Gravity - By Abigail Boyd Page 0,21

a relief.

In English, the same alone-in-the-dark feeling overtook me when the lights went out for the overhead projector. Luckily, Ms. Fellows didn't seem to notice as my eyelids drooped and I began to zone out. My thoughts still automatically went to Jenna, the empty hole in the room.

By the end of the day, I wanted out, though for no particular negative reason. Sleep chased me after the previous night, and my clothes reeked of ground pencil lead and cafeteria smells. I felt much less optimistic than yesterday, but I tried not to dwell on it. In art, I sat in the same place, with the same indifferent male, because the other seats were full up.

"All I'm saying is, since it's Hell, we should be able to sin and get away with it," Henry joked around with Lainey. His charming voice carried over to my seat, broken by Lainey's high-pitched, fake giggle.

"You're really bad," she tittered. "I'm surprised you've lasted this long without getting in trouble."

She tossed her shiny blond hair. The strands shimmered like a waterfall as they caught the light. For the slightest moment, I wished I was her. The biggest thing that scared her was that she hadn't put on enough eyeliner. Not that her best friend was never coming back. Or that pretend boogeymen lurked in her basement.

I dutifully texted Hugh as I set out on my journey back home. As I came around behind the house, I noticed my neighbor sitting on the swingset next door. She scribbled in the sketchbook on her lap, never taking her eyes from the paper. She wore a poufy, tutu-like black skirt and black and white striped leggings, and her glitter today was red, matching the vivid, artificial red of her hair. Her glasses kept sliding down her nose and each time she would push them up with two fingers. She didn't look so intimidating now; in fact, considering how little she was, she didn't look intimidating at all.

An impulse hit me. I was prone to them, but up until then I very rarely acted on them. I peeked my head inside my own house.

"I'm home," I said to Hugh, who sat at the table. "But I'm going to hang out in the backyard for a few minutes."

He saluted me and went back to his laptop. Paint drops splattered the shoulder of his shirt. He chewed the end of a pen to ruin, which meant he was concentrating deeply on something. I tossed my backpack on the floor of the dining room and slid the door shut. As I walked over to the fence, I anticipated what to say, and whether it was a good idea to say anything at all.

"Hey!" I called to the girl. She startled, and almost fell off the swing. The sketchbook went sprawling on the grass.

"Sorry!" I said.

I hadn't expected that kind of reaction. Most of the alt-kids in our school were tough and aloof, and talking to them was risking getting your teeth realigned. I noticed a bandage around her ankle, pushing up her left legging.

"What do you want?" she asked, picking up her book and sitting back down on the swing. The words didn't come out rudely, merely curious. She capped the pen she had been using to draw and looked up at me. I had never seen such vibrant green eyes; they were the color of limes. I assumed contacts.

"I just wanted to know if I've done something to offend you," I said calmly. "As far as I know, I've never talked to you before today, but it seems like I've done something to you."

She looked caught for a second. "No," she said. "Your friends just don't like me."

"I don't really have any friends at Hawthorne anymore," I said matter-of-factly. Saying it felt odd, like I should feel worse about the fact. I knew that I was discounting Becky, but to be honest with myself, I felt more like a charity case to her than a friend anymore.

"I thought you and that Lainey girl were friends," she said, leaning over to gather her sketchbook back up. I laughed for about the first time in a month.

"What would give you that idea?" I asked, leaning on the fence. "I am way too dorky for them, and also" — I gestured to my house — "I don't live in a mansion."

"Never mind, then," she said.

She started to stand up, but I found I had a sudden desperation to talk to someone who I wasn't