The Challenge

"Huh? Oh yeah the guitars are great."

Everything looked normal. It was the same rusty lockers with horrible paintjobs. There were the same students surrounding me with the same starstruck stares that I got every day.

There were the same conversations and the same classes. There was the same Brad with his arrogant smirk and stories that never seemed to be funny.

There was the same Mike with his mop of red hair and his comments that made me question his sanity.

Everything looked normal but nothing felt normal. Something felt empty, like a blank page or a missing lyric. Something that kept everything from feeling whole. Brad and Mike were having a conversation right infront of me but I didn't hear a word.

I saw their lips moving but I heard nothing. My mind wasn't in the right place because she wasn't there.

I peered over Brad's shoulders praying to see her standing at her locker, chewing on her bottom lip, as she studied for a test she was going to ace easily. But all I saw was the dark blue closed locker.

On a normal day she would be the first one here. She would show up before the teachers, but today, she was late. I scanned the hallways desperately looking for some resemblance of her somewhere.

I saw Anna standing by her locker looking very lost and alone. She had her phone in her hand, checking it every minute, probably looking for a new message. I pulled my phone from my pocket checking to see if Lilly had called me. As I saw that there were no new messages, I scolded myself for even thinking she would've called me before her best friend. But nonetheless, I kept my phone in my hand so I wouldn't miss any incoming calls.

I don't understand why I'm so worried anyways. Lilly is just a girl. She should be no different from all my past targets. She is no different from my past targets. I sighed running a hand through my tousled hair.

She's just a girl, I repeated to myself. She is just a girl with amazing eyes and a laugh that I wanted to listen to everyday. She is just a girl that I enjoyed being with for no reason. She's just a girl that's making me lose my mind just because I haven't seen her yet.

Just because I'm worried, it doesn't change the fact that Lilly is just a girl. An impossibly beautiful girl.

Oh screw it, where the hell is she!?

As I was checking the volume on my phone to make sure it was working properly, I heard the front doors of the school swing open. I lifted up my head and found an extremley frazzled Lilly running down the hall to her locker. Her face was grim and looked menacing from all the bags under her eyes.

Her bookbag was halfway open and the papers in her hands were slowly slipping from her grip. Her hair flipped around the side of her face as she ran, finally reaching her locker. I smiled, not because she seemed irritable but because I finally got to see her. Even if she looked like something you would scrap off your shoe in the middle of the rain.

I turned to Anna who was grinning as well. We locked eyes and we somehow both knew that Lilly was in no state to be bombarded with questions. She couldn't handle talking to more than one person at once. Anna's gaze hardened as she closed her locker and began jogging full speed towards Lilly.

My eyes narrowed at Anna as I hastily pushed past Brad and ran over to Lilly, slamming my hand on her locker as I made sure to get there first. I looked up at Anna who glared at me and let out a huff before stomping down the hall in the opposite direction. I smirked before turning down to face the disgruntled girl infront of me.

"Hey Lilly!" I grinned probably a little too cheery for her right now.

"Hi," she deadpanned as she proceeded to scowl at no one in particular.