I woke up with the biggest smile on my face. After all, graduation was pretty much the beginning of my life. All those times in my life where I tried to picture what this day would feel like and it was finally here.
My dad yelled from downstairs, "Leah! Wake up now!"
"I'm already awake!" I yelled back as I thought of the countless amount of mornings he had to physically drag me out of bed because I had chose to hit the snooze button one to many times.
We didn't always get along but when it came to having a great male figure in my life, he was really the only one I needed.
Unfortunately for me I had failed to see that, leading me to a horrible breakup with a boyfriend of three and a half years who had been living with us for a year. Suddenly, he decided to make up some bullshit excuse about why he needed to go back home to California to get his life back on track. Four days later I found out he had actually moved to Wisconsin to be with another girl.
Lost in my emotions I found out that confiding in a best friend and making them hangout with you everyday wasn't the best option to get over your first love.
Kyra had been my best friend since sixth grade. The first time she realized she could move her hips while dancing to the song Too Close by Next is when she realized what power she had over any guy that walked her way. She never committed and she stayed a virgin until she was eighteen.
That all changed when a boy named Jay Rodriguez came her way. Some voice in her head started telling her that I was boring, and Jay was going to be the guy she gave everything to.
No best friend for Leah. Left all alone to fend for her self while her covered up emotions of her ex somehow found a way to travel back to her head.
Apparently I had been reminiscing about the past for a minute to long because the second I was about to actually get out of bed my dad rammed through the door.
His yelling never seemed to get old. "Leah!"
He didn't look a day over thirty with his unforgettable features. Every girl at my high school never understood how someone that looked like they could be the age of an older brother of mine could be my dad.
"Do you have any sense of time?!" He asked that question a lot while I was growing up. What's funny is that I always asked myself the same thing.
"I was thinking of what to wear! Calm down before you make me not want to go."
"Oh yeah Leah, your really not going to go to your graduation because I'm making you upset. If anything you would end up not going because you have don't have any sense of time! Now, hurry up and get ready. Your breakfast is on the counter."
"What did you make me?"
"I didn't make anything, I bought you cinnamon toast crunch." He shut the door before I could show him the littlest of attitude.
My dad always made me breakfast, out of all days why choose not to make me something on this one.
I let out a tiny scream while I stood up and stretched before walking to the bathroom. My bathroom wasn't the biggest bathroom but it suited my needs. It was beached themed. Two walls painted sandy beige and the other two a light blue. The bath tub was my favorite thing, along with the mirror that stretched parallel to the counter top leaving no room on that wall for any decorations.
Why was my hair always such a disaster in the morning? Who would have thought that having brown hair that turned burgundy in the gleaming sunlight would be such a pain in the ass? I brushed my hair of all knots and turned on my flat iron. Straightening my hair in the morning became routine. As my warm hair fell to my back, it reminded me to be grateful of its existence. Only because about six months ago I went to go get it trimmed and the lady hacked off three inches. It left my hair closer to my shoulders than I've ever had it before. My hair was now at my mid back and there was no way anyone was getting close to it.
I was so used to putting makeup on that it merely felt like I drew a quick doodle on a sketching pad, my face. Getting clothes together was by far the task that took longest in the morning. Rummaging through my closet and drawers was exactly like going on a shopping spree. Only except the clothes I found with tags on weren't for sale, they were already mine.
I found a white tank top to go under a black and white short sleeved flannel that I'd never worn before and I found a pair of black shorts that most human beings wouldn't approve of. I threw on some classic black and white vans that I had bought yesterday, knowing that they were going to be forgotten the day after I wore them. I made the decision to throw on this wardrobe solemnly based on the fact that it was an unusual ninety degree day in the state of Washington in a tiny town called Silverdale.
I took one last glance in my bathroom mirror. The girl in the mirror looked nothing like someone with my personality. Her brown hair that reached to the mid of her back, a caramel beige skin tone while standing tall and beautiful. Why didn't the reflection look like my personality? I was frustrated so I turned off the lights and headed downstairs.
Going downstairs I knew I would be reminded of the time by my dad as he watched Fox news. It was almost time for the 2008 elections and the time was always on the bottom right corner of the TV. It was as if time were begging my dad to remind me of it.
"It's June 14th, 2:37 PM, and if you don't hurry up and eat, you'll be late for your MANDITORY rehearsal."
My dad already had a bowl and spoon waiting for me on the counter. I went to grab the milk out of the fridge. Pouring my favorite cereal in a bowl and adding the milk.
"You and time must have been talking a lot this morning."
"Yeah, we're best friends. I thought you knew that already. Oh he also wanted me to ask you why the hell you are wearing what you're wearing."
I was eating so fast that there was no stopping me, leaving me to talk mid-chew.
"Well since he's right there I guess I'll tell him myself. Time, I wore it because it is hot as hell and because I can."
"Not good enough, go change."
I only ate half the cereal in the bowl because by the time I was halfway finished it had always gotten soggy. I rinsed it out in the sink and put the bowl and spoon in the dish washer.
"Sorry, no can do. You wouldn't want me to be late now would you?" It had only been three and a half months since I had turned eighteen and he still hadn't quite got the hang of not having complete authority over me.
"Why do you insist on making my life miserable?" Most kids would have taken something like that to the heart, but not me. I enjoyed making my dad's life "miserable" and I knew he really never meant it anyways.
