Refusing the Inevitable

o n e

    At 7am, my alarm blares into my ear. I groan and cover my head with my pillow, muffling my grunt as I reach for my phone to end the torture my phone had inflicted. I repeatedly tap my phone, hoping to silence the blasting sound, sighing in relief when I finally hit the snooze button.

    I'm about to fall into yet another peaceful sleep when my mum shouts from the kitchen, making sure I'm awake.

    I whine into my pillow before reluctantly rolling out of my bed. I shout back down, screaming angrily, " Yeah, I'm awake!" Before jumping into the shower to quickly wash away any stress of starting my final year of school. I get out, wrapping my hair into a towel before wrapping one around my body, brushing my teeth and proceed to walk into my room.

    I still have just under an hour before I have to get to school so I allow my hair to air dry after pulling the towel from my head, scrubbing at my head while looking through my clothes.

    I pick a simple gray tight top,tucking it into a pair of black, ripped jeans. I add a thin, black belt with a gold buckle and slip on a pair of burgundy ankle boots.

    Sitting in front on my mirror, I brush my hair back, out of my face to apply the very little make up I wear- mascara, concealer under my eyes to hide the bags, and a nude colour of lipstick.

    When I started my first year of high school, I had noticed most girls wore make up, though it may look a bit more dramatic than mine. Ever since, I had taught myself how to do make it so I'd fit in. Social anxiety gave me the fear of standing out; having unwanted attention on me.

~~~

    I make my way downstairs, and, right on time, there is a knock at the door. I open it with open arms, welcoming Maize, my best friend, back into my home after a few long weeks. We hug and my mum enters the hallway, a plate of toast in her hands as she greets, "Hi, Maize! It's great to see you're back! How was your holiday?"

    We follow her into the kitchen as Maize replies with, "Hey, Mrs. Collins. It was great. Two weeks in Spain with so much to do. It got me a great tan," she laughs.

    "Yeah, I can tell." I agree. We continue talking of her holiday, later moving onto the subject of school and the year ahead of us as we help ourselves to the plate of toast my mum had placed down before making her way to work.

    A few minutes later, my younger brother, Lucas, comes running in, wrapping her arms around Maize.

    "Maize!" He yells as his body makes contact with hers and she and I laugh in response. It's fair to say that throughout the eleven years Maize and myself had known eachother, as well as the eight years my brother had grown up with us, he had gotten pretty attached.

    "Hey, Luke," she says as she ruffled his hair, "how was your birthday?" She asks excitedly. His birthday had been in the holidays between school years, August 8th, to be exact.

    "I got Lego, and a transformer car, and-" Luke begins to rant on, listing everything he got in one breath until he ran out of air as Maize listened in exaggerated amazement; my dad entering, tying his tie and chuckling as we were both sure that, at this rate, Lucas would wake up the entire neighborhood.

    He silently took a piece of toast and made his way towards the door, shooting us all a smile that was reciprocated and left without a word, waiting for Lucas in the car so he could drop him off at school. My father was the kind of man that was well known, willing to do anything to help people. He was one of the most appreciated men in Stoke.

    Interjecting Luke and Maize's conversation, I picked Lucas up, an said with a slight strain in my voice, "Alright, Luke." He smiled back at me, his two front teeth missing, and I smiled back. "Dad's waiting for you. It's 8:05am and you need to get to school."