Kamden's POV:

The girl with the white hair, Shelia. Her name is Shelia. I learned that. She has found a hiding spot. She sits there every day her legs crossed. She looks out the window. Not moving. She doesn't eat. She doesn't sleep. I heard Ms. Vent dragging her to her room every night for eight days now.

The third floor is nice. It's where the teachers sleep. It's one long hall. They only use three of the old classrooms.

Did I mention, we live in an old high school.

At the end of the hall, there is an all-glass window. Ceiling to the floor, nothing but glass. So she sits there, the girl with- Shelia, she sits there against the wall, looking out the window.

And it pisses me off.

So I decided to go talk to her. I walk over to her and sit on the other side of the hall.

She makes no move. She doesn't turn her head. Her eyes even stay in the same place. I've never been brave. I can tell that she is brave. She's pretty too. 

Don't say that.

"Her name was Jenny," I say. "Did you know that?"

She just stares outside for a little longer before answering. She doesn't look away though. "Yes, but I never asked, she told me."

"What does that have to do with anything?" I snap, harsher than I mean too.

"That's means she was incredibly sad. Very very sad." She still doesn't look away from the window. "She didn't want me to feel like I didn't have a friend. So she told me her name. She was my 'friend' Jenny."

"That's the biggest load of bullshit I've ever heard." I scoff. Who says that?

"I don't want to talk about her anymore," Shelia says blinking slowly.

"Good," I say and start standing up.

She snaps her head and stares directly at me. "What's your name?"

"Kamden." I didn't want to tell her that, but the way she asked it. I feared for my life. It felt like she could read my mind. So I answered. 

"Well, Kamden, I'm Shelia. Although you probably already know that. I'm the new girl they found screaming covered in blood trying to save your Jenny." I sink back down to the floor.

"I never said she was 'my' Jenny." I defended.

She smiles like I said what she wanted me too.

"You didn't have too." She smiles and looks back out the window.

"You make no sense," I say pushing myself back up.

"One of the side effects of crazy."

I scoff once more and begin to walk down the hall.

"Do people ever eat out there?" She asked, completely oblivious to the fact that I'm walking in the other direction.

"The guards do sometimes, I guess, and when people could still get opioids, they would overdose out there." I shrug and walk words the window. I'm still standing.

"It's a shame," She sighs tracing her finger on the glass. "It could be such a pretty courtyard." Then she looks down the hall.

"You know," I start to smirk, "if you squint, you can almost see the crack pipes swept into the corners.

She laughs. Not really, but almost. I could hear is start in her chest and come out of her throat. She pushed it out through her nose as another side, but she wanted to laugh. 

But she didn't.

I walk down the hall again this time I will not stop.

"But Kamden," She calls after me. I stop. She looks from the window to me. "A carton of milk can only help so much." She looks back towards the window.

Then I go again.

I don't remember how I got there, but I'm at the door to my dorm. My head is reeling. Shelia sent me for a trip and now I don't have Jenny to help me.

I push inside and walk towards the fireplace, my beds there, and I fought tooth and nail for that spot. I slowly waited for people to move on. Move up. And I would inch closer, and closer. And one day. I will never forget this boy, Fabien Baker, packed up his stuff, and left. He had turned fifteen. And I got his bed. Only have been in that dorm I got the best bed in there.

"Kam!" My friend Casper yells from where he and Dillion are pretending to do their school work. "Come over here! Pickleboy has some news."

"Can't." I shrug as I pass.

I heard the word Jenny spoken as Dillion whispers something to Casper.

I flop down. On my stomach, I hang off the side of my bed and search my box of things. I find my black pen, I step outside once more. But I keep walking. Past the rows of guards. Out into the enclosed courtyard. I look at the pen in my fist. It's small and black. 

Jenny helped me stop using it. She's gone now. I bring it to my lips. Inhale quickly, and out slowly. The smoke billows around my head.

I look back down at the vape pen resting in my fingers and I sigh. I look at it for a long time. 

The sky is grey, it's unusual for that to happen in August. But the sky is grey. And I'm cold. My jeans are thin and so is my shirt. So I breathe in another cloud of smoke. And let it out. The white cloud obscures my vision. And my mind. 

I take another long puff, the vapor is cold and stings the back of my throat. I sigh relieved, sometimes that sting is the only thing that makes me feel human.

I can hear what she, Jenny, would say every time I pulled out my vape out in front of her.

"Ugh, I can practically hear your blood cells dying! Put that cancer away!"

So I would, and my vape pen lived in that box for eight months. She wanted to be a doctor. She wanted to go to the war and fix up all the soldiers, she wanted it to be over. She wanted to find her Dad. But, he died, so there was really no point for her.

I inhale once again and hold the vapor there. I hold it. Until it stinks. My eyes are burning and my nose is running. I hold it until my body takes over and starts hacking. I cough and that rips my throat bringing up phlegm and little streaks of blood.

I shove the black pen in my pocket once I recover my stance and catch my breath. My head is pounding like crazy. I look up at the sky for some relief.

And that's when I see her.

Standing at that third-floor window, looking down on me. We make eye contact, and before I can do anything.

She shakes her head, and walks away.