Lifting the Malboro from its signature red and white packaging, she removed her black Bic lighter from her jacket pocket. For about fifty cents a piece, the thing worked remarkably well; better than the ten dollar one she had bought at Spencer's a few months before. But, hell. At least the Spencer's one was pretty.

Flicking back the rounded black wheel, a flame appeared like magic before her eyes. Lifting it to the end of her cigarette butt, the end of the stick that sat between her polished teeth glowed. Letting her finger off the back of the lighter, the flame extinguished; succumbing to the black city night.

Standing against the cold concrete of the building, the hand not holding the cigarette tapped against the wall to a beat left stuck in her head. The night air was crisp, barely able to distinguish the girl's breath from the smoke she exhaled from her lungs. Raising the cig once more to her chapped lips, she flipped her long golden bangs from her chocolate eyes before inhaling deeply again. Calm consumed her as the poisonous smoke overtook her being. Stress swept off her like the tide pulls away from the ocean's edge. All her worries, all her anxieties, all her fears were being lifted for the short time that cigarette was lit and pressed against her lips.

Glancing up, her eyes traveled subconciously across the glass hallway the stood a floor above her. Connecting one building to the next, her gaze followed the familiar path she would often take to seek solace in a friend's room. As if her recent stress releaver did not work, she felt all her anxiety float back to her. Sighing heavily, growling at herself in defeat, she tossed the still usable cigarette aside. No amount of tobacco or nicotine could bring her peace. Hands shoved inside her pockets, she headed back into her dorm room.

As she walked past the front desk, passing the RA she saw twice a week but never bothered saying anything to, she met the one elevator and requested access to head upstairs. As she waited while the elevator took its sweet time responding to her plea, she leaned against the far wall. She stood under numerous flyers that dawned the wall, calling for helpless college kids' attention that they would never receive. Her eyes travelled over the words, reading them but not paying attention to the meanings put forth. Reminders about tickets for illegal parking; letters that were passed out to remind those without roommates to find roommates; notices about upcoming events and how the local sorority wanted girls to enter into it, proclaiming self-importance when everyone knew they housed nothing but cheerleader wannabe bimbos who failed everything in high school except fashion week.

Getting bored with the every day memoes that littered the dorm, she grew tired waiting for the elevator to reach her destination. Not willing to hike five flights of stairs, she stared annoyed at the buttons above the device. It was stuck, apparently, on floor three with no chance of moving anytime soon. Letting out a heavy sigh, the girl shifted her weight from side to side before looking in the opposite direction; her gaze seeking more entertainment in the hallways that led to the other dorm rooms on the main floor.

Staring dead ahead of her, her mud brown irises met with a dried blood painted door; the same doorway that led to her friend's room. Within her chest cavity, her heart began to ache. Sighing disgustedly, as if she could make herself believe she was aggrivated by the emotions her heart could not betray, she knew deep down that she longed to see that person. To hear his voice; curl up beside him and be in his company. She missed those days of holding his hand and laying on his lap watching re-runned episodes of Family Guy and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. She felt as if he no longer wanted her; like he was shoving her out of his life. She had convinced herself that she didn't want to be around him; that it would be better if they just kept her distance. Yet her brain could tell a lie, her lips could spin a fable, but her heart always knew the truth. She missed him terribly. But she felt too much of a fool to go see him. To run after him made her feel like a desperate little schoolgirl with no friends; who wanted the attention from the only one who would present it.

Turning away from the doorway and her memories, she looked back at the elevator just in time for it to grace her with its presence. With its signature bell sound as the doors shakily slid open, three bodies ejected themselves from the elevator. They passed the girl, barely recognizing her existence in their path. Sighing heavily, rolling her eyes and being reminded once again that she was invisible to the outside world, she slipped inside the cage of cable wires before pressing the button to rise to her own floor. As the cold uncaring grey doors moved mechanically shut in front of her, she glided into the corner of elevator to stand between two adjoining walls of metal. As her thoughts always were as she went to her own room, she hoped that that one person would take notice; would miss her long enough to come after her and seek her company; that, for once more, she would actually feel wanted by the boy she cared about.

Owari.