september 21st
.✫*ﾟ･ﾟ｡.☆.*｡･ﾟ✫*.
dear maia,

there's a new girl.

i was sitting in spanish, like normal, and she entered. with messy dark hair, a smattering of freckles, and a backpack slung over one shoulder, it's hard to describe exactly how she looked - if i had to pick a word, i'd say 'careless'. she had a careless look to her, you see, but honestly, i think that's all it was; she looked more calculated if anything, perfectly poised in front of the class, ready to smile and say the right things at the right time, play her cards right in the complex gambling game that was high school.

so i kept this in mind all lesson. i kept it in mind when i saw her introduce herself as jessie chiaro, when she sat down next to daniella swan, when she received full marks on our pop quiz. i kept it in mind when i saw her laughing with travis and bella and mason, and i kept it in mind when she didn't make eye contact the whole lesson despite that i was the only person who smiled at her when she walked in.

because everyone does things for a reason, right?

after that, lunch was pretty boring - i went to the library and worked on my history project, until somebody else came in - the only other sixth former sitting by themselves.

guess who it was, maia?

i mean, you can't exactly answer, so that was fucking pointless, really.

but i'm sure you would've guessed right, so let's continue as if you did, shall we?

wow, maia! yes, it was jaime. how did you know?

all jokes aside though, it was interesting. he wasn't the sort of person who i would've expected to be in the library during a perfectly sunny lunchtime - i'd thought he'd be outside, playing football or something.

guess that goes to show just how little i know about the guy, right? really, you'd think i of all people would avoid judging people based on how they look, or act, or.. were in the past, i guess. forgiveness just doesn't.. come easy to me.

but he was fine - he said hi to me when he came in, and asked to sit down.

'if we're sitting together, it might actually look like we have friends.'

'i have friends!'

'yeah, well, i don't, really, so let me pretend for a little while, okay?'

at that, i fell silent.

it didn't last for long, though - jaime never was silent for that long, so he wouldn't let me be silent either.

'so, skye, whatcha doing?'

'i was working on my project,' i said, with emphasis on the 'was'.

he rubbed the back of his neck guiltily. 'ah, sorry.'

i sighed, and closed the lid of my computer. 'so. why are you here? and talking to me?'

'believe it or not, i actually have a life outside of my idiotic group of so called "friends".'

'not pleased with them, i see,' i said, and smiled despite myself. it was so easy to get back into our familiar rhythm, the rhythm that i hadn't had with him for at least five years yet somehow still miss.

what changed, i wonder? what happened to us?

life, i guess.

life happened.

me and jaime talked for a little while, then separated near the end of lunch - i had a free period, he didn't.

after studying for a while, i headed back up to the lunch hall, as after school i was organising a bake sale with the lgbt club, and i say i was, but really, it was more mare. she's been an absolute godsend to the club - not a patch on what we used to be, though, but still pretty great.

so that was good, i guess.

we raised around a hundred pounds for charity, and next friday we're going to choose what charity to give it to. something lgbt related, i assume. stonewall and the like.

it's all the same as it used to be, really.

life moves on.

you're just not in mine, anymore.

love,
skye <3