Hey babes! Back again with a new chapter for ya. Thanks for all the love on the first chapter. Turns out this story is gonna be five chapters, I think. Cause I got inspired. :)
So, without further ado, enjoy!
Making his way down one of the hallways of the high school, Grant stops when he sees Skye sitting on the floor with her back against one the wall. Her kneels are pulled up and her head is resting on them, her backpack sitting on the ground next to her.
"Skye?" he speaks up, stepping over to her.
Skye lifts her head up and gives Grant a half smile when she sees him standing in front of her, "Hey."
"Hey," he says back. "What are you still doing here? School got out a while ago, shouldn't you be at home?"
"Shouldn't you?" she raises an eyebrow.
"Mr. Jamison asked me to help him with a few things," he explains. "Now it's your turn."
She sighs, "Home is the last place I want to be right now."
"Why's that?" he asks, sitting down next to her and pulling his knees up, resting his arms on them. "Is it something with your parents? Are they okay?"
"They're fine," she assures him. "It's just a really stressful situation for me right now at home."
"Stressful how, exactly?"
"Mom and dad keep getting on my case about picking where I want to go to college after graduation," she explains. "I told them that I'm still deciding because there are just so many different options out there but it's like they won't even listen to me. It's just easier sometimes to not go home for a while once school gets out. But of course once I do get home they're still nagging me about college and what exactly my plans for the future are. I just really wish they'd lay off me for a little while and give some space to breath while I decide. It's not like it's an easy decision to make."
He shakes his head, "It really isn't. I'm still trying to decide where I want to go, too, and what exactly I want to do with the rest of my life. Have you at least narrowed it down some?"
She takes a deep breath, "Honestly? I don't even know if I want to go to college anymore. There's just so much pressure on picking a career that you want to do for the rest of your life and finding the right school that allows you to learn everything you need to know for that specific career. My parents pretty much raised me to want to go to college, but I don't know if I want to do that anymore."
"Then what would you do if you don't go to college?" he asks her.
"I think I want to travel," she tells him after a moment. "Explore the world and see new things. I've got a bunch of money saved already from odd jobs I've done, mostly babysitting, and I can use that to kick start my adventure. Then I can probably do some small part time jobs while I'm traveling, so I hopefully don't run out of money for food and stuff like that."
"That sounds like a great plan," he smiles.
"You really think so?" she asks him.
He nods his head, "Absolutely."
"Well I'm glad you think so. Mom and dad probably won't go for it, but it's my life, right? I can do what I want. And I really want to travel, but getting an education is really important to my parents." She throws her hands into the air, "Gah! This whole thing is just way too stressful." She looks over at Grant, "What do you think I should do?"
He takes a deep breath, "I think...that you should listen to what your heart is telling you to do. Figure out what it is that you want to do more than anything. And then do that thing. Don't let anything or anyone hold you back from doing what you want."
"You're right," she nods. "I have to listen to what my heart is telling me."
He nods, "Yep. That's the only way you'll be able to really be happy with your life and not so stressed out about everything."
She smiles at him, "You're just all full of advice, aren't you?"
He shrugs, "Just helping out a friend."
"Well I appreciate it very much. Thank you."
He gives her a small smile, "No problem. Speaking of friends, where are all of yours and why aren't you talking to them about this? Not that I'm not happy to have you confide in me, I'm just curious."
"They're all busy," she says with a small shrug, looking down. "As soon as school got out they all had to go and do their own things. Besides, none of them probably would have cared about my problem. I mean, I'm sure they would have cared a little bit, but they all have their own problems too, I'm sure. They probably wouldn't have paid much attention to mine."
"Well I'm sorry to hear that," he says.
She shakes her head, "It's fine, really." She takes a deep breath, "Well, I think I've kept you away from your errands long enough now. You should probably get back to whatever it is you were doing for Mr. Jamison."
"You sure you'll be fine if I leave?" he asks.
She nods her head, "Yeah, I'll be fine. I'll probably still have some stress because I have to figure out exactly how to tell my parents I don't want to go to college, but I'm not as stressed as I was before. So thank you."
"Glad I could help," he smiles. He stands up from the floor, "I guess I'll see you around."
"Yeah," she nods. "See ya."
He gives her another small smile before making his way down the hallway back towards Mr. Jamison's classroom.
"Man, this completely sucks," Skye complains as she makes her way to her locker, looking down at the paper in her hands. "I think my parents might actually ground me because of this."
"What's the matter?" her friend Jemma asks her.
Skye sighs and shows the paper to her friend, "I got a stupid C- on my test and Mr. Hart won't let me retake it."
"Well why not?"
"Because I've already retaken it twice," Skye mumbles, shoving the paper into her bag.
"Well that's just outrageous," Jemma says.
"That's high school," Skye says back, stopping in front of her locker. She lifts a hand to the lock and quickly puts in her combination. She pulls it off of the locker and then pulls open the door, a small, folded up piece of paper falling out and fluttering to the ground.
Skye bends down to pick up the paper and then stands back up, unfolding the paper to read what's on the inside.
Overheard you talking to Mr. Hart about your test. That really sucks, Skye, I'm sorry. I'd draw you a picture to cheer you up but we both know that my drawing skills are on the very low end of the talent spectrum. So instead, meet me at my locker after school, I have something for you.
–Grant
"What's that?" Jemma asks her.
"It's a note from Grant," Skye smiles, still looking down at the note.
"Who's Grant?" Jemma asks with furrowed brows.
Skye looks up at her, "You know who Grant is."
Jemma shakes her head, "No, I don't think that I do."
"Huh. I could have sworn that you did. You really don't know him?" she asks.
Jemma shakes her head again, "No."
"Oh, well. He overheard me talking to Hart about my test and he left me this note in my locker. Apparently he has something for me to cheer me up."
Jemma raises an eyebrow, "Really?"
"Yeah. And it better be something good, too. Not like this one time when we were kids and he told me that he had a present for me when really he just wanted to..." she trails off when she sees the look Jemma is giving her. "What?"
"Nothing," Jemma says. "I'm just trying to put my finger on who this guy is."
"He's my friend," Skye tells her. "We live on the same street and have known each other since we were pretty much babies but we kind of grew apart as we got older. We're still really good friends, though. We just don't hang out as much as we used to."
Jemma nods, "Right, and how is Lincoln going to feel when he finds out about your good friend giving you a gift?"
Skye rolls her eyes, "I don't care. Grant is just a friend. If Lincoln ends up having some kind of problem with that, it's not my issue."
Jemma nods her head again, "Alright, well, we should probably get to our next class before the bell rings and we're marked late."
"Yes, of course." She closes her locker door. "Let's go." The two friends link arms and make their way down the hallway towards their next class.
...
Clutching her cell phone in her hand, Skye cranes her head over the sea of students in the hallway leaving for the day to try and find Grant. When she doesn't see him in the crowd she looks down at her phone, unlocking it and opening up a new text message I'm at your locker. Where the hell are you?
A few seconds later she gets a new message 24-31-5.
Furrowing her brows in confusion for a moment, she then realizes that it's his locker combination. She turns towards his locker and quickly inputs the combination, removing the lock and opening the door.
Once the door is open, she sees a small box sitting in the center of his locker, a folded note propped up in front of it with her name scrawled across it. She reaches inside and grabs the note, unfolding it to read the inside.
Sorry I'm not able to meet up with you to give you your surprise. I forgot that I had some things to do for Gramsy right after school. Like I said in the last note I left you, I'm really sorry about your grade on Hart's test. That's pretty rough. But I hope this present cheers you up some; I found it a while ago when I was going through some of my old things and I was trying to think of the best time to give it to you. I guess now is the perfect time. I improved it a little, so I hope you like it.
–Grant
Smiling to herself, Skye folds the note back up and slides it into her back pocket before reaching back into the locker for the box. Pulling it out, she closes the door and replaces the lock before turning around and leaning back against the wall of lockers. She unties the small bow on top of the box and then pulls the lid off, tucking it underneath of the box. Removing the tissue paper off of the top, she lets out a quick laugh when she sees what's lying at the bottom.
"Oh Grant," she whispers with a shake of her head. "You are such a nostalgic dork."
Reaching into the box, she pulls out a handmade pendant strung on a thin rope. It's a pendant made out of light purple clay, with two small smiling faces on it; one face is blue and the other is pink. She flips it over to read the sloppy Sharpie ink on it G & S. Best Friends Forever.
Smiling to herself, she slips the rope on over her head and lets the rock rest right below her collarbone. She shoves the small box down into her backpack and then pushes off of the wall, making her way down the hallway and out towards the front of the school to the parking lot to head home.
So? What did you think? Let me know in a review down below. I'd love to hear your thoughts.
Until next time,
Jellybean96 out!