Pyromaniac.

7. americans and utopian dystopias.

(Wifi by D.R.A.M. ft Erykah Badu)

| 7. | americans and utopian dystopias.

Pricilla had been serious about hanging out later and I was both surprised and weary about it. My family wasn't the most normal nor did we have the same kind of upbringing I was sure and there was so much that I wasn't looking forward to her finding out about me. But she'd been at this school for weeks now, she didn't seem to shy away even when I was pretty sure she'd been told about me.

"So, do you wanna go home first or...?" That was the first thing I'd asked her when she'd caught me after the bell rang, apparently for the short while she'd been in America, she'd been alternating between walking home and her stepmother picking her up.

That day was a walking day and honestly, I didn't understand why she''d choose to walk when there was a bus... maybe she didn't know the correct bus to get on yet.

"Or." Her voice was soft but there was a laugh in it, she'd trailed beside me in platform sneakers that made her nearly match my height and she paid no mind to the kids staring on. I could feel their eyes on us, ever since she'd started to sit with me in ceramics and at lunch, people had started to stare more than they had in a while. Maybe it had to do with her being so attractive but I hadn't felt this many eyes on me in a while, not since excluding myself from a social life and befriending people that I rarely saw outside of school.

But Pricilla hadn't answered my question, or maybe she had and that had me confused as we stood on the curb, her setting her bag down, rolling a penny board -that she'd somehow fit in her locker- underneath her foot and I'd turned to catch her eyes on a crowd of students piling into the bus. "Huh?"

"You asked if I wanted to go home first or and then you trailed off." She shrugged, her eyes never flitting my way but her voice stayed cool, "I'm not interested in going home first."

"Oh." Her response was still a bit weird to me although I let it go, trying to keep up conversation as we waited for Oliver to pull in from God knows where. He'd been trying to get alone time and a word with me since I'd brushed him off after coming home late one night and I really wasn't looking forward to the awkward car ride but it was better than the murmurs we'd most-certainly get sitting next to one another in a tightly cramped space with other teenagers. "Well, will your parents have a problem with it?"

Honestly, I hadn't cared, it wasn't even my idea to hang out. I was in no way responsible for her getting home but I hadn't told her no and she was now coming over mine, maybe that was a mistake.

She'd shaken her head, tucking a strand of loose hair behind her ear, the wind was blowing, it rippling through the air and chilling my skin. I had half a mind to light the cigarette in my pocket, it was my second to last and I didnt have the money for a new pack. "I used to spend all my days at the parks back home. Sherrie's a little worried because its America, Americans can be..."

Shoving my hands into my pockets, I filled in for her exactly what I thought of the 'best country in the world.' "Insane? Bigoted? The worst human beings alive?"She wouldn't be wrong, especially compared to what she'd proven of Canadians, the nice fucks.

"Something like that."

"Well, my family's only one of those so you're in luck."

Despite all that we were, horrible people, my mother wasn't one of them. I'd like to say Clara Remmer represented our little family since she was the only one that really put in any effort. Or, at least, consecutive non-stop effort for as long as I could remember.

"I'm guessing it's the insane part? Because anything besides that means I'm going home on a big yellow bus with a few dozen other worst human beings alive." Pricilla's voice was joking even if she'd looked over and locked eyes with me; the corner of her heart-shaped lips had quirked up, long hair brushing past her face as she'd turned towards the wind and her inky locks had grazed her Cupid's bow ever so slightly.