Lily slumped onto the floor, her body heaving from the intensity of her painting, she looked outside and the rain was still falling. She turned to her phone and hours had passed, she had missed her lessons. Anxiety filled her body, how could she possibly explain why she was truant? What would her teachers think? She had missed two lessons, luckily the teachers shared the same space so she ran over, without stopping to look at a mirror. She hadn't stopped crying for hours and her face was smudged with colours from her hands, her shirt was the same as was her skirt. Puffy tears had made clean roads of lines through the paint, her mental state was evident. She reached the staff room and the door was opened, bewildered and anxious she walked in without knocking, out of breath, and began asking for her teachers.
Her presence was noticed quickly and concerned teachers crowded her, she was well known within the school due to her caring nature. "Lily! Gosh, what happened? Someone get the make-up wipes from the bathroom! Mr Hart, go get us a blanket."
"I'm so sorry! I lost track of time and I missed your lessons. It was an accident and it won't happen again." Her unwarranted anxiety caused worry for her teachers, which she could see because their expressions were genuine. "I'm sorry!" She felt as if she was violating people's privacy by being able to see their true feelings and didn't stop apologising.
Her teacher reassured her however her tears didn't stop because her heartache was unending. It was so easy to become alone, especially when no one cared about you in the first place. Perhaps loneliness was what was always meant for her.
As she trudged home that night, Lily wondered how she could ever face the people she had considered friends and whether making amends of any kind was even an option anymore. Was everything hopeless now? She was young however she hadn't known a different reality to the one she was currently living in, she never had, so where would she go to eat? What would she do when her isolation was too much to handle? Was there even an answer?
Upon reaching home, she announced her entrance with a "hey, I'm home", out of habit, that echoed through an empty house and ran to her bedroom. Her father and stepmother had left for a month at midday, leaving the entire house to herself. She stared at the photo in her room, it was difficult to miss, on one side was her mother and on the other was her, only a child. Her reflection was almost transparent on the glass of the frame, however, she could see her own features on her mother.
"Why did you leave?" She asked the photo, tears streaming from her eyes. "You didn't just leave him, you left me." She tore the photo from her wall, like she did most nights, and lifted it above her head, ready to smash, before she hesitated. In her hesitation, she crashed into a small pile and started to ugly-cry into the ground. After composing herself, she lifted the photo and put the frame back onto her wall. She turned to see a shrine on her wall, Adrien's amber eyes stared back at her, about forty of them. Screaming, she began ripping the photos off the pinboard that held them on the wall and throwing them into her shredder, one by one they all disappeared. All that was left was an empty board on an emptier wall, blank, cream-coloured isolation. In her fury, she dug her nails into the pale board and scraped out the mesh, revealing the dark wood.
Everything was gone. Every stable part of the life she had built had fallen apart and the abandonment left the same pain as it had when her mother had left nine years ago. She cursed at the roof before collapsing into a small ball. She didn't have any tears left to cry, all she had was emptiness, loneliness and fear.
The next day, she woke up earlier than usual, she spent extra time getting ready. She wasn't going to let anyone see her weak, especially Adrien. Her makeup was perfect, her hair was perfect, everything about her was perfect. She walked to school as early as she usually did, she put on her headphones and lost her train of thoughts as she moved through her usual routine. Suddenly, she realised she was in front of the gym; she was ten meters away from her usual place as his cheerleader. She stared at the doors for a second and began to realise where she was and laughed mockingly at herself. Stupid habits, she thought as she pulled herself away from her norm and turned to the art rooms. She felt a hand on her shoulder and was turned around, she shrieked as she didn't expect anything and noticed the familiar face of her friend, Trevor.
"Are you here to cheer for your boyfriend?" He teased whilst messing up her hair. She slapped his hand away playfully as she complained and fixed her hair.
"He's not my boyfriend, he isn't even my friend. Why aren't you in the gym, playing?" She asked as his arm slunk around her shoulders.
"He's not your friend? I sense trouble in paradise." She looked at his face and noticed that there was real concern in his laughter. She grinned sadly.
"Don't you know? Your best friend hates me." Her sadness hit him intensely and his grip around her tightened.
"Who told you that?" He asked after turning her in front of him. He had a habit of infantilising her so his knees were slightly bent as he talked to her. "How could he hate you?"
She realised he wasn't aware of the hatred within Adrien's heart and laughed. "He didn't know I liked art, Trevor, I was blindly following and annoying someone who hates me. How stupid is that!" She looked at his face and saw that behind his stoic expression was one of concern and love. She grinned and slung her arm around him. "But it's okay because I have you!" Her laugh calmed him down and he joined her joy.
"Yeah, of course, you do. You'll always have me." His words didn't hold deep meaning, they were truly just friends who had each other's backs.
"And you'll always have me."