After complying with Seren's odd request, I took a moment to pause and observe her from the large window in the living room. She had taken off her sun glasses again. She might not have expected me to notice how quickly she had covered her face with them earlier, but I did. I noticed a lot of things about her.

Like right now, for instance. She was sitting idly, so still you could pass her off as a wax figure. The only hint of movements being her slow blinks, every other moment. The bags under her eyes that had been growing darker these last couple months were even more prominent today. She looked exhausted, which shouldn't be surprising considering how much she drank yesterday, but again, I noticed a lot about her. Like her ability to spring out of bed from a near blackout drunk like it had never happened.

I could have wondered what she was looking at so intently. I could have wondered what held her attention so completely. Instead, I had realized quite some time ago that most of the time, when Seren looks like she's fixated on something, she's inside her own head.

She might barely know me, as she had so bluntly stated earlier, and she was right. I don't think we've ever had a meaningful conversation in the year and a half I've been hanging out with her friends. But I felt like I knew her.

Well, I knew somethings about her. I got the feeling that she kept a lot of things hidden. She was like a puzzle that kept me occupied trying to decipher it. When you're around someone so often, it's not hard to pick up on their behaviour patterns. For anyone who's looking, anyways.

It was hard not to look at Seren.

I can remember the first time I saw her. It was my first day at my new high school, and I had met Cain in my science class. We clicked instantly, Cain and I. He wasn't the kind of kid I was expecting to meet at WestBridge. He wasn't entitled or rude. He didn't have everything handed to him. He didn't expect it, either.

Cain insisted on me meeting his group of friends at lunch time. He spent the walk there telling me about them. Tyler, Benji and Jax were the typical jocks. Noah and Olivia were attached at the hip. Trinity was on and off again with Tyler. I could tell he had a crush on Seren by the way he spoke about her, like he was enthralled by everything she did. He told me about the time they had hidden from the cops together after a party they were at had been busted. He told me she gathered the attention of every room she walked into.

I was expecting a life of the party girl, you know the ones I mean. The lively and vivacious girl that everyone can't help but smile at, because she raises the vibrations of every gathering. I had a clear picture of her in my mind. I expected to be annoyed by her.

She wasn't what I expected, not at all.

As we stood in front of the large table of my now friends, each kindly greeting me as Cain introduced us, I almost lost my breath when she turned to look at me. I could tell instantly why Cain was so captivated by her.

While you could compare pretty girls to flowers, or sunsets, those would do Seren injustice. Seren was like looking dead on at a powerful ocean wave, gaining height and swelling at the fullest. Beautiful, breath taking, and dangerous.

She looked at me so fleetingly, a split second. No acknowledgement passed her face, besides a small smile that didn't seem sincere in the slightest. Her beauty was undeniable. She wasn't cute, she wasn't pretty. She wasn't a girl that some would find good looking and some wouldn't. She was gorgeous, and everyone knew it. Especially considering the way most of the guys at the table directed their attention towards her, even when they were in the midst of a conversation with someone else. They stole quick glances at her, wondering if she was looking back at them. The exception was Noah, who seemed to have eyes only for Olivia.

The two girls, Olivia and Trinity were obvious in their subtle eye rolls and condescending tone whenever they spoke to her. Jealousy. I had expected Seren to return the cattiness, but was once again surprised when she seemed not to notice it. Just like she seemed not to notice the way Benji always found a reason to touch her, or Tyler's sexist comments, or the way Cain stared at her so often at times it was almost awkward.

I had briefly wondered if she and Jax were dating, from the way he looked at her. It was unlike Cain, who looked at her like she was a beautiful painting. Jax looked at Seren possessively, like he had a claim over her.

It only took me a few lunches at their table to realize that Seren was barely present in any of their conversations. The way she would zone out for minutes. The way her smile never reached her eyes. The way she rubbed her pocket and checked the time on her phone obsessively. The way she didn't seek out conversation with anyone, only responding when spoken to. Most of all, I realized that she seemed really sad. Sad, and distant.

And from all the time the others spent looking at her, I was surprised that no one else had realized the same thing.

I kept a close eye on her when possible after that realization.

I had missed the warning signs once, I wasn't about to do it again.