Two Ends Meet

eight

r i l e y

Life is great at throwing curveballs at you. Waking up this morning, I felt drained. The letter was still sitting on my desk, unopened. I didn't have the energy to open it. It was like staring at me, waiting for me to open it. I couldn't open it just yet.

With a sigh, I finish the rest of my morning routine which usually consists of waking up late for school, using the bathroom longer than necessary and then getting dressed in whatever I see in front of me which is usually a pair of leggings and a hoodie. I grab my school stuff and quickly go downstairs. On the way out, I grab a granola bar and exit the house, locking the door on the way.

I come to a stop. Right in front of me is  Alex holding a bag of Starbucks and a drink in his hands. Raising an eyebrow, "What's this?" I ask him, confused.

"It's for you." He simply says, handing me the bag and the drink. I continue staring at him. He stares at me back giving me a weird look. "It's not that weird." He mumbles.

I shake off the staring realizing it's only gonna get weirder if I continue to stare at him like he has another head growing. "Thanks." I say suspiciously. "Kinda weird but I'll take it."

Alex shrugs, suddenly looking nervous. "I wanted to...um...yesterday."

I suddenly realized what he was about to do. I stopped him before he could say anything else. "Hey, listen what I did yesterday was out of line. I was having a bad day and I took it out on you." I tell him quickly.

Alex looks a bit shocked, "I'm sorry for getting on your last nerves."

Trying to lighten up the mood, "Hey, you're always getting on my last nerves." I joked. "Okay, now it's getting weird. This never happens." I mutter. We never apologize to each other. All we do is argue and start fights.

He quickly nodded his head. "Yeah, let's stop. Also we're going to be late." Alex says checking his phone. "Wanna a ride?"

I look at my car then at the food in my head. "Yes." I answer too quickly. He gives me an amused look. "What? My food is going to get cold." I defend myself.

He snickers in response and just walks towards his car, me following behind.

---

I knew I was going crazy right now or else I wouldn't be thinking about a boy when I should be doing my work right now. This isn't me. I don't care about boys or relationships now, not ever since my last relationship.

It was all thanks to the boy who bought me Starbucks this morning. The smallest things really make me happy, huh? I vowed to myself I wouldn't let myself like someone else. Not now at least. Maybe in the near future.

Screaming internally at myself, I slowly calmed myself before getting out of my seat and making my way to the library. The bell has just rung announcing it's time for lunch. I borrowed a few books from the library that needed to be returned before I was charged.

Quietly humming to myself, I enter the library, dropping it off in the drop off box before walking over to the fiction aisle. I browsed through the novels, nothing catching my eyes before wandering off to the romance section. My favorite. If nothing in my life was going to be romantic, I was going to live through my novels.

I picked up a book that sounded kind of interesting. It was about a girl falling in love with her best friend. "Huh." I muttered. "So like me and Alex except he doesn't like me and we're not exactly best friends." I whispered to myself. "Oh god." I grumbled.

Suddenly, I heard a noise, a book falling to the ground and hushed curse words spiraling out of someone's mouth.

My eyes widened. Oh no, someone heard me. I slowly walked towards where I heard the noise and came face to face with Garrett. Red, guilt ridden face, he gave me a small smile. "Hey, Riley."