The Summer Job

"HEY, OPEN UP"

 I was woken by the oh so sweet sound of pounding on my apartment door. "Jesus, ok ok I'm coming," I say mostly to myself, rubbing my eyes.  When I finally made it out of bed and swung the door open I was greeted by the Cheshire-like grin of my best friend, Jest.

 "Good morning Ceres, are you ready the last day of mandatory educational suffering?" He asked, grin somehow getting wider. 

Ugh, that's right today's the last day of our junior year. Glaring at my perky friend I went to turn and slam the door, unfortunately, I wasn't that lucky as he stepped in behind me ruining my plans to return to my bed for the rest of the day.

 "Why must you do this to me Jest, I thought we were friends?" I said in the most betrayed voice I could muster. " Oh come on, you only have to make it through today. And besides, I come bearing gifts"

 He says in a singsongy voice holding the cup of human rocket fuel out to me. While he was making himself comfortable in my kitchen, I contemplated my options.

  After a few sips of coffee and some convincing, I gave in "Fine, fine I'll go," I say watching his eyes light up.

 "Great, now go get ready," He said as he snatched my life force away from me, causing me to groan and stomp away from him "I hate you" I mumbled as I sulked up the stairs "You love me!" He calls after me.

Dammit, I didn't know he could still hear me.  

After I finish getting dressed and wallowing in self-pity. Jest finally gives me my coffee back and drives us to school in his matte black Tesla. You must be thinking 

'Omg it must be so much fun riding in that every day'

But you'd be wrong because I hate it. It draws way too much attention, especially from my jealous classmates. Which in turn makes them hate me even more.

Luckily, earlier in the year after several attempts, I managed to convince him to drop me off a block away from school. That saved me from having a panic attack or just straight up getting attacked as soon as I got to school.

After we got into the building, however, was an entirely different story. 

Now you must be wondering why I hate school so much, surely I'm a popular, sporty, smart and all around fun guy.

Let me tell you if this was a test, you would have failed miserably.

 You see I'm what people would call a nobody, except for my 4.0 GPA I'm about as average as it gets. If you passed me in the hall trust me you wouldn't even know it, unless you were part of the (surprisingly) large group of people that hate me, for the sole reason of me being friends with Jest.

Trust me it's just as stupid as it sounds, they think that I stole their chance to be friends with a rich kid (if you haven't figured out who that is yet, spoiler alert: its Jest!). So for me, that means he is practically my only friend and there's always at least one person kissing his ass.

I finish my short walk to the place of my nightmares just as the bell rings and I wave goodbye to Jest since we only have one class together. The first half of the day was a breeze, after all, it was the last day, but then I got to the most dreaded part of my day.

Lunch

If I had to make a list of things I would not miss over the summer this would be at the top. 

Almost as soon as we got to our table, the schools #1 gold digger, Melissa made herself comfortable right beside Jest.

 See, Melissa has dated just about every rich guy in town but him, making the poor kid her main target on a daily basis.

"Hey, Jesty!" she said, shoving her Barbie doll boobs in his face. Scowling slightly he mumbles a "hi melissa".

 As she starts talking his ear off I give him a pitying look and zone out. I start to think of what I'm gonna do this summer, hmm.. let's see hangout with Jest, watch Netflix, wallow in self-pity, read fanfiction. Ya, that sounds like a solid plan.

I'm brought out of my thoughts when I feel eyes on me "Ugh, I see that you're still hanging around this loser" Oh, it must be my turn. I look up to see her and a group of friends around our table glaring at me.

 I just sigh and look down, I never say anything to them anymore unless, I feel like getting beat up that is. So instead I just sit there and let the comments rain down on me, they don't seem too bad today anyway. 

Until I hear the one thing I can't stand "Even his parents don't like him that's why he lives alone, seriously just ditch him" 

 SLAP

Suddenly, I'm leaning across the table looking at the captain of the football team with my hand out while he and everyone else stares frozen in place, staring with wide eyes. 

Knowing that won't last long I quickly bolt out of the cafeteria searching for any place to hide. Panicking I go into the bathroom locking myself into one of the stalls.

________________________________________________________________________________

It didn't take them very long to find me.

After taking quite a few punches in the alley outside, Jest eventually came to my rescue with a teacher in tow. 

The nurse excused us for the rest of the day, so I'm now I'm waiting for Jest to finish emptying out his locker so he can drive me home. When we finally make it to the car, I can tell Jest wants to say something, so I wait.

 "I'm sorry Ceres, I should've stopped them sooner"

 There it is 

"Its fine, it's not your fault they're idiots who won't leave you alone," I say causing a relieved look to cross his face before a worried one takes over as he turns to face me.

 "Are you ok though? I mean after what they said, do you need to talk?" he said making me shake my head "not right now, I just want to go home"  

He smiled "Alright, but we're stopping at Pizza Hut on the way" I look at him like he's gone mad "What?" he said "Did you really think I'd protest that? I almost feel offended" I say, looking hurt. 

He just laughs and drives away.