Maybe Before Today

Chapter 6

     To put it lightly, Tuesday that week was a mess.
     I woke up around six in the morning. Usually it's a struggle for me to keep my eyes open at eight when I'm meant to wake up, but I couldn't seem to get back to sleep. The whole situation was a bit of a blur, but, essentially, I was having a stress dream. And I woke up feeling extremely anxious.
     Needless to say, I did not want to go to school that morning. And, needless to say, my mom wasn't having any of it.
     "Alice, I'm sick of this. You need to stop making excuses about school."
     I sat up slightly, fuelled by the rage that burned in my chest. "You think I'm faking this?"
     "Exaggerating."
     "Unbelievable."
     She laughed incredulously. "I'm not the one skipping school for no reason."
     "No reason. Right." My voice started to raise. "I've just been faking this all since I was seven years old. I wanted to miss my own freaking birthday party when I was-"
     I never heard my bedroom door open, I only noticed it had when my dad was kneeling next to my bed. "Alice, honey, just calm down. Karen, can you give us a minute?"
     "I've got to leave anyway," my mom said. "Since I've been made late for work. Again."
     "Oh I'm so sorry that my anxiety inconvenienced you, you absolute-"
     "Okay, I'm gonna stop you right there so your mother doesn't kill you," my dad said quietly. "What's going on?"
     "She's being a dick."
    "I meant with you. That much was obvious." If I hadn't been so angry I would have laughed. My dad speaking negatively of anyone was rare and kind of hilarious.
     "I just feel like crap and don't want to go to school."
     "Is there anything in particular that's making it worse?"
     "Not that I can think of."
     I had always been a pretty good liar.
     "Well, you know it won't get any better if you stay off."
     "I know. And I don't want to-"
     "I know, I know. But, I'm working from home today so I can come and get you at any point. Okay?"
     I nodded.
     "Why don't you get ready?"
     I nodded again.
     "Okay. I'll see you downstairs soon."
     After giving myself a minute to calm down from my anger, I got dressed and tied my hair into a low ponytail. That was basically my I-have-given-up-on-life hair style, easy to do and kept my hair out of my face, giving me one less thing to stress about.
     And, in our many years of friendship, Ziggs must have picked up on this.
     "The I-have-given-up-on-life pony. That's not good."
     "No. It's not."
     "What's going on?"
     "Mom's being a dick. Thinks I'm faking - sorry, 'exaggerating' - my anxiety."
     "When are we killing her?"
     I laughed weakly, "Soon, please."
     "You okay?"
     "I'll be fine. I just wish I didn't have to go to school."
     "It sucks. But you'll be fine."
     "Yeah. I guess. Except I have shop first."
     "Oh. Well." They paused. 'Good luck with that.'

     The entire world around me looked like it was fake. Like somebody had taken earth and sculpted a replica out of clay but gotten everything slightly off. Nothing felt quite right, but I couldn't pinpoint what was wrong. And, when I got to the door to my shop class, I wasn't sure if the bell had gone. Ziggs and I had gotten in just before it was meant to so we didn't bother to go to the games hall, we just headed straight to class. When I saw somebody moving in the class, I figured it was safe to walk in.
     "Lex, I can only help you if you tell me what's going on."
     "I've told you Mr Houston, it's nothing, I'm j-"
     I quickly realised I was one of three people there, the other two being Mr Houston and Lex.
     "Oh, hey, Alice," Lex said, before exhaling and looking down at the desk almost guiltily.
     "Sorry, am I interrupting?"
     "Not at all."
     "Lex, we still need to have a chat later."
     "Sure. Okay."
     Feeling like a myriad of eyes were on me even though I was in a room with only two other people, I sat uncomfortably in my seat and, just as I did, the bell went.
     "You're early," Lex said.
     "I could say the same."
     "I said it first."
     "I got here a little later than usual and didn't see the point of going all the way down to PE only to come back up here."
     "I didn't have to take my little sister to school."
     I nodded. "What's your sister's name?"
     "Hannah."
     People started to fill the empty seats in the class.
     "Do you have any siblings?" Lex asked me.
     I shook my head, "Nope. Although sometimes I wish I did."
     Then Mr Houston told us all to stop talking. So we did.

     "Can I ask you a favour?"
     I looked at Lex nervously as we walked out of the classroom. "Sure."
     "The English homework. What on earth does that even mean?"
     "Come to the benches outside at lunch. I'll show you."
     "Are you sure you don't mind?"
     "Yeah. It's no problem."
     "You're a lifesaver. Thank you."
     "No problem."

     "Ziggs. I did something. Just to warn you-"
     "Oh no, you committed murder without me!"
     "What? No. I may have been tempted with my mom but then who's pizza money left because she feels guilty about getting home so late am I gonna pocket?"
     "Very true, very true. So, what did you do?"
     "I'm helping Lex with the English homework at lunch."
     "She's coming here?"
     I nodded.
     "Okay," they said nonchalantly.
     I looked at them worriedly for a second before turning my attention to my phone.
     "What?" they asked.
     "What?"
     "Why do you look so worried?"
     "What? I'm not worried."
     "Then why are you aggressively tapping your nails on the table?"
     I accidentally slapped the table in an attempt to stop my hand moving. And it stung. "I'm just stressed after this morning."
     "Uh-huh." They raised an eyebrow.
     "What? I am!"
     "I don't doubt that. I doubt that there isn't more to the story."
     I genuinely thought I was telling the truth when I said that was it.

~

(A/N: Finally continuing this! Posting may be rare but I'm not gonna abandon it lmao)