Sunday - January 5th - 7:03 pm |
"Will that be all?" The cashier asked me. His voice gravely and low.
I nod in response as he tells me my total, "$16.07" I hand him my money before grabbing my stuff and leaving out the connivence store.
I throw my hoodie over my head as it was slightly cool outside and little wet from the rain earlier.
I walk slowly in no rush to make it home. My family can be exhausting sometimes.
"Hey.." I hear a low voice, but don't turn around. The last thing I need is some weirdo trying to kidnap me.
"Hey?" The voice says a little bit loud
I sigh to myself and stop for a moment ready to ignore him again but I couldn't. I turn around defeatedly "Yes?" I say, as I make eye contact with a guy, who surprisingly didn't look much like a weirdo, in-fact he looked pretty young... but you can't judge a book by its cover.
"Do you have any food?" he says, his voice cracking just slightly.
The guy walks forward slowly, just under the street light revealing his slightly curled brown hair and chiseled face, it was dirty and what looked like a bruise blossomed on his cheek, just under his eye.
It didn't make him look any less attractive, but I kept my guard up nonetheless.
"Do you have any food on you? I'm kind of locked out of the house at the moment.."
"All I have is a candy bar."
"That's fine.." He responds. "I don't need anything luxurious." He speaks with a small smile.
I dig through my bag and pull out a chocolate bar. It's the only one I had, considering my mom had only gave me enough to grab stuff for her and something extra for myself.
I was a little upset considering I love chocolate but he probably needed it more than me.
"Thank you." He says, the genuine clear in his voice as he grabs the candy.
"No problem." I respond, not sure if I should walk away or continue talking with this stranger.
A part of me curious as to why someone who looks to be around my age seems to be struggling.
"Something on your mind?" The guy asked, breaking me out of my thoughts.
"N- no." I stuttered out, realizing that I was staring, "have a great night." I say before finally walking away.
"You too." I hear him say.
7:57 pm |
"Food is almost ready. Did you get what I told you?" My mom ask, as I take off my shoes.
"Yes ma'am. Here you go." I say, handing her the bag.
"Your father wants to speak to you. He's in the study." She says quickly, grabbing the bag and rushing back to the kitchen in a fast motion.
I nod, not saying anything as I make my way past the stairs and down the hall. "Dad?" I say knocking on the door.
"Come in." Is all he says.
I open the door and shut it after entering, "you wanted to speak to me?"
"Yes." He says closing his laptop and places his hand on-top, his finger intertwined. "Finals are in a few months, yeah?"
I nod in response already knowing where this was going. "Five more months.."
"We've talked about this plenty of times and I'm gonna continue to say it because it is important that you pass." He says sighing before continuing, "Have you applied to Kyoto or Harvard?"
"Not yet, I don't know if I wanna stay here or go abroad."
"Well you don't have forever to think about it." He says walking around his desk and leaning on the edge, "you have till mid May—four whole months, before your deadline ends and I'll need an answer. This is important."
"Close the door on your way out." He says, when I don't respond.
8:44 |
"Dinner is ready." My mom say, as she cracks open my door.
"Not hungry." I mumble.
She sighs in response and makes her way back downstairs.
I hear her and my dad converse with each other, him skeptical about my presence and her reassuring him that its fine,
"He doesn't have to eat tonight if he's not hungry. It's okay." She continued to say.
I hear nothing else and decide to shut my door before plopping on my bed and drifting off to sleep.
Monday - January 6th - 5:00 |
I groan at the sound of my alarm going off, pulling the covers around me tighter as the room always feels colder in the morning.
"Elliot! It's time for school!" I hear my father's voice outside of my door.
"I'm awake." I say grumpily.
I get up with a yawn, sighing lowly to myself before I begin getting ready for school.
I brush my teeth, wash my face, change my clothes and then fix my hair a little. Before going downstairs and grabbing whatever my mom made for breakfast.
"How'd you sleep?" She say's as she places a plate of waffles in front of me.
"I slept okay." I respond as I take a bite out of the thick waffle.
Are I finish, I put my shoes and backpack on, "have a good day at school." My mom says right before I shut the door.
6:15
I arrive at school. Today marks the day of the start of our second semester.
I walk to the front office and up to the front desk, "Where can I get my Schedule?" I ask.
"Right, here." She says, as she begins to look through some papers. "What grade?"
"I'm a senior." I say in response.
She nods, "first and last name?"
"Elliot Mashca."
"Found it. Here you go." She says handing me a paper, "have a good day."
I exit the office as my eyes scan the paper.
Speech and debate
Physical Education
Chemistry 2
world history
The bell rings signaling me that Class is stsrting soon.
"Fuck." I mumble under my breath already?
I rush trying to find the speech and debate class.
6:31 |
"Everyone! Please take your seats. If you look at the desk you will see that I've already assigned you seats." The teacher says just ad I walk in. "My name is Mrs. Callaway, and I'll be your teacher for this semester of Speech and Debate."
I look for my desk as she speak listening intently.
I finally find my seat in the back of the class.
The bell rings signaling that anyone who isn't inside of the class is counted as late.
"Let's get started. How about we start with some introductions?" Mrs. Callaway says, with a smile." Everyone stand up and please introduce yourselves."
Everyone stands up and the introductions begin.
It finally gets to me and I look round nervously before introducing myself. "Hello..my name is Elliot and I'm a Senior."
At the end everyone takes their seats again and class finally begins.
8:15 |
Once the bell rings everyone gathers their stuff and quickly exits the class ready to conversate out in the hall.
I head straight to my next class not really having a reason to stop.
"Good morning class. We're not really gonna be doing much today because I doubt you guys brought any gym clothes. Just lock your stuff up in the locker rooms and we'll start with something basic."
I walk in the locker room which already had a few people in it. I begin putting my stuff in a random locker just ignoring whatever occupied their attention. My only focus was getting my school work done so I could go home.
"Did.... do that to your face?" I hear someone's teasing voice directed to another person. My eyes kept going in and out as I tried to block out the conversation not wanting to get involved.
"No...I just fell." The guy didn't even sound sure he believed himself.
This school had a huge bullying problem and never did anything about it. It was annoying, and it started to feel like I was part of the problem considering I'd turn a blind eye to it.
But getting into drama just means more lectures from my parents. I get enough of that on a daily basis.
I shut my locker a little too loudly caught up in my own thoughts and I spin around ready to exit, getting annoyed just by listening to these pathetic people trying to assert dominance over others but it seemed all eyes were on me now.
"Whats the problem? Do you know him or something?" I look up trying to find the face of the voice
"Who?" I respond plainly.
The person then shoves a guy forward.
We locked eyes and I notice it's the guy I met on the street the other day who had asked me for food.
His bruises a little more faded than it was the day before. His face a lot cleaner but his hair slightly tussled.
"Yes. He's..a family friend." I say trying my best to come up with something. "So I'd appreciate it if you'd leave him alone."
He looks at me his eyes slightly widening you'd almost miss it, but he keeps his facade.
The other guys throw their hands up in a mocking motion and snicker lowly, "whatever you say." The "leader" of the group says walking past and purposely bumping shoulders with the guy roughly as him and his friends exit the locker room.
I let out an annoyed sigh mad that I let myself get caught up in this mess.
"You know you didn't have to do that." A voice brings me back.
"Yeah...and I shouldn't have." I respond, "no offense."
"None taken." He says, "I'm Adrian."
"Elliot" is all I say in response.
"Nice to finally put a name to your face." He says, eyes looking at me with a small smile, he had pretty smile that showed his nice teeth. "I want to thank you for the money yesterday. I didn't expect to run into you so soon."
"Don't mention it, but uhm, we should head out. Imm pretty sure gym has started."
He nods and doesn't say anything in response.
I begin to make my way to the doors that lead out the locker room, feeling his presence behind me.
We exit and part ways. Class having already started I join the rest of the kids and I notice Adrian takes a spot on the very top of the bleachers.
He looks at me once more and I look away.
-
What have I gotten myself into?
[note: I will be doing A LOT of editing when I'm done with this whole book.]
Thank you for reading this chapter. <3
- unnoticedsmile