Think of me

seven: the aftershock

Billie

At school the next day I couldn't really focus. My mind was whizzing from the night before. Three things happened that I was still in shock from:

1. I had gone to a concert to see one of my favourite artists in the world. I hardly had to travel, the arena was only about a twenty minute drive from my house. I wasn't at the front, but I was close enough to see Cody Sutton's features with my own eyes. His eyes, his nose, his mouth. I let myself have fun, I let go of my anxieties and my worries and I was care-free for most of the night. That was until those two boys noticed us.

2. Those boys had offered to stand behind us so we could see better, but obviously that wasn't their only intention. While Madison was having a whale of a time grinding on one of them, I was being groped by the other. No matter how much I tried to get away, he kept grabbing me.

3. A mysterious boy save me. He beat the two guys up so much that I thought he was going to kill one of them. When he finally stopped he disappeared without word. I didn't even find out his name.

That night was kind of a blur. First of all, I was completely star struck, Cody Sutton was my idol. But the events that happened during the concert seemed to have happened so fast that I couldn't fit two and two together. I know that I had made eye contact with the mysterious boy a few times, but I just assumed he was looking at Madison. Boys never look at me when she's around. But when our eyes met while I was being harassed, he stormed over to help me. The next thing I knew, he was gone. How could he have just left like that? I said thank you but he didn't seem to appreciate it.

-

At break I found Hailee in the common room. Her eyes showed a mixture of guilt and excitement. I was debating whether to tell her what had happened at the gig or not.

'Hey!' She called to me as I walked over to her. She moved her bag from the seat that she had been saving for me and I sat down, chucking my back under the table. 'How was the concert?' She sounded enthusiastic, like she was trying to show that she was interested, I could tell she still felt guilty about bailing on us. 

'It was okay.' I said, she was bouncing in her seat, so I decided to make it quick so that I could ask her about her date. 'There was a fight and-' I saw her face drop slightly, the guilt in her eyes was beginning to take over. 'I wasn't near enough to know what was going on so it didn't really matter.' I lied. I shrugged it off as nothing, relief flooded her eyes and the excitement soon returned. 'So! Tell me how it went with Lauren!' I made sure that I sounded as excited as I should be, even though I was completely distracted by the memories of the night before.

'She beat me to it!' She finally exploded. 'I was going to ask her after the meal but then she just did it right at the start and I said yes! It was so cute, the restaurant was amazing and-' She rambled on for the whole of break about the date, and the restaurant, and Lauren. I pretended to listen, nodding and smiling where appropriate. But my mind was elsewhere. I couldn't stop picturing the events of the night before, and those eyes. Those emerald green eyes.

For the whole day my eyes searched for the boy. I could tell he was around my age, maybe slightly older, so I figured that maybe he went to my school. But surely I would have recognised him? On my way home, my eyes flicked to anyone I saw with dark hair. 

I'd had no luck by the time I got home so I decided to distract myself with last minute homework that was due for the next day. Typical of me to not get my homework done early, it always left me feeling super stressed. After about two hours of doing homework, I decided to give myself a break.

I flopped onto my bed and grabbed my phone out of my back pocket. I turned it on and just flicked through Instagram. Once I got bored with that I opened Snapchat. I didn't have that many friends that I spoke to outside of school or work, so I never usually had many people to reply to. Unlike Madison, who's Snapchat was always full of messages, over half of them from boys that she liked to chat to for no reason. Instead, I started clicking through people's stories. Then it dawned on me that I might have people on Snapchat that were at the gig. If I could find the mysterious boy on someone's story, maybe I could find out his name. I started skipping through stories quickly, pausing on any that looked like they were in the crowd. I studied each photo and video, looking for a dark-haired boy wearing all black. After about half an hour of looking, I had been through everyone's stories that I was friends with on the app. No luck.

Just as I was about to put my phone down, it started buzzing. Madison's contact photo appeared on the screen so I clicked the green button to answer her FaceTime call. 

'Hey girl!' She shouted as soon as our faces appeared onto each other's screens.

'Hiya.' I replied.

'So, I was at school today and I got a message from this guy called Ben. He went to my old school and I think we were in maths together or something.' She began chatting away. 'Anyway, he's invited me to a Christmas party that he's having and he said I could have a plus-one!' She finished.

'Ooh that's exciting! So, who are you going to take?' I asked, pretending I had no idea it was me.

'You obviously!' She said, she clearly didn't understand my sarcasm. 'Who else would I take?'

'I know, I know.' I said, laughing. 'I was only joking. I'd be pissed if you asked someone else anyway.' 

'Yay! We haven't been to a party in ages.' She squealed. I gave her a confused look.

'We went to one about three weeks ago.' I said.

'That one doesn't count because I made out with Luke Gillies.' She shook her head. I laughed at her again. Of course she did, and of course she regrets it. Just like every party we go to.

'Well this time I'm not going to let you kiss anyone, because I know you'll regret it in the morning.' I promised.

'Ugh, fine! Maybe it will be for the best.' We both giggled. We chatted a bit more, discussing potential outfits and hairstyles. Eventually her parents got home so she had to hang up.

'Okay, well I'll see you on Friday!' I said, then I pressed the red button to hang up.