Consequences

⟡five⟡

     Once against Brinley woke to a blinding white light, but instead of feeling guilt, she felt her mother shaking her exhausted body by the shoulders.

     Brinley recalled Friday morning vividly. Waking up in a strange bed with a boy she had just met. Maybe she slept with him because he felt familiar to her, or maybe just because he seemed to have a kind soul, which was something that Brinley had been wanting ever since Brenden and her had begun to constantly argue so many months ago.

     Brinley let out a groan that turned into a long yawn. After she had left the sleeping angel of a boy, she felt a pang in her heart and dizziness throughout her body. She knew it wasn't right to do, but she did it anyway. Was it to avoid embarrassment or the truth that she might have had the slightest longing to see him again?

     Brinley refused to answer her own rhetorical question, and instead crawled out of bed, and hesitantly got ready for the school day. She wore a loose fitting, v-neck, white tank top with lace details, and a dark gray cardigan over it, just in case she was breaking the school's dress code. With this, she wore her favorite ripped jeans, that were also probably against dress code, but since her grandfather was a recent retired faculty member, she felt like she already had a good name with the school.
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    Brinley could have sworn that she wouldn't be treated like a child anymore during her senior year, but her first period teacher proved her very wrong. Mrs. Armstrong, the AP Anatomy teacher insisted on spending the first class by going around the room and having everyone say something about themselves... so elementary.

    "Let's begin with you," Mrs. Armstrong pointed a finger at a boy sitting two seats in front of Brinley. "Your name please?"

    "Uh... Kyle Weingarten." The blonde boy said, his face becoming more red by the second.

    "And something interesting about you?" Mrs. Armstrong's youthful voice prodded.

    "I uh, I like fishing, yeah."

    The teacher's smile grew larger and she moved onto the next person. When it came to Brinley's turn, the words she had rehearsed in her head had suddenly disappeared.

    "I'm Brinley, uh," She paused for a second, forgetting how to speak momentarily. "Brinley Jacobs, and I like the color yellow."

    Brinley looked out into her giggling audience that was her first hour class. She caught eyes with Holden's sea green eyes. He was smiling, dimples on display, and she couldn't tell whether he liked her answer, or was just simply laughing at her like the others had been. Brinley didn't know why everyone was laughing so hard, yellow was her favorite color, and she had good reasoning for it too.

    "Aren't you new here?" Mrs. Armstrong looked at Brinley apologetically, or maybe her face just displayed the secondhand embarrassment that she was feeling. "Why don't you tell us where you are from and why you moved here?"

    "Okay, um," Brinley felt much like Kyle Weingarten as she felt her own face turn bright pink. "Well, I grew up here and moved to Pennsylvania when I was 9..."

    "See I told you she used to be in our class." A girl with nearly white hair whispered to a buff boy with a buzz cut style haircut.

    "And um, well now I'm back." Brinley kept her explanation as short as possible so she wouldn't risk becoming more embarrassed, if that was even possible. She spotted Holden again, this time pride seemed to glow in his eyes and the corners of his mouth slightly turned up.

    Mrs. Armstrong finally let her quit making a fool of herself and moved on to the next person. Brinley bit her nails and spent the rest of the class period staring straight down at her desk.
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    During the passing after Anatomy, Holden caught Brinley in the hall.