"Grace... What the hell?! It's like two in the morning!" Marley groaned after three calls. She'd finally answered the fourth on the second ring.
"I can't sleep" I bit down on my lip until I was sure I tasted blood. The truth was that I'd been in the shower until ten -I take long showers when I get stressed, okay? Okay. Moving on-, tried to sleep for like ten minutes then gave up and just tried not to think about Hazel until now. Now I was on the verge of insanity and I couldn't wait until a sane hour to talk to someone about what happened.
"Is Micha with you?" I pressed.
"Why do you need her?" She yawned into the phone.
"Hazel problem. You're too tired to think"
"One second" I waited a few moments "just don't talk too loudly" she yawned before I heard Micha's voice whisper something to her.
"Alright, Grace, I know we may have gone too far with the whole argument yesterday but really? Two a-" I cut her off.
"Micha, we practically made out" I deadpanned.
"What?!" She shrieked so loudly I yelped and threw the phone down on my bed.
"Micha!" I heard Marley grumble "I'm sleepy, please hush"
"I'm sorry, baby. Go back to sleep" Micha cooed in the background. "Please, please, please tell me I heard you wrong, Grace!" She whisper-yelled-slash-hissed at me. I said nothing. She groaned "what's the damage?"
"Uhmm..." I blushed.
"Details, woman" Micha urged.
"Um... She asked if she could kiss me and I might have been too busy crushing to think and I let her..."
"Grace..." she sighed.
"And I might have felt her up a little without knowing it" well there goes dignity out the window.
"And you're still alive?" Why do I get the feeling that the lack of sarcasm in her voice was actually a lack of sarcasm and she was actually surprised that Hazel didn't kill me. Really, that girl should have come with a warning. "How'd she react?"
"She sort of spased and I ran away before she could say anything"
"I don't recommend you touch Hazel. She doesn't like being touched"
"Just a bitch thing, or is there anything to it?"
"Not my place to say" she breathed deeply "in all honesty, I have no idea how to deal with it. Megan knows more about her than me, and what you're getting into is something personal. I can make assumptions and guesses because I'm a second, but I don't understand exactly how Hazel operates"
"Micha... Loud..." Marley interrupted again.
"Baby, Grace is having problems and she needs friending" Micha soothed seriously.
"I don't care" I could easily imaging the brunette whining right now, probably trying to steal the phone and hide it under her pillow so Micha would have to go back to sleep. "I want cuddles" I chuckled a little in my throat.
"Ugh, Marley, be good or I'm going to have to talk to her from somewhere else"
"No" Marley indignantly extended the word.
"Grace, can we talk tomorrow?" Micha sighed deeply "how do you deal with this woman?!" Marley uttered a gasp in the background, along with a chain of other ambience that Micha quickly hushed.
"We don't have school tomorrow" I pointed out. Yesterday, when I'd had dinner with Hazel, was Friday, so I kinda felt like I was just stating the obvious by reminding her that it was the weekend.
"I know. I'll make Marley cater to your every need" I could hear the smirk in her voice "don't worry about it. Goodnight, Grace" she chuckled.
"G'night, Micha" I sighed and hung up, tossing my phone into an opened drawer of my bedside stand. Then I lay on my back and knit my fingers together over my stomach.
I waited and waited for a sleep that never came, so I grabbed my phone and -despite my better judgment- went onto Safari, typed Hazel's name into the box at the top, and hit the enter button. A bunch of random links and images popped up but I ignored them and tapped the 'images' link. And a set of unfamiliar faces came up. I scrolled through them but found nothing close to my Hazel. I mean, the Hazel I know. Not the- you get the idea.
I kept scrolling until I was at the last few results, but of all surprises, I found a picture. In it, Hazel looked a few years younger, and she was sitting next to an older girl. The older one had strawberry blonde hair that was dip-dyed crimson, freckles on her cheeks and nose, happy looking sky blue eyes, one arm out to hold the camera they were looking into, and her other arm around Hazel's neck.
Hazel was looking at the camera with a completely blank expression. She hadn't grown more adult features yet, her cheeks were still a little hidden, her hair was in a messy ponytail... Something about her looked different. Something in her eyes, or how she had her jaw clenched, or how she really seemed emotionless. It made the Hazel I knew look open.
To be completely honest, I was more focused -no matter how much the reality of my jealousy hurts- on the girl beside her. Only one name came to mind. Winter. The only person Hazel had feelings -or something resembling feelings- for, the dead one. I was looking at a picture of Hazel's dead- what was she to her, exactly? Girlfriend? Significant other? Thing in Hazel's existence?
I couldn't help it.
I saved the picture and checked the tags on the photo.
'Winter Montgomery'
I copied the name and pasted it into the search bar. As soon as I'd searched it a bunch of pictures came up of unfamiliar faces, but occasionally I'd find Winter in them along with a stranger or two. I found one with her and Jamine. I noticed that a surprising amount that had her and Micha, or her and Megan, or her and Kayla, but almost none had Hazel, and none had Alexa.
I think I'd recognize Alexa if she showed up, since I always recognize Hazel and Megan is always laughing, at least with her eyes.
I knew I'd regret the thought I had next. I deleted Winter's name slowly, letter by letter, and then replaced it with Alexa Sinclair.
Five minutes of searching later, and nothing -I mean absolutely nothing- showed up that looked anything close to Hazel or Megan. I guess I really should've expected it, if Micha could hack into anything in five seconds flat, and the Academy was supposed to be even higher security than the Night School, I probably wouldn't see a left over picture of her floating around Google.
I sighed deeply and shut my phone off.
Looking at the face of my digital clock, I found '3 : 26 a.m.' staring back at me in glowing blue.
Just try and sleep, I told myself, rolling over and curling up into a ball under my sheets. I closed my eyes and tried again to sleep.
**this chapter was an unintentional filled... but I think the next one should be more interesting :p