School

   Blue and gray. Blue and gray. Blue and gray. Blue and gray. A two toned world.

   Behind the school, beneath the shade of foliage, I stare wondrously at the sky. I had forgotten how blue it gets.

   I look down at my empty hands, my stomach complaining that they have no food. I apologize to my stomach, I am just a poor white girl who hadn't had money for food this week. It will be a long week.

   Maybe my mom will take pity on me and give me some food to eat. At my house, those who don't work, don't eat, and no longer have a roof over their heads.

   All my clothes are old and used. They are not so much a necessity but a want; clothes can be expensive and I have to pay for everything I need. I pay my dad a commission for letting me live in his house, it goes for anywhere between one- fifty and four hundred an month, based on how much money he needs.

   I close my eyes and lean back against the tree. I ignore the pain in my stomach, a dull burning ache.

   "Found you!" It's the voice of the boy from the cafe, I guess he wasn't lying when he said he went to Roselight.

   I hear a soft thump as he sits somewhere close to me; his soft breath is audible from the distance that he set.

   My eyes flutter open and I want to shut them again, the sky is a blindingly bright blue. The color is burned forever in my retinas.

   I turn away from the sky, toward my feet. A pair of legs lay next to mine, black skinny jeans tucked into army lace-ups, feet slowly flipping back an forth like a pair of windshield wipers. My old black converse are deadly still next to his.

   I glance over at him and he's imitating my previous pose, eyes closed and face upturned into the warmth of the sun. He sat close to me, a scant sixteen centimeters away. It's uncomfortable, having him so close to me.

   As if he can feel my gaze, he turns to me, eyes opening, and a warm smile on his face. He leans closer, looks into my eyes, his fiery pits of blue, and whispers with faint coffee breath, "Hi Hazle."

   I lean back a bit, out of range of his light breathing, "What do you want?"

   "Nothing. Just want to be your friend."

   "I'm pretty sure 'nothing' and being my friend are completely different things." I point out, looking at the dull, gray grass.

   He laughs, but not in a mocking way, "That's true. I guess I just want to be your friend."

   I pull a few stands of gray and let them fall back to earth on a light breeze.

   A voice, yelling, quiet from where we sit, breaks our silence, "Jacob! Jacob, get your a*s over here!"

   I hear the grass shift as the boy stands, "Sorry, I gotta go, I'm being called. See you, Hazle"

   He runs off under the azure sky to meet whoever was yelling for him.

   So. Jacob. His name is Jacob.