Goodbye

Senior Year

Chapter One

"Mark! We're gonna be late come on!" I scream from the top of my lungs while I wait for my best friend/neighbor to get ready for our first day as seniors. It may be weird, but since him and I have been friends since before we even knew how to talk I had a key to his house and he had one to mine.

My mom is a successful lawyer, like my dad was and I love how she gets to help people; although, I have been practically alone since my dad passed. Mark on the other hand has only a mom in the picture, but it's more like she's not even there. She likes to spend her time in other countries whenever she gets the chance. She  used to take him with her on some trips but it's been years since that's happened, we are almost adults she doesn't even care enough to come see him anymore. His dad was a drunk who left him and his mom when he was five.

I jump in his bed and lay next to him as he tries to ignore I'm there. "Mark we can't miss the first day of senior year." I plainly say as he grunts and puts his head under the pillow. I turn over to look at him and put the pillow under my head for support. He faces the other way trying to get more sleep in and I instead of forcing him, decide to guilt him into waking up. I run my fingers through his hair with a smile, "Fine. We won't go to school today," He turns his head to me and opens one eye, "BUT I will not stay home all day, meaning we have to go out and maybe go to the library where we could learn some things... I mean first day of school there will probably be no work given out, but just to be safe we better get started on some work of our own."

He gives me the look of a frightened baby and gets up from the bed, "We're going to school." He demands and goes to get dressed. I couldn't help but admire his lightly toned back muscles while he walked to the bathroom in his shorts and no shirt. "Is that what you're wearing?" He suddenly turns and looks at me.

I quickly sit up and look down at my t-shirt and favorite jeans, "Yea... do I look bad or something?" I look over at him and he shakes his head. "What's wrong with my outfit?"

"Nothing! Gracie it was just a question."

I get up and make my way to the bedroom door. "I guess I'll go change then."

"Gracie! Nothing is wrong with your outfit."

"If you don't want to tell me what looks bad than I'm changing the whole outfit Mark. "I state firmly while I walk by him. He grabs my arm before I can go and stops me. "What?"

He throws on a hoodie I gave him 2 years ago on his birthday. "You look great, I just thought you might get cold later so I wanted to know if you had a jacket." These were the moments that had me wishing him and I could be potentially more than just friends. "Gracie?"

"I-It's not that cold today and I checked t-the weather, it'll be nice later so I wasn't going to take anything." He gives me a look and rolls his eyes before grabbing one of his sweatshirts and handing it to me. "Mark I'm really fine."

"You can't be getting sick on my watch. You're taking the jacket and that's the end of this discussion because then we'll really be late." He brushes his teeth and grabs his keys before we both head out to school.

When we got to school we had to go to our homerooms, meaning if we had no classes together the first half of the day we probably wouldn't see each other 'til lunch. I had my old English teacher from freshman year as my homeroom and she always welcomed everyone with a basket full of homemade chocolate chip cookies. Mrs. Leopold was the best teacher I had ever had, she cared for her students a lot and even sometimes would give us days where we could work together to finish work from other classes.

Mark wasn't a fan of her because she had given him detention for being late 10 times sophomore year. She knew he was late for walking me all the way across campus to my class even though I told him not to. He wouldn't listen, so she had to make him listen. I get a notification as I went up to get my schedule and it was him, "Good Morning Grace make sure to let Mr. Martinez know I say hello." She signals to my phone knowing he was the one who had texted me.

When I get back to my seat I look at what he had sent me and it was his schedule. I compared it to mine and we both got two free periods. We had one class together and one open period together the other open period was at a different time from mine. I texted him and told him what we had together. He sent me a GIF of a little girl excited and I couldn't help to laugh.

I told him to meet me by the cafeteria after class. When I got there he was surrounded by the soccer boys. "Hey guys." I wave at everyone as I walk next to him. "Do you guys have first period free too?"

Aron, one of the two guys Mark talks to the most, smiles at me and says, "Yea, I was just telling Mark we should go for some breakfast."

"Breakfast sounds great!" I say enthusiastically. "There's an IHOP right down the street from here."

"mmmm I don't know Gracie, by the time we get there-" I cut Mark off and link my arm with Aron.

"If you don't want to go I guess Aron and I will have to without you because I am starving."

"Come on Mark, she's starving, dude." Aron repeats to him and I couldn't help but laugh.

Mark says nothing and the rest of the guys head to class, "Ok I guess it's just us two Aron."

"You won't hear me complain," He looks at me with a smirk before saying, "I'll get to have the best company there is." I couldn't help but blush at how sweet he was being so I look down at the floor.

"Alright! I'll go." Mark quickly says and walks between Aron and I making us let go of each others arm. "Let's go, I'll drive." He walks to the parking lot and makes sure Aron goes in the back.

We decided to not go to 2nd period just so we could enjoy breakfast together. We sat in a booth and Mark sat next to me, but when he went to the restroom Aron moved to my side. "So are you excited we're graduating this year?"

"I guess in a way, are you?"

"No." He replies and shocked at his response I let him elaborate, "I'm going to miss this, hanging out with the guys... you."

"Me?" He moves to face me and gives me a shy smile. "We've never really hung out before."

"I know, but I always see you with Mark and whenever you come around I know it's going to be a great time. I swear, you're great and I wish I got to spend more time with you alone."

"That's really sweet of you Aron I-."

"I was thinking maybe you would want to go on a date sometime?" He blurts out quickly.

"I-" Mark comes back before I could answer Aron and says he had already paid for everything, so we should probably get going. On the ride back to the school I kept looking back at Aron through the sun visor.

I've never gotten asked out before, most people assume Mark and I have something going on, so I was shocked at his question. I didn't know what to say, in a way I was glad Mark had interrupted us.