Suburbia

Lunch hour is a strange time of the day for me. Sometimes it’s my favourite part of the day, where no one will be talking at me or forcing me to remember things that I will never use. Sometimes it’ll be my least favourite part of the day, when some new rumours come out and I have to deal with sideways glances and pointing fingers. And sometimes I just get on with it - which is something I’ve found you have to do occasionally.

Today there are the obligatory cupped lips and whispers, but I’m really not in any mood to be caring. I walk quickly and try to focus on the rhythmic pattern of my feet meeting the ground, anything to keep my mind off the fact that today is the first time I will be eating lunch alone, without him.

I grab a tray and slide along the metal rack grabbing a plate of whatever. I don’t notice that there’s someone behind me until I’ve paid and turned to find a seat.

It’s Eve Valentine, the girl no one has ever heard talk.

I blink in surprise before steering myself around her and going to find a table to sit at. I stare blankly at the empty seat opposite me for a moment; a dark shadow seems to be encroaching my mind as I stare across the table.
Then suddenly, a lithe female body has stepped into my field of vision and slipped into the chair opposite me. Eve.

"Hey," she says.

I feel my eyes widen in surprise - Eve never talks to anyone, not pupils, not teachers, not anyone.

"Um, is it okay if I sit here?" she asks when I don’t say anything.

Her voice sounds different to how I would have imagined it.

"Yeah, sure, I guess." I tell her before shaking my head to clear it and turning back to my food.

We sit in silence for a few minutes, only my fork scraping against my plate breaks the quiet.

"I’m sorry about what Jackson said to you, I saw the whole thing." She says finally.

I look up at her; she is staring down around where my hands were.

"Why are you apologising? You didn’t do it." Her eyes flick up to me before falling back to my hands.

"I didn’t say sorry to you, I said I was sorry it happened."

I stare at her; she is biting her lip as if she is trying to hold back something she desperately wants to say.

"Right."

We fall into silence again; a silence that is neither awkward nor comfortable. She sits and pulls at the threads of her jumper, biting her lip, while I slowly eat.

Today is the first time without Craig.

I can feel the numb ache as that thought begins to settle in, and suddenly, I don’t want to be here anymore, can’t be here anymore. I quickly scrape back my chair and pick up my half eaten plate of food, desperate to get out of here, away from the cacophony of chatter and whispers and laughs and screams.

It’s then, as I’m getting up, that Eve speaks again. Her voice is different, it’s strange, almost disturbing. It’s hoarse and cruel, her lips curling into a malevolent smirk.

"I heard you were the one that found him." My fingers seem to loosen of their own accord and the cutlery I’m picking up falls to the table with a resounding clatter.

Of course, that was why. That was why she was here. That’s all I am now: the one that found him.

"I said, ‘I heard you were the one that found him.’" She repeats herself when I don’t reply. I stare at her; she is no longer looking at my hands or pulling at the threads of her jumper. Her eyes are focussed on me unflinchingly. There is no trace of the soft, caring look she had been giving me moments before; her eyes are cold and centred only on me. "What did he look like? Did his neck break? Or did he strangle himself? Was he blue? Were his eyes bulging? Did he tell you how he was going to do it before?"

Her eyes are shining with an almost savage glee.

I can feel my throat closing up as I try to choke out the words, "I- I- He didn’t, he didn’t tell me anything, he didn’t tell me," My voice breaks as I stumble out of my chair. I can feel everyone’s eyes following me as I trip in my haste to get out, to get away from all the questions and the accusing glares.

"Leland!" I hear Eve call to me, but I don’t turn, I refuse to look back.

I have to get away. I have to get away.