Publish Or Perish

@Mellow_Supernova | Prompt 2 • Aug '18

-------------

'I still can't believe I got 79,' I muttered to Luke. 'Man, I'd expected 70 or something.'

'Hmmmm...' he nodded his head sadly.

'Oh come on! You got 95! That's like......TOO FREAKING AMAZING!'

Luke rolled his eyes. 'I was expecting 97 though,' He said, looking annoyed.

'HEY GUYS!' Lily plumped down on the bench next to me with a food tray in her hand. 'Guess who just got selected for the cheerleading team?!' she asked enthusiastically.

'Oh my god.....YOU?!'

'YES!' she shouted, hugging me happily.

'Nice! Congrats Lily!' Luke said, from beside me.

'Hey, stop water pollution?' a red faced, bespectacled girl ran up to our table with a notebook in hand.

'Uh.....'

'I've only got three signatures left!' she told us happily and shoved the notebook towards me.

'Um....okay.' I took it, signed and then passed it to Lily and then, Luke.

'THANKS!' she ran off excitedly, bouncing up and down.

'Couldn't she pick a time besides lunch to annoy us?' Lily took a sip of her ice tea. 'Ugh. This is so freaking horrible. I should've stuck with Chocolate Mocha.' She said, grimacing.

And the rest of the day was pretty much uneventful, unless you count me slipping over some ice tea and landing on my butt, and getting accidentally hit by a basketball in the face. Alex was lucky that it was accidental; otherwise he would've gotten it from me.

I took a little nap after classes came to an end and it would've been longer if I hadn't been woken by Lily. But I was kinda thankful that she did, or else I would've been late for the party! I quickly got dressed and then, Lily and I headed off towards the little suite on campus, where Bianca had invited us.

'Wow....you guys really went all out!' I exclaimed to Bianca as I entered through the door. Loud music blared from speakers, and the entire house was filled with dancing lights. Luke, Lily, Alex and I played poker for a while, then when I won, (Mwhahahahha!) the others got a kind of grumpy, so I left them to mingle. Lucy was there....she's nice to talk to. Unfortunately, Brian was too, and he bored me to death with all his nerd talk.

Bianca and I chatted for a while too, but our conversation was broken short when one of her friends pulled her to the dance floor and she was lost among the crowd....

The evening progressed this way, and I found myself enjoying quite a lot! And to think I wanted to sit and study...Nope.

'Hey, did you see Bianca?' Lily came up to me, a glass in hand, sometime in the evening.

'No...last I saw her, she was dancing.' I replied.

'Well, if you see her, let me know.' Lily told me and sauntered off. I nodded and then, turned to sip my drink when my eye caught Bianca climbing up the stairs, to the first floor. I turned my head to tell Lily, but she had already vanished.

'Ugh.' I grudgingly got up from the sofa and started climbing up. Meanwhile, Bianca disappeared from view. I climbed, gripping the railing and leaving the party behind me. I turned right when I reached the first floor, and proceeded towards the door in front.

I grasped the doorknob and opened the door quietly. 'Bianca? Are you---- OH MY GOD!'

My question was turned into a scream, for on the floor lay Luke, in a pool of his own blood, his eyes still and unmoving and a pained expression etched across his face.....