Episode two

When she got to campus, two students were still slapping each other. Probably fighting over a guy—she didn’t care. Even if they ended up scratching each other raw, that was their problem, not hers. She had her own issues to deal with, so why get involved, right?

"Amanda Leigh!"

A familiar voice called out to her. She glanced back and saw her friend Lexen Mae.

"Hey, what’s up?" Lexen said as they walked together down the hallway.

What did her friend even mean by "what’s up"?

"What do you mean 'what’s up'?"

"With your life?"

She didn’t answer. Instead, she just shot Lexen a sharp look and walked ahead. Lexen chased after her, calling her name.

"Amanda, I was just asking. Sheesh, you’re so grumpy," Lexen said, pretending to be a little upset.

"I’m fine. Why do you ask?"

But was she really fine? She didn’t think so. Maybe in some ways—she went to a private school, wore nice clothes, and ate good food. But in other parts of her life, she wasn’t okay. Did she ever want to be a puppet for her relatives? Even so, she was still grateful to her aunt and uncle—they’d taken care of her and treated her like their own daughter, probably because they didn’t have a girl of their own.

"Why are you mad?"

"I’m not mad."

She wasn’t the kind of friend who was clingy or affectionate. She often looked angry, but she never hurt anyone—depended on how people treated her.

"On your period or something?" Lexen joked, giving her a sympathetic smile.

"Tch!" she muttered, shooting her friend another sharp look. Yeah, she didn’t like jokes much. She felt like she was boring and hard to make laugh. Was she bitter? She thought so. Who knew anymore—she didn’t even feel like she knew herself.

"Did you hear the news from yesterday?" Lexen started. "That crime that happened yesterday at the—"

"Lexen, I don’t care about that stuff!"

She raised her voice at her friend and kept walking.

"Hey, you’re being so snobby today. Wait up!"

A little while later, Amanda bumped into someone—a guy who looked about her age.

"Ouch!" she yelped; the collision was pretty hard. The guy was wearing a hoodie and had his back to her, and he didn’t even say sorry.

"Wait!" she shouted, but he didn’t seem to hear her even though she was loud.

"I said wait!"

The guy stopped suddenly and turned his head a little, but she couldn’t see his whole face—only half of it.

"Don’t you know how to say sorry?" she snapped.

Lexen tried to calm her down. Her friend knew her well—she hated being looked down on or letting people walk all over her. Especially when someone bumped into her and didn’t apologize.

"Sorry," the guy said, still facing away. His voice was low and cold—like a radio DJ’s. That was all he said before hurrying off. She tried to call him back to say more.

"Hey, hold on a second!"

"Amanda, let it go," Lexen said, stopping her.

"Let it go? Did you see that—he bumped into me!"

"But he said sorry."

"No! I don’t care about his 'sorry'!"

Amanda’s voice was so loud it could probably be heard all over campus.

Who was that hooded guy anyway? Amanda wondered to herself. That jerk—he bumped into me like it was nothing.

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