Red [S.M] [N.H]

A Little Too Much

•Dylan•

I go home later that night, parking my old car on the street in front of my house and pray for an empty house. The lights are off and I pull my key out of my pocket, ascending up the porch steps and sticking my key into the lock. I enter and confirm an empty house, I smile and shut and lock the door behind me, pulling my shoes off and putting them in my room before getting all my school stuff together.

I sort together my notebooks and folders and put them neatly in my bag, making sure everything I needed would be in there for tomorrow. I put the bag into the corner of my room and then go into the shower quickly, home alone showers were always better.

I step out of the shower and grab the bathroom cleaner from under the sink, scrubbing the shower clean and then going into my bedroom and dressing in baggy black sweatpants and a t shirt, I brush my wet hair down my back and then clean up around the house, putting away random things here and there and vacuuming the floors.

I yawn and stretch out my arms and legs, checking my phone and realizing it's already 10. I sigh and blink my eyes tiredly, going back up to my room and settling under the covers, falling asleep shortly with my ear buds in.

"DYLAN! DYLAN WAKE THE FUCK UP!" I am awoken too shortly by my livid mother and a slap in the face, and I sit up, rubbing my sore cheek, "huh?"

"You barely cleaned the house or did anything! I come in expecting a clean house and the laundry done and what do I get! Nothing! You are an ungrateful bitch Dylan! You stay out all fucking weekend and you can't even clean! You can't do anything fucking right can you? What's wrong with you! Get up and clean the stove and the kitchen, it's filthy! I'm sure you were in there like a fat pig as usual! God, you're so selfish!" She screams in my face and I get up obediently, staring at the ground, "I'm sorry..."

"Well, sorry doesn't give me a clean kitchen! Now does it?" She yells, grabbing my wrist and I whimper and shake my head, tears stinging my eyes. "Don't fucking cry or I'll give you something to cry about! Go!" She pushes me aside and I go into the kitchen, my breathing speeds up and my anxiety from being yelled at sets in, my chest getting tight and my throat closing.

I put my back against the wall and slide down it, the glowing oven clock showing 2AM and I start cleaning through tears and the painful feeling of an attack, getting to work on cleaning everything up to her standards, but who am I kidding, anything I did would never be up to her standards anyway.

About an hour and a half later, I'm stumbling back up to my room and crawling into bed, tears taking over me as I curl up and cry myself to sleep, feeling exhausted and useless.

I wake up the next morning from my 6th alarm and groan, pulling myself out of bed and stumbling into the bathroom. I look at myself in the mirror and examine my puffy, bloodshot eyes from crying and the fresh red mark on my face. I groan and do my usual, going back to my room and getting dressed first and then getting out some makeup.

I put some eye drops in my eyes to stop the redness first, then I use some waterproof concealer under my eyes and on the affected areas of my face, then setting powder, then a little bit of mascara, I had it down to a T. I brush my hair up into a ponytail and tie it off with a scrunchie and then grab a banana from downstairs, singing to myself. At least my mom wasn't home in the morning so I didn't have to worry about being loud.

I go outside and get into my old car, my grandmas old one whom I named Philly, she may be old but I loved her, she did the job. I throw my book bag into the passenger seat and then start driving to school.

•Aria•

I wake the next morning and slump into the kitchen, my mom hands me a mug of coffee and I smile at her, "thanks mom." She smiles back and sips her own.

"I don't want to go to school today," I complain. "I know but, this is your last year," she says, trying to be encouraging. "Too longgggg," I whine. "Unfortunately colleges like to see school, Aria," she laughs lightly.

"Maybe I'll just live in a cardboard box..." I ponder. "Well, you're going to start looking like you live in one if you don't get ready soon!" She smiles and I nod, trudging back to my room with my mug of coffee, sipping it on the way.

I throw on the outfit I had laid out the night before and then braid my hair, put on some mascara and throw my shoes on, grabbing my phone and then my book bag. "Alright, bye mom, cmon Evie!" I call to her and she scurries out of her bedroom and follows me out to my car, we start to drive off down to the school and I let her control the music.

We arrive at the school and we go our separate ways, I find Dylan in our usual meet up spot in the locker room, she smiles at me, "Hey!" I smile back, and give her the same greeting and then we set out to do our morning laps, pretty much just discussing what had happened over the weekend secretly, so no other girls would hear it and accuse us of lying or try to make friends with us because of it if they believed us.

—

Heyyyy! Let me know what you thought and make sure to hit that star if you enjoyed this chapter and are enjoying the book!

-laney