Chapter 1

My knuckles were ashen, I could feel the slightly spiking pings of pain on the edges of my hand.

The first class of the day had ended, and there was an hour-long break before the next one started.

I was having a little smoke break, before I would begin my daily trudge around campus, while listening to music on my iPod.

A song I had recently become a fan of just came on, in my playlist.

It was called Take Me Out, by Franz Ferdinand.

The beginning of the song was a little boring for me, but the intro raised the hairs on my arms and neck.

I was leaned on a wall in the courtyard behind the cafeteria portion of the University.

With my eyes closed, I listened to it, trying to take in all the information being presented to my ears.

A beautiful guitar riff.

Then the words I looked forwards to the most.

"So if you're lonely…"

I took another drag of my cigarette.

"You know I'm here, waiting for you…"

By the time the song was done, my cigarette was almost at the butt.

With a flick, it landed on the floor.

The heel of my shoe hit it quickly after.

With the cigarette out, I listened to a few more songs before I would start aimlessly walking around.

My eyes were closed for majority of the time I spent listening to the songs.

That's why I didn't catch her leaning against the wall next to on me.

When I opened my eyes to look around, she was there.

To my left, arms crossed, with her bangs covering her eyes.

She had on a baggie hoodie, which was grey, like mine.

Her presence was surprising, to me.

"Well hot damn… when did you get there?"

The response she had for me was nonchalant.

"Maybe five minutes ago… probably."

I pulled back my left sleeve to check the time on my black digital watch.

30 minutes had somehow passed.

"So you like Gorillaz?"

Her question caught my attention fast.

I held my right wrist with my left hand, behind my back.

I replied, trying to imitate her level.

"Oh, you like them too?"

This was her third time talking to me this week.

I've done my best to remain almost unseen, but she, somehow, always sees me.

She's been the constant so far.

I've been racking my brain for a while, trying to figure out the why of it.

No answer has come to me yet.

Our conversation was going smoothly.

While absent-mindedly pulling sentences out of my ass, something she said caught my attention.

"Yeah, I'm going to see Smashing Pumpkins later this month."

My eyes widened at what she said.

All I thought was:

"Holy shit, she has a ticket to a Smashing Pumpkins concert?"