I headed out. My face was half-buried under my orange scarf as I fought the ice-cold breeze and walked next to the riverbanks. I spotted Alec further up ahead and called out to him. He turned around and beamed whilst cheerfully waving in my direction. It didn’t take long for him to join me. We strolled, with only each other for company, side-by-side amongst the break of dawn until we were close, arriving at our destination. I smiled. It seemed like we were both going to be early today.

A bicycle passed us by, which caused me to eye the opposite end of the sidewalk—at first with indifference, and then with cause for alarm once I thought I’d spotted what could have been a familiar face. The gasp that escaped me took Alec by surprise. He came to a halt. “Erika?” He asked me, “What did you see?"

The first thought that popped into my mind was, simply, How? How did Alec know a ghost of the past had perchance strolled into my world? The second, was noticing the undeniable fact that I’d been gaping towards the area she had tainted with her presence—and I guessed that answered my initial question.

"What did you see?" Alec observed me with worry written all over his features. His eyebrows were slightly pushed up together; he did that when he was trying to figure something out, like in chemistry class for instance, or, just as now, when he attempted to evaluate another person's state of mind.

I shrugged. I was still glaring at invisible marks latched onto the pavement. Must be my imagination, I insisted on telling myself. It is my imagination. She doesn't exist anymore. I am tired. It is nothing. It is nothing. She is gone. It is nothing. It is nothing. It is nothing. "It’s nothing," I puked the words out like they’d harmed me even though they could do no wrong. And then I grabbed at the seams of my bag and started walking again. Alec gave me a weird look. He did that sometimes, and I could never figure out why, but then again, he did a lot of other weird things, only he tended to go back to this one more often than the others.

I wish I’d gotten the courage to ask him. But I couldn’t. I thought there would be a specific time, for this and other answers, and this wasn’t that time.

We arrived in front of the cold, white building. I felt sick when we made our way towards the lockers. I took out a key that led to my belongings, opened the small, silver door, and retrieved what I needed to survive for today. Some of what I didn’t require had accidentally been crammed in beside two of my textbooks, yet when I noticed, it was already late, and I’d already slammed the door of my locker shut. I didn’t want to go back. I figured I could take it. Nothing was heavier than the weight on my shoulders anyway.

One could only sigh in this kind of situation, and sigh is what I did. More students were beginning to roam the corridors as the start of our lessons approached. Some were chattering away with their idiotic friends who would eventually stab them in their behinds, others were cramped into corners with many folders and sheets laid out before them; this could only mean two things: either they’d fallen asleep late last night, or they were very studious kids who treated their studies as if their life depended on it. I paused. The last thought I had made me scoff, for I then remembered the absurdity of our society, which made it so that the first couple years of our lives would likely determine how we lived the next seventy. What the hell was up with humanity?

The sound of a couple footsteps made their way into my ears. My eyes shot up to meet the emerald of Alec’s gaze. Every time I saw the shade, I couldn’t help but think—every time, always—that he was lucky to have it permanently carved into his person. And with each passing day, I found myself never wanting to look away even more. It was like getting lost into the woods. It had mesmerised me ever since the day we first met.

Someone bumped into my shoulder. One of my notebooks went flying. Alec’s gesture was almost mechanical when he caught it before its flaps had the opportunity of eating the floor. With a coy smile, he handed it back to me. This time, I evaded his gaze, and blurted out simple, “Thank you.”

"Don't worry about it," his voice was warm, it made me think of the sun.

The bell rang.

We parted ways.