Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ Always There ❯ Always There ( Chapter 1 )

Always There

She always sat at the back of the classroom, even if she was assigned a different seat. If the teachers objected, she would just walk out. All of them gave up eventually. She was always drawing or writing. She wore so many bracelets and always wore long sleeves, even in summer.

Always alone. With her long brown hair, and the smell of cigarettes clinging to her. To me she was beautiful. Beautiful and unreachable. I was too scared to speak to her so I watched her from afar. The plain boy. Average at everything. Keeping up with just enough homework to stay under the radar. I could never compare to her. A silent flower blooming in solitude due to the snowstorm that surrounded her, keeping everyone out.

I almost spoke to her once. I walked up to her and almost opened my mouth. But I couldn't. I was so close… but that's my story. An eternity of “almost there”. I left her a note that day. It was anonymous but I told her I thought she was a work of art. So beautiful.

But I still didn't talk to her.

A few months later she stopped coming to school. A day, two days, three. Then a week passed. We were called into an assembly. She wasn't there. She was no longer of this world.

She was no longer always there. No longer at the back of the classroom. No longer wore so many bracelets. No longer wore long sleeves all year round. No longer smelt of cigarettes. She is no longer here.

Whispers spread. She had been found in the shower. Vertical slashes on her arms riddled with scars. After taking hundreds of pills coupled with too much alcohol. She left behind one thing from that day. Not a note as such. But a picture. A picture of the plain boy, who did just enough to stay under the radar of the teachers. Who left her a note once.

She's always with me.

Always will be.