The Surrender of Love

Chapter Two

*Justice*

It's been a week and I still haven't heard from Jannette. I know she's dead but there's this little hope in me that waits for her to text me. I want this to just be some cruel joke. But it isn't. I miss her so much. I still go to her locker every morning and post little cute messages on her locker like I did every morning before she got to school. It kills me because I know there's nothing I can do about it.
It's time for P.E. and I head towards the girls locker room. I pass by the office and see a girl waiting at the coach's desk. She has a black leathered bag, a loose black shirt, beautifully ripped jeans, black vans, and a silver nose ring to tie it all together. She's pretty. No, what the heck. What am I thinking? I'm still greveing over Jannette. I can't be thinking a girl is pretty. Not now at least. It's way too fast. Should I talk to her now? Or should I wait to see her around? What do I have to lose? I walk into the office and walk beside the chair she's at.
"Hi. I'm Justice. What's your name?"
"Hey. I'm Elizabeth but I go by Lizzie," she says as she looks up from her phone.
"Sweet. You new here?"
She nodds and I smile at her.
"So what are you waiting for?" I ask Lizzie.
"Someone is supposed to take me to my locker before I start P.E. but I've been here for over twenty minutes and still nothing," she says in a firm tone.
"Let me see," I take a small paper she was holding in one hand. She then puts her phone in a little front pocket of her bag. I read the locker number. 244 was the number. That was Jannette's locker. "I know where that is. Follow me?"
She smiles and follows me out the P.E. office, through the locker room, and to the class building. We walk into the building and I pretend to look at the paper as if I had forgotten the number. But I could never forget that number because I saw it every morning.
"It's 244 so that means it's on the second floor. You good with stairs or would you rather the elevator?" I ask her.
"Stairs are fine."
I lead us to the staircase and walk up. As soon as we reach the top of the first flight of stairs, I swing a right. I walk down the hall and look over my shoulder to make sure Lizzie was good. She was looking around and it made me feel good. I turn my focus back in front of me and smiled to myself. As we reached an intersecting hallway, I turned left and made my way down the hall. We approach the locker and I stop. Immediately, my face turns red. How could I have forgotten? All the notes since Jannette's death are still on there.
"Wow. This school is very welcoming," Lizzie giggles.
One reads, "I will love you forever <3" I quickly rip off all the notes and find the nearest trash can. When I return, Lizzie looks puzzled.
"Sorry. That was for the girl who had this locker before you," I say with a bit of embarrassment.
"Oh. Did you know her?"
"Yeah. She was my girlfriend, actually."
"So you put those notes on her locker?" Lizzie asks me.
"Every morning," I reply with a smile.
"Well, it's nice to know I'm not the only lesbian at this school," she says as she begins to put the combination into the locker.
"What do you mean?"
"I got kicked out of my previous school for liking girls. That's how I ended up here."
My throat suddenly tightens yet with a mixture of relief. For some reason, I'm happy she's lesbian. I don't know why. But I just am. Lizzie finally gets her locker to open.
"Sorry that happened. But you're safe here," I say with a confident smile.
She smiles at me and begins to put stuff in her locker. She takes out four, plain black, composition books and neatly stacks them on top of each other. She slides them over to the right of the locker and then to the back. She then pulls out a picture frame of a guy and places it to the left of the books in the space she left empty. She lightly smiles at it and closes the locker door. I didn't bother to ask any questions. Not now. She takes out her phone and quickly puts it back.
"It's 7:30 now. What time does the first class start?"
"8,15," I say.
"Coffee? My treat," I speak again.
She accepts my invitation and we walk to the coffee cart on campus. I get an amazing feeling throughout my body that I love. I know this'll be good for me. I like this already.