Out Of Sight, Out Of Mind - Treebros

Chapter 3: "Keep Coming Back"

Tuesday, September 25th

  The first thing I hear when I wake up isn't my alarm. Instead, a car horn is blaring outside of my house. I sit up, groggy and disoriented, squinting at the alarmingly bright light shining through my window.

My alarm clock is blinking, flashing 12:00am over and over again. I groan. Now I'd have to restart it. Great.

My hand reaches out, grasping for my phone, discarded on my desk. The car horn is still honking, only now it's to the tune of some vaguely familiar song.

"Fucking kids," I whisper to myself as I unlock my phone to check the time. 7:50. Shit. I missed the bus.

I lurch out of bed, accidentally yanking my phone charger out of the wall. My screen lights up again, and I notice a string of messages from Jared. I read them as I stumble through the hall.

Jared: my mom told me to drive you to school today

Jared: well she didn't tell me but she said "jared i havent heard you talk about evan in a while hows he?"

Jared: then I said "hes fine"

Jared: then she said "maybe you could give him a ride to school today" then gave me this look

Figures. He would never do anything nice for me on purpose unless he's benefiting in some way. I quickly brush my teeth, skimming through his message.

Jared: im outside

That must be Jared honking the horn then. I'm a little shocked that he's still here. Not too surprised though. What he wouldn't do for his precious car insurance.

Jared: hurry the fuck up

Jared: youre still asleep aren't you god damnit

I tug on my shoes, grab my back, and trip my way out of the house. Jared still hasn't stopped honking the horn, except now it's to the tune of Stayin' Alive. My neighbors are going to file a compliant if he doesn't quit it.

Thank God, though, because he sees me and lays off the horn. I brace myself when I see him he rolls his window down.

"I've been honking the horn for at least 5 minutes, how the hell did you sleep through that?" he asks, annoyance written across his face. It always was. At least when he was talking to me.

"Sorry," I yawn, sliding into the passengers sear. I try to rub the sleep from my eyes, but now that the adrenaline from realizing that I was late had gone away, I was left with earth-shattering exhaustion.

I had barely slept a wink last night, finally passing out from exhaustion soon after Mom left for work.

It had just been one of those sleepless nights, where you can't fall asleep no matter what. But I'd also been tossing and turning over why Connor hadn't come to lunch yesterday.

"Tired from getting boned by Murphy last night?" Jared remarks, smirking before checking the rearview for oncoming cars.

The idea of getting out of the car and just skipping, hiding away in my bed was tempting. Too tempting.

"Jar-" I groan, but once he's started, he won't stop until he feels like it.

"No, I don't see a limp. Or any visible hickies, and I doubt you know how to cover them up seeing as you are our resident 'Forever Virgin'," Jared laughs, inspecting me for marks and looking away from the road for a dangerous amount of time.