I Can't Help but Love You

Chapter 1 V

My alarm goes off and I cover my head with my pillow. The day has finally come. The first day of my Senior year. I hate school. I hate socializing. I don't want to go. I hate-

"Good morning beautiful. I made coffee," my moms says, cutting off my inner world hatred rant, and walking into my room, turning off my fan, before swirling back out again. She has way too much energy in the morning.

"Ughhhh", I say into my pillow before rolling off my bed onto my floor, right next to my cat. He gives me a look that clearly says he hates me but wants food.

" Yeah yeah yeah, I love you too Tuby," I mutter scratching his head while he glares at me. I let out a small laugh and stand up. "Let's go get coffee." Unfortunately no amount of coffee can make school any better. But it definitely makes my mornings a little brighter.

After I drink my heavenly cup of coffee I grab the outfit I set out for myself last night. Black jeans, black boots and a dark blue hoody along with my necklace and rings. I slip my clothes on and look in the mirror. Very easy and comfortable. I walk out of my room and head toward the bath room.

"Oh, Tori." My mom gives me a sad face as I walk out. "Can't you wear something a little happier. When you wear black people don't talk to you."

"Exactly," I say with a smile, walking into the bathroom. I really don't like teenager small talk.

She laughs, muttering something about me being exactly like my dad.

I straighten my long brown hair, fix my bangs and put a little mascara on. "Good enough I guess" I mutter looking at my reflection, shrugging.

As I walk out of the bathroom my brother comes flying at me with a whirlwind of energy. He throws his arm around me, smiling.

"I know your excited for school, huh." He says ruffling my perfectly done hair and laughing. Knowing full well that I'm not.

"No", I say batting away his hand and fixing my hair.

"Well I am" he says energetically, pointing at himself like a total goober, before he starts going on and on about how excited he is and all of the plans he has for the day. He's so enthusiastic that I can't help but smile.

I walk to the front door and make sure I've got everything I need for the day. My brother follows behind, yapping. I like to joke that he stole my portion of energy and social skills in the womb. He stole my height too. We were about the same height all growing up until 6th grade. I stayed at 5ft and he kept growing, hasn't stopped since.

"Will," my mom yells, "quit bothering your sister. Where is your bag?" She gasps dramatically, "Will, the bus is coming soon and your not even ready-"

Will gives me a pleading look but I swing my bag over my arm and walk out the door laughing as my mom continues to scold him about how irresponsible he is.

I walk down to the bus stop at the end of my neighborhood and sit on the bench. I breathe in the fresh, morning air. I love the sound of morning birds and the feel of morning air it calms me. I sit there and enjoy the sounds before Will comes running down the pavement toward me.

"Hey", he says sitting down beside me, "Oh, did you hear?"

"Hear what?" I ask, my eyes still closed.

"Someone moved into the house next door! You know, the really small one. Me and mom went over to visit the other day but no one answered. I guess they weren't home."

"Ughhhh" I say, I really don't want new neighbors. Especially in the house that has a straight view into my window. I spend most of my time sitting on my window seat drawing, reading and surfing the internet. I really hope they are not creepy or annoying.

"Oh Tori, don't be like that. What if they're our age and like super nice. You might end up being friends with them and spending all your time with them. You know, having pillow fights, sleep overs, painting each others nails, and doing each others hair while giggling" He says in a mocking tone giving me a sly smile and poking my arm, clearly messing with me.

I roll my eyes, "yes, that sounds very exciting, I can hardly wait," I deadpan.

He throws his head back and laughs just as the bus pulls up.

Will and I are the bus drivers first spot which is very convenient because I can pick whatever seat I want. I go to the very back, set my bag down and put my AirPods in. My brother of course sits at the very front talking our poor tired bus drivers head off.

I stare out the bus window enjoying the moving scenery. I've always liked the bus ride. I find it calming, ironically.

The noisy freshmen don't really bother me as they pile on, I can hear their excited and nervous voices and my brothers, of course, over my music. I listen to some of their conversations. At one point I heard my brother tell them that if they don't tie their shoe laces a certain way a group of bullies will dunk their faces into a toilet bowl. I try not to laugh as the group of freshman gasp and look at their shoe laces than back at him horrified, I can't believe they actually believe a word of what Will is saying.

As the bus finally pulls up to school I start to feel nervous. Social settings have never been my thing, but school is the worst, people my age are so selfish and fake. They only ever think about themselves and drama.

You can have a friend all your life then talk to the guy they like once and that's it, your life time friend decides they hate you. I've seen it happen so many times. I'm just done with it.

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