ONE
ryan
Staring at my reflection in the mirror I frowned at the image that was reflected back to me. For the past couple of days sleep was not by my side and under my eyes was the evidence. Two purple colored bags laid there reminding me that 3 hours of sleep
isn't enough for a growing teen. and no matter how hard I tried to constantly rub to rid the unwanted guest it only made them look worse.. more defined. I looked dead .My hair was greasy due to not being washed, and my face seemed paler than usual.
Everything about me seemed strange. It was evident that the lack of sleep was finally catching up to me and changing things for the worst. I could still feel the drowsiness taking over my body, causing me to slightly sway back and forth. I had no
other choice but to hold onto the rim of the bathroom sink to steady my balance. Nothing pleased me more then the thought of laying back down and curling up in my comfortable soft bed because waking up at the crack of dawn to spend half a day
in a place I didn't wanna be wasn't something I looked forward to everyday.
"Ryan darling. can you come here for a minute?" taking one last glance at my reflection I let out a sigh and walked out my bedroom, following my given orders.
"I'll be gone for a while.." my mom started. With shaky hands and a far away look on her face she fixed her fake white pearls that hung around her thin neck and packed the rest of her luggage making sure she had more than enough clothes for her trip."
Where are you going? will you be back soon?" I inquired. I took in my mothers demeanor and could honestly say she's definitely seen better days. She looked worse then i did. My shitty appearance was due to lack of sleep from the night before but my
mother's was a mixture of different problems. lately she's been stressing tremendously over things like bills, food and work which pained me to see, nothing is more heartbreaking than witnessing your mother crying in the middle of the night.
"Goodmorning guys" my older sister abigail beamed. the first thing she did was scurry towards the cereals we had and poured herself a bowl. Abigail was always a morning person, which I found weird. How could somebody always be happy so early in the morning.
It was irritating and unnatural.
"I was just telling Ryan what i told you last night.." mom sighed. "Don't worry Iwon't be gone long , I'll be back before you know it" but still I didn't understand why she was leaving. It was safe to say she was trying to give me as little detail
as possible about her trip so i decided to just stop asking questions, because the answers I would get wouldn't be up to part anyways. I watched mother as she tried to fit everything inside her luggage.. I didn't want her to leave and I tried to make
that clear by constantly groaning, sighing and whining but she took no notice to my childish activities. Although I couldn't stand the thought of her being away from us I could never tell her to stay home. Because if I wanted to I could plead and
plead, knowing mother she would easily give in but if she thought what she was doing was gonna be beneficial to the family then I couldn't tell her to stay, I would never forgive myself.
"Ry your sister is gonna drive you to school. alright? now you guys have to hurry up, by the looks of things you're gonna be late if you don't leave soon." mom explained. Her voice was always so motherly and calm but this morning it sounded really hoarse.
I could hear a bit of shakiness within, which sent a frown to my face, I wasn't use to my mother being like this. she was the strongest person i knew but at the moment anybody could see that she was trying her hardest to mask her true emotions, trying
her hardest not to break down and cry right in front of us. "I'm not gonna be here when you guys come home so come here and give your mother a hug." Me and Abigail obeyed without hesitation. As the three of us stood in the center of the kitchen engulfed
in our family hug, spreading our love to one another. I couldn't help but think about how nice it felt. I couldn't remember the last time we had a genuine family hug.
"Alright now run along!" mom smiled as she broke away from our embrace. "I love you girls"
"Love you too" we said in unison.
TWO
ryan
The school hallway always stinks, it had the most unpleasantness smell known to man. The odour of the stale urine curled from under the bathroom doors, depressingly mixed with deodorant, perfume, scented lotions and body odour in equal measure.
I pushed my way through the sea of despondent faces and let out a small hum as I walked under the banner "Education is the most powerful weapon we can use to change the world.- Nelson Mandela." I sighed. Another day of tedium rammed down our throats
with the keen sting of stress. Always the tests, always the reporting, always the reminders of the consequences of failure. That was what Central High School was all about and I hated it.
Like usual my best friends stood in our everyday corner waiting for my presence. Actually it wasn't very common for Scarlet to make an appearance in school at this time but it was a usual occurrence for Avery. I always found it odd that me and my
friends were so close but almost nothing alike. Avery was beautiful and there was no doubt about it and so was Scarlet. it was hard not to be kinda jealous of the two at times, Avery's long pin straight blond hair and Scarlets chestnut short cut was
totally opposite to my untamed curly black fair clear skin could out shine my freckles anyday. Being close to people that looked as amazing as my friends was a challenge, even on their worst days the two were solid 9.I on the other
hand was probably a 6.1. The only feature I felt I advanced in was the chest area and even that wasn't all that great.
Avery was the mother figure out of the three, she tried her best to support us in everything we did along with giving good advice when asked and constantly looking out for us, I guess her role was understandable since she happened to be the
oldest in the on the other hand was brutally honest, she had no filter what so ever. If something wasn't right or things were unfair best believe that scarlet was the one to let it be known. She was fearless which was what I admired
and envied most about her. But me.. for starters i was the youngest and it definitely showed. I couldn't name as much good qualities I had to show for but to say the least I always thought I was a pretty loyal friend. which was a good quality to have,
I suppose.
"You're here.. before first period?" I said as I reached the two girls. I was slightly shocked at the sight in front of me. It wasn't everyday Scarlet was here before 1st period or even at 1st period.
"I literally had to go to her house and drag her out of bed" Avery said' rolling her eyes at the memory.
Scarlets head was rested against the crimson colored lockers, her eyes were shut tight as if she was in a deep sleep. "Don't conversate with me, it's way too early in the morning to have a civilized conversation." That I could agree on.
"Can you at least scoot your head over, I need to get some books out my locker." I let out a stifled laugh as Scarlet slowly inched away, resembling a zombie from one of those walking dead horror movies.
"You look like shit" scarlet replied. Her eyes were fully open and she was now staring at me, studying every flaw on my face which made me slightly squirm under her gaze.I guess you could say we both looked like zombies. "Really? well thanks I had
no idea." The sarcasm oozed from the tip of my tongue as I grabbed my homeroom books out my locker and closed it with a small thud.
Avery wore a horrified look on her face, making sure she gave Scarlets arm a hard slap as a consequence to her unruly words, which resulted in a loud scream that was probably heard throughout the whole school. I wasn't sure why Avery was so shocked
at Scarlets bluntness, by now you would think she was use to it judging by how we've all been close friends going on three years now. Making my way down the crowded hallways towards my home room class, my two friends were glued to both sides
of me which gave me a comforting feeling that i wouldn't have to tackle this school thing all by myself. "this is my stop, see you guys at lunch!" Scarlet waved before disappearing inside her classroom.
"You know...she wasn't lying" Avery began. I gave her a confused looked, mentally asking her to elaborate. "You don't look so good, is there something wrong sugar?" she asked, giving me a look filled with concern and care.
I tried to give her my best smile but the sleep that I didn't get last night was dancing on top of my eyelids making it almost impossible. "Yeah" I nodded. "Just didn't get much sleep that's all."
"You sure that's it?"
"Yeah i'm positive ave" but that wasn't all. There was much more that I didn't feel like going into detail about at the moment and there was only a matter of time before Avery knew I wasn't giving her the full story. As we entered our home
economics class we grabbed a seat and followed the instructions that was written on the board, Courtesy to our teacher . It was hard to concentrate on anything that was being said because slowly I could feel my head falling forwards and
vision became impaired until all I could see was total darkness.