Beneath the Stars

✩ out of focus ;;

Audrey opened her eyes and turned to look at her alarm clock. 6:42. Sighing, she sat up, brushing her red hair from her face. She'd been waking up before her alarm every morning for the past 3 months.

Grabbing her t-shirt hanging off the back of the chair, Audrey tugged it over her head as she headed to the bathroom. Audrey quickly brushed her teeth and washed her face, careful not to look at the mirror. Running her hands through her hair, she was reminded yet again of the haunting reason that had caused her to slice off most of the crimson crowning her head. Audrey unplugged her phone from the charging pod and sent a text to Brandon.

Good morning :)

At school, Audrey lugged her cello to the music room, ignoring the glances of passing students and the strained smiles of teachers. It didn't really matter to her what others thought. Brandon always told her to hold her head high, no matter what happens.

She picked up her usual cup of tea from the cafeteria. She soaked the teabag in the boiling water. Earl Grey. Brandon's favourite. Audrey headed to math, dreading the horror ahead. She was terrible with numbers and despised going to class, skipping when she felt extremely stressed. When it happened, Brandon would teach her the lesson she missed, pushing the rim of his glasses up his nose, which he only wore around Audrey. It was usually a bit better when Brandon taught her; he knew her learning style and taught it to her slowly.

That day, she went to class and stared at the teacher blankly, only half listening to what he had to say. Her hand copied the notes off the blackboard, not registering what she had written, each stroke in time with the scratching of the chalk on the blackboard. scritch scratch scriiitch. The sound of the second hand moving. tick tock tick tock. The tapping of the laptop, students typing away furiously, trying to get down all the notes. clackclackclackclackclack. Audrey was bored. She wished Brandon would text back already.

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Audrey's head swam with numbers, x's and y's; all jumbling into one giant mess inside her brain. She tuned Brandon out as he used the head of the pencil to gesture at the formulas, twirling his pen with his other hand. His lips moved slowly, eyebrows furrowed in concentration as he explained the questions to her. Audrey pulled her knees up and rested her chin on top of them, tilting her head slightly and examined Brandon. Tucking her cold hands between her thighs, she watched him write on her notebook, then moved her grey eyes up to stare at his. Brandon's eyes were a beautiful shade of brown, almost a honey color, and sometimes, when light reflects off his eyes, she swears she can see gold. He seems to have finally felt her gaze on him and their eyes interlocked.

"Are you even listening to me?" he asked, exasperated.

She shook her head at Brandon, smirking when her hair, still long at the time, whipped him in the face. He yelled and tackled Audrey, hugging her tightly against him, squirming as they laughed. She felt his body pressed against her own and flushed, pulling herself slightly away from him. Their faces were close.

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Audrey walked into the cafeteria and collapsed into one of the school's blue chairs, relieved it was finally lunch time. Not that she ate much, if any at all. She blamed it on the overpriced food and the fact that she was never hungry. Audrey checked her phone. No new messages. She sighed and pulled out her tuna-egg-pickle sandwich. She smiled a little at the combination. It was, no question, the weirdest sandwich she had ever eaten, but it tasted good, and Brandon was the one who proudly introduced it to her one day.

Plenty of nutrients was what he had told her. She bit into her sandwich, but without Brandon, it wasn't the same. The bread was dry, and the flavour tasted weird in her mouth. Audrey wrapped the bread back in its' plastic wrap and put it back in her bag, switching it for her class work. She scribbled through her homework and rearranged the notes in her binder. Her papers were scattered all over her bag and mixed in folders that she had shoved in at the end of lessons. Audrey groaned. Looks like that part about me haven't changed. I'm still a mess, literally and figuratively. She began picking up the white sheets and organized them in a presentable state.

Packing up her stuff, Audrey made her way to the music room. She pulled her cello out of its' case and tightened the bow. No matter how much she didn't want to practice, she had to, or else her cello instructor and her mom would kill her. The young girl sighed, remembering how much she used to love the cello as a little girl, and how much she had loved it up until recently. Now, it just sounds hollow, almost ... lonely. Audrey would always play for Brandon, never understanding how he could listen to her repeatedly make mistakes, but he always reassured her, saying it sounded amazing. Sometimes, if he wasn't so shy about it, he would accompany her on the piano, fingers flowing over the keys. If she was really lucky, he would sing. Audrey slumped down a little in her seat. Even her cello missed Brandon.

Come back already, Brandon. You've been away long enough. How much time does it take to -

The bell rang for class.

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a/n: this is ... to say, a time skip. My story is going to consist of a lot of these, but I think I've made it pretty clear when it is, so you can probably tell when it's in the past and when it's in the present.

Where do you think Brandon is, or what do you think happened to him?

leave your thoughts below, I love to look at them! <3

- Serena