perception [h.s]

f o u r

f o u r

"this is who i am. nobody said you had to like it."

**

The rest of the day dragged on and I was currently waiting for our final lesson to end. Our teacher had completely given up as none of the class were listening so thankfully we had no homework. 

The bell ringing pulled me out of my daydream and I found that all of the class had left except for Ash who was waiting for me by the door.

"Thanks." I smiled at her.

"No problem," She grinned, "I have to stay at school for a bit so I figured I might as well wait for you."

We soon reached our lockers and I quickly grabbed a few textbooks that I needed for various subjects.

"I don't know about you but I'm already shattered." I yawned.

"Don't worry, I think we all are." She replied as she looked around to all our classmates. 

I felt my phone buzz in my pocket and decided to check it to see whether anyone had texted me. Sure enough the notification read:

Text from Dani: Hey babe, you still up for a Starbucks later with Sam and I? Hope you had a great day at school, Dani x

I quickly texted her back saying that that was fine and that I'd meet her and Sam there at five thirty.

"I'm really sorry, but I have to go now." I told Ash, putting my phone back into my pocket.

"Okay, have a safe journey home hun." She replied, pulling me into a hug. I was slightly caught off guard by the gesture.

"Thank you, for standing up for me today." I said against her shoulder.

"Hey it's fine, you don't deserve to be spoken about like that."

"Thanks again, for everything." I almost whispered as I pulled away from her embrace.

"What are friends for." She grinned at me before back walking back down the corridor.

"See you tomorrow." I called to her as I slung my rucksack over my shoulder and walked to the bus stop.

**

As soon as I opened the front door I dumped my bag on the floor, kicked my shoes off and ran straight to the kitchen. I took advantage of no one being home yet by heating up a waffle and piling maple syrup and vanilla ice cream on top of it before making my way to the living room where I plonked myself down on the sofa and grabbed the TV remote. I didn't often have time after school in which I could just relax as usually I was either playing sport or doing homework. After flipping through several channels I finally decided on watching 'Keeping Up With The Kardashians'. It wasn't my favourite show but it was good enough for now.

When the show had slowly dragged to its end I decided to change out of my uniform into something slightly more comfortable for seeing Sam and Dani. 

Once I'd reached my room I began flipping through my wardrobe to find something wear. I was rather overwhelmed by the amount of monochrome clothes I had but eventually I decided on a grey sweatshirt and some black jeans. 

By the time I was dressed and had put my hair up in a bun it was quarter past five, meaning I had just enough time to walk down to Starbucks. By nature I always had everything planned out as I hated to be late or feel unorganized.

I heard the door click as Abbie entered, her eyes widened in alarm when she saw me and she immediately turned back around.

"Can you give me a minute, sorry babe." She whispered to the person behind her.

Wait. Did she just call the person babe?!

Abbie quickly closed the door and turnt back to face me.

"Do you mind going to your room Chloe?" She asked, moving from side to side. She was nervous and if my thinking was correct she had a boy with her. 

"You brought a boy home?!" I squealed, probably a bit too loudly.

"Be quiet would you, he's just outside." She hushed.

"So it is a boy," I smirked, "Anyway, I was just about to head out to meet Sam and Dani."

"Oh, thank god. Would you mind like hiding in the cloakroom until he's in the kitchen or something?" Abbie sighed.

"Yeah sure. On one condition though." I replied to her as I edged my way towards the cloakroom door.

"What?" She pleaded as she started to fidget even more.

"You have to tell me everything when I get home." I winked before hopping into closet. It was much darker than I thought, although there was a slight crack where a keyhole used to be which I could just about see through.

The front door creaked open and a tall boy walked in. He looked about Abbie's age but was much taller than her. 

"Sorry Max, the house was much messier than I remember leaving it." She stuttered. 

"It's okay babe, don't worry." Max replied, his voice was much deeper than I had anticipated. The fact that they were calling each other 'babe' made me think that this probably wasn't their first time hanging out.

"Do you want to head through to the kitchen and I'll be right back." She replied, faking a small laugh.

"Okay." He said before disappearing down the hallway. Abbie rushed over and opened the cloakroom door, beckoning for me to come out.

"Thanks for that Chloe. I'll see you later, have fun." She smiled.

"It's fine, see ypu." I waved to her before going to the door, "Oh and one last thing." I spoke quietly.

"What is it?" She questioned.

"You're terrible at speaking to boys." I laughed before heading out the door. I pulled out my phone to check how much time I had left.

5:29

"Shit." I said without thinking as a middle aged woman walked past with her child.

"Mind your language madam." She snapped, covering the girls ears.

"Sorry." I mumbled before beginning to jog down the street. I quickly dialled Dani's number but it went straight to voice mail. For goodness sake I thought before starting into a full on run.

I returned to my walking pace after running for around three minutes. I was very close now so hopefully I wouldn't be too late. 

Just as I reached the outside patio of my local Starbucks I felt someone tap my shoulder. I turned around to find a girl who looked about my age standing there.

"H-hi, are you Chloe Rivers?" She said shakily.

"Uh, yeah." I had never seen this girl before so I didn't exactly know how to react to her knowing my name.

"I just wanted to say that I loved your YouTube video and that you have a beautiful voice." She said, cracking a smile.

"Oh, thank you so much." I said in shock, "What's your name?" I asked the girl.

"Kate," She replied, "Could I maybe get a picture with you?"

"Of course." I blurted, not really knowing what was happening. She unlocked her phone and held it up so that both of us were in the shot. I put on a smile, that was probably too cheesy, as she took the picture.

"Thank you so much, please keep making videos." Kate beamed.

"Thank you, I will try." I promised her.

"Yay!" She cheered, "Have a good day Chloe." She said before re-joining a group of people, who I assumed were her friends, further down the street.

"You too Kate." I called to her. 

I realised that I was probably grinning like an idiot right now but I honestly could care less for once.

**

i've started putting quotes at the beginning of each chapter, some i've written myself and others i found online and thought they applied well to my book, cool story i know, k bye ;)