His hands were gentle as he left light strokes against my cheeks. We sat cuddled in each other's embrace and blended into the tranquil silence that filled the room.

"Leigh, babe."

I blinked once. Now attentive, a peculiar frown made its way to my face as I arched my head left, behind, and as I returned forward, glanced to the right. This boy and I... we were alone. In a living room that was dim-lit with no parents in sight. The sofa displayed itself vibrantly. Bright red leather cased its cushions and the inflated curve at the edge reflected dark shadows over the ground.

"Leigh, what's wrong? What are you looking at?"

I gave the person before me a thorough look. He was relatively tall, well-built underneath his ebony suit, with spunky dirty blonde hair recently gelled back.

"Hi.." I smiled at him. I noticed he was still holding onto me. His hands were now caressing my hips, sweetly massaging my legs in ways I have never been touched. If memory served me right, his hands were cupping my face not too long ago.

The boy gave me a wearied smile and tilted his head. "Hi. Did you space out again, Leigh?"

The girl he kept calling... who was she? A ghost looming behind me? Are we going down that path..?

"I'm not sure." [—who you're referring to], I wanted to add. I heard myself letting words stumble out of my mouth when I didn't even organize my thoughts yet.

"That's alright, come closer." Before I could respond, his grip on me tightened carefully and pulled us so close, I could feel his whole body against mine. The boy wrapped his arms around my neck and held onto my body, rubbing up and down my arm.

"Must be from yesterday. Get some sleep. I'll be right here when you wake up."

"Where are you going?"

"What?"

"*****."

... *****?

"Shh, nowhere. I'm here."

▂▂▂▂▂

My eyes fluttered open. Slowly, I felt the warmth of the sun's rays from my window against my exposed skin. It took a few moments for me to register I was in a new setting, and that it was suddenly bright back in reality.

Groaning, I tossed to the other side and tried to resume sleeping. Tried to un-pause the dream in my mind. Whatever I just experienced... it was nice. While I still couldn't remember most of the details, I did remember longing for someone. And that person held me close for a long time. I felt safe in my sleep.

I pushed myself up and sat there with my arms hanging on my kneecaps, furrowing my brows in thought. The last part of my dream was muffled. I could have sworn whoever I was in the dream was about to spill a name.

I slid out of bed and rushed the process to get out of my apartment. While brushing my teeth with one hand and ruffling my hair with the other, I caught sight of the tiny, silver locket hanging around my neck. A single red ruby stone was embedded in the design.

I tied my dark hair into a high ponytail, baby hairs naturally curling to the front, and to top that off with a wavy and beach-hair tail to complete the slight tomboy look I always went for in public.

The more I looked at myself in the mirror, the more I came back to reality. I started contemplating images in my head from the dream and questioning the lengths that my brain would go to to prove to me that I was an isolated, secluded existence.

I realized how unrealistic the dream was.

Fancy sofa. Large living room. Lights that had the function to dim. Wine glasses on the table. Suits and dresses. No parents. Big flat screen TV. Glass-case table. Milky cream rug, spot-clean.

I scoffed as I changed into my school attire. "Keep dreaming," I rolled my eyes, "Fancy life you've conjured up, huh Risa? This shabby, hell of an apartment ain't tip-top enough for you?"

I shut all the doors upstairs and paced to the living room where I seized myself a quick snack. I paused as I came across the vacant living room.

A week had progressed since that incidence. The team carried out the assignment per usual rewinding a few days back with little to no challenge. We interchangeably exchanged updates and directions to one another. It was a hectic week, but we nailed down the records of the traffickers and other paltry sites they've set up across the country. The government backing us up stepped in from there and went into legal cases and trials, and later passed acts to temporarily provide relief for the victims and their families.

And the dead man? Hadn't appeared once after that night. He was all talk and no action after all, I expected nothing less.

With a final scan of my area, I left my apartment and locked the door, climbing into my car for a lengthy ride to campus.

▂▂▂▂▂

I had to squint to make out the four blurry figures standing at the curb of the road in the middle of the highway.

I was at a red stoplight at the moment, but just a few distances forward you could see these students... throwing hands at one another. Were they legit fighting? On the way to school? Are they trying to kill themselves going at it where cars could run them over?

"If you're going to punch, punch correctly punk. Why tuck your thumb in?" I scowled as I shook my head in disappointment. I watched on a little more and sadly the finger fellow got thrown against the road-crossing pole. I sighed. "Oh, there he goes. One down."

It was interesting while it lasted, but it didn't concern me. Just because they had my school's logo on their varsity jackets, doesn't mean anything... or that one of them looked familiar... or that my dude just started crawling on the concrete to get his hands on a broken glass shard from someone's window that had shattered... what was he... going do with that piece of glass...?

"Ah shit."

The lights turned green.

My car started forward before suddenly, I grabbed the stirring wheel and made a swift u-turn around. Confused, I sped back down the road from where I was before and eventually u-turned again to pulled over next to the group of students I had observed just moments ago. Seatbelts off, I turned off the engine and removed my keys, pushing open the car door. I hopped out and crossed around the front of my car, eyes trained on the scene before me.

A girl was standing in front of the boy getting beat up from earlier. Though she acted as a shield towards the guy throwing fists, she seemed pretty tired. They all looked a tad bit older than I was, probably in their second or third year of college.

The fallen boy with the shard pushed himself up, unaware of me behind him, and began growling. My eyes shot wide open when I saw him aim the glass high behind him as his eyes fixated on the boy behind the girl.

He charged. I slid forward, lowered down, and thrust my leg out to trip him, catching the glass shard as it fell out of his hand. I tossed the thing far behind me as I paced towards the main scene. The guy before the two other students grabbed onto the girl's shirt and began pulling it up, spitting words into her face as she winced.

I narrowed my eyes and ran up to jab his arms out the way, pushing his side so that he stumbled far away enough for me to help the girl fix her shirt. Her dark, glistening eyes stared into mine in confusion as she peered over my shoulders at the guys I disabled.

The boy behind her, blonde hair, huffed out a small amount of blood in his mouth as he dusted himself off the ground.

The girl began, "How did you—"

"Who the hell are you?" came a disgruntled voice behind me, "did we ask?"

I turned around and met eyes with the two other boys, one holding onto his ribs, the other cracking his neck from face-planting the concrete. The shard guy had now reached deep into his pockets for a pocketknife.

I blew out a low whistle as I accessed the situation. "Imma need you to put that knife down, and take five strides back. Both of you." Naturally, I took position in front of the girl.

"And who are you?"

"Someone who can find your pressure point in a split second and stop your heart from beating. Don't try my self-defense, amateur." My eyes bored into the boy's, and he frowned as if he acknowledged me telling the truth.

The other guy decided to jump in, however. "Do you even know what this is about? You're defending the wrong side."

"Get back in your car and go to school." I sneered, "I could care less which side is right. But you, smart one, almost earned yourself a trip to jail. Attempted murder doesn't fly past unnoticed under the law, mate."

"Smart mouth," the first boy scoffed, dragging his body to his car in defeat.

As I watched both of them enter the car that the four of them were originally in, I commented under my breath, "Smart move."

The car started and drove on in the direction I was going to get to school. I turned back around at the two other students and crossed my arms. "Need a lift?" I gestured towards my own car that had been untouched for several minutes.

The girl and guy glanced at each other before the girl looked at me and nodded. "Thanks," she managed to say as the three of us settled into my car.

As soon as I started driving, I stole glimpses at the two students in my backseat from my inside front rear mirror. The boy was gazing out the window, silent and absorbed in his thoughts. The girl, on the other hand, was massaging the small bruises already forming on her dark skin.

When we made eye contact with each other, a strange thing happened.

"Call me Kenya."

"I'm Risa."

Surprised that we said it at the same time, I let out an amused smile and she a quiet laugh. I focused my eyes back on the road after that, but I felt the tension lighten up a bit in the car.

"What happened to you two?" I asked, "Also rest assured, we're from the same school. I'll get us there so take a breath."

Kenya nodded and sighed before leaning back into the seat, frowning at the boy beside her. "I wouldn't know," she kept her eyes on him, "Tried to take a nap before we reached school, and next thing you know I'm thrown out a vehicle on the highway for a fistfight."

"Hey blondie," I whistled as I glanced at him from the mirror, "You haven't talked at all. Tell me something, will you? I agreed to give you a lift because I want to know what happened this morning. I can very well drop you out my vehicle as well."

His face contorted into irritation before turning to look at me. While I wasn't looking, if I had I would've realized that his eyes came back to life the longer he took me in.

"... I owed them money," he started quietly, still looking at me cautiously, "I asked for money for school purposes and I couldn't pay it off in time. We got into a heated argument in the car and it turned into... well you saw the rest."

"And those guys, do you know them well?" I pressed.

Kenya rolled her eyes. "I doubt it. He just goes online and connects to people in our school. I tell him a thousand times that it's a bad idea but who listens to a girl, right?"

I gave her an interested look before pulling into the school parking lot.

▂▂▂▂▂

We walked into school and before we reached the front desk, I slowed down and said under my breath, "Take these. Don't question it and keep a straight face."

Kenya glanced down and saw the fake doctor notes I produced from my pockets.

"Seriously?"

I shrugged, "Hope you don't mind what type of doctor I put down. It could be worse... I mean, mine says I'm down for diarrhea."

Kenya took the slips from my hands and shoved them in her butt pockets. "That's illegal in school, Risa."

I shook my head and made a comedic expression of disbelief, "I'm sure cheating on a test is too but do you speak about that?"

She let out a light laugh and led the three of us to the front desk to get written up a warning and to have our late arrival marked in our records permanently.

"Goody two shoes," I whispered as we walked down the hall.

She rolled her eyes and smiled, turning towards the boy behind us. "I'm heading off to class upstairs." She left us and it was the boy and me all by ourselves.

"What class do you have?" I asked him.

"Calc," he answered, fixing his hair from the fight earlier.

I raised my eyebrows. "With Island?"

He nodded.

He's in my class, I thought with a frown. Was that the reason why... he seemed familiar?

"Care to spill a name?"

He stopped in the middle of the hallway and looked at me silently. Noticing that I was walking by myself, I peered behind me and waited for him with puzzled eyes.

"I'm Casey." That might be the first time I saw a positive expression on his face as his lips formed a smile.

"Casey." I mouthed, tilting my head down a bit in thought.

"*****."

... *****?

"Shh, nowhere. I'm here."

▂▂▂▂▂