Don't Blink | ✓

010

With the hands of the clock striking a little after nine, Justin slid through the female dorm doors as a small group of girls noisily left. All of them dressed in short skirts and tiny shirts as if they were going out despite the school-wide curfew. 

He decided against the elevator and made his way to the steps. Before he knew it he was down the hall a ways and stood right in front of Blink's door. A quiet knock got no response so out of pure impulse Justin found his fingers wrapped around the doorknob and his foot in between the door. He didn't know whether to be surprised or not that her door was unlocked at this time of night. 

Immediately the cool air hit him like a ton of bricks and the strong breeze of Blink's industrial fan is what made him notice the dozens of pages of Blink's drawings fluttering to the ground. 

"Blink?" His raspy voice resonated around the room and back to him. 

He earned no response, but that silence is what allowed his keen ears to hear the muffled sounds of whining up from the attic of Blink's room. 

Starting near the ladder, Justin became worried when a large thump followed by the sound of something crashing flying down the ladder. 

When he reached the top, he was astonished at the scene in front of him. 

All the materials that once cluttered the white wooden desks were spread out on the floor in a multitude of arrangements as if Blink had swiped the length of her arms across each one. The drawers were also emptied and open, their contents mixed into the ones from the desktops. Luckily the mural on the wall was untouched despite the collage of open, spilled paint on the wooden floor. 

Justin couldn't miss the balled up figure of Blink curled into the corner. Her face was shoved into her hands which clawed painfully at each side. Her back rose and fell as if she was crying, but besides the echo of the large fan running downstairs, the room was quiet. 

Stepping carefully over a few bottles of open paint, Justin made his way towards the sobbing brunette before he kneeled next to her figure. Placing a hand to her shoulder, Blink jumped momentarily, ripping her hands from her face as she stared with tired eyes at Justin. 

"Blink..." Justin didn't even know where to begin as he slowly shook his head and turned to look back over his shoulder at the mess. "Did Rellik do all of this?" 

"Justin" she wiped at her tears harshly, hating that he was seeing her in such a state. "I can't find them." 

"You can't find what, Blink?" He questioned. 

"I've looked everywhere for them..." Her hands knotted her hair as she spun out of Justin's grip onto her knees to get up and search a desk that was already practically empty and torn apart. "I had them in a portfolio in that corner" She pointed to the corner by the desk she was standing at. 

"Then I brought them to the library, but they said they're not there" she wiped again at her tears. 

Justin's mouth opened and closed multiple times before he spoke up. "If you tell me what you're looking for, I can help you find it Blink" 

"It's too late" her gaze moved from the floor to his own chocolate orbs and for a few seconds Justin felt hypnotized. He suddenly felt her sadness although he had no idea what was even occurring or how serious the situation really was. 

"I had these paintings" she gulped before she dipped to sit back on the floor, this time with her back against one of the white desks. "I have a buyer who pays for them and sells them at an auction. If they don't get them by a certain date, I don't get any of the money. I need that money" her voice raised towards the end in frustration. 

"How much money do you need Blink?" Justin moved to sit beside her as he dodged the insane amounts of split paint. "I have a bit saved up...maybe I can spot you the amount—"

"You have an extra fifteen thousand saved up?" She laughed a humorless laugh as her head banged back against the unpolished wood. 

"Jesus, Blink. What in the world do you need fifteen grand for?" Justin's eyes snapped to hers as if to demand the answer out of her. 

"It's really none of your business" she snapped out in ugly defense. 

The two sat in silence before Blink heard the shuffle of Justin standing to his feet and ridding his pants of the imaginary dust. "You're right" he sighed. "Maybe after class tomorrow I can come help you clean some of this up" he gestured to the mess beneath his feet. 

"Are you sure you won't be too busy with Sarah" Blink cheesed falsely earning a scoff of disgust from Justin as he took to climbing the latter. 

"I'm nice to all of you and this is what I get" Justin muttered, but fortunately Blink caught it just before he disappeared from her sight. 

Scrambling from the spot she sat in, she disregarded the paint bleeding into the knees of her jeans and the throbbing of her head. She was frustrated and panicking and taking it out on Justin hadn't been the solution or relieved her pain as she had wished. 

"Justin I didn't mean that!" She screamed down the latter, but her words were blocked successfully by the fan's large blades and the sound it created. 

The sound she didn't miss was the slam of the door as she was left alone.