, Lydia's little sister.