Coastal [h.s]

six

SOPHOMORE YEAR//DECEMBER
~HARRY~

From the time I could drive until Caroline was in college I picked her up from school every Wednesday and we went to get food. We would drive around and listen to music for a couple of hours and then I would bring her back to her car so she could go home and do whatever work she had. The girl was so busy that this standing appointment was absolutely necessary to make sure we actually saw each other. Every other day of the week she had some activity after school. Of course Caroline was on student government, captain of the speech and debate team, and somehow had time to do track and field as well, all while keeping up nearly perfect grades and keeping our parents satisfied without indulging them too much.

As we drove around she would tell me about everything going on with her and I would tell her everything that was going on with me. No matter how boring the news was, we knew everything about each other. Everyone I knew at UCSD assumed Jaxon was my best friend but even Jaxon knew that Caroline always took the cake in that department. She was the first person I told anything to when it happened to me.

She was my everything.

There was a three year age difference between me and her but nobody would've ever guessed that. An urgent sense of maturity was an unspoken rule in the Styles house and it showed in their children. We learned to be self-sufficient together and we always looked out for each other. I did anything I could for her. She was the smartest person I knew, she knew exactly what she wanted to do with her life and fought for it as hard as she could. She wasn't afraid of our parents the way that I was sometimes.

My blinker clicked and I slowly turned into the lot finding a spot to park in while I waited for Caroline to be done with her last class of the day. Even though it was the later part of December, I rolled my windows down slightly, letting in the crisp air. On my right towered a school that looked more like a castle than an educational facility, it definitely gave Hogwarts a run for its money. Even from the parking lot I could feel the stuffiness of the hallways, the tightness of the tie that hung around my neck and the itchy blazer ghosted my upper half.

The Styles family didn't settle for less than the best for their up and coming business partners. Caroline and I had both been told about The Bishop's School as soon as we were old enough to understand English, maybe even before then. Rather than getting us involved in Girl Scouts or swimming lessons we were given tutors to help up our reading levels so we were ready for the entry exams we needed to take to get in. When sixth grade came around I was reading practically double the standard reading level. I passed the exams with flying colors and started on the long journey of sitting through classes I had no interest in and being surrounded by people that cared more about money and success than actual happiness.

While I sat in my car waiting for my sister, my speakers filled the car with Hozier's voice and I pulled my worn copy of The Great Gatsby from the passenger seat into my grasp. I flipped to the page I had left off on. It was littered with scribblings in between the lines and half the page was highlighted in different colors. If anybody ever picked up this copy they probably wouldn't have been able to read the actual text but I understood the chaos. It was just for me.