A Boy and His Guitar

The next few days, Clarity was numb. She didn't feel anything, not depression, not sadness, not anger. She felt like a robot: no emotions.

Niall tried to talk to Clarity, and when that didn't work, Niall sent Jessie to talk to her instead. Clarity barely talked those days. She just wanted to leave. To go to somewhere she didn't have to be worried about boys or bullies, or.. Life.

"Can you PLEASE talk to Niall, Clarity?" Jessie asked one day. Clarity shook her head and ignored her friend.

Clarity felt like she couldn't talk anymore. Even when she tried at home, with her mother, nothing would emit from her mouth. Clarity's mother presumed it was a phase, and thought nothing of it.

At night, Clarity would cry herself to sleep. Mostly cry, though. Ever night she would write down more and more names on a paper, becoming a three page, front and back list. She would replay all the humiliating things she had gotten herself into over the years.

And worst, was falling for Niall.

You can't stop yourself from falling, but you can't bring yourself back up alone, Clarity wrote in her English notebook one day. It was true, and Clarity's English teacher showed the whole class. Clarity learned Irish, one way or another, and started to fluently speak it, although at home it was all English.

Clarity usually only stayed in the lunch room to get to the courtyard, where she would always find herself, leaning against the old oak tree. It seemed to comfort her.

She would always lean back and close her eyes, thankful for the peacefulness of Ireland. America wasn't like that at all, though she missed her home country.

Niall had told her to go back, though.

Clarity debated everyday whether she was angry at Niall or at the world, and decided both. For many reasons that had been obvious.

Clarity started getting notes in her locker from Niall, but always threw them away at the end of the day.

Niall had watched the girl, feeling a great deal of guilt, but he was also mad at Clarity. She had used him, or he thought, twisting up his emotions and making him fall for her in so little time, and then leaving because of a disease he couldn't help.

The nerve of both of them.

Notes

Filler.