It's a Sign of the Times

Chapter One: A Day in the Life

The first sign that today was going to be weird was that my alarm clock didn't go off. I wake up peacefully, squinting at the light coming through my curtains. The gentle breeze makes its way through the window caresses my face and I close my eyes, hoping to drift off to the sound of the birds chirping from outside my window. 

A full minute hadn't even passed yet when my phone began to vibrate. I sleepily reach around and grab it, glaring at the bright screen. The caller in question is Adam, my boyfriend. We've been dating for about five months at this point and he's the best part of my life most of the time. We got in a fight last night though, so he's probably calling to do damage control. I swipe my phone and answer the call.

"Hey," I say, my voice raspy from sleep. 

"Where are you?" He demands. Woah. Not the wake-up I was expecting. 

"What do you mean? I'm obviously at home." I sit up in my bed and rub my eyes, looking around for my glasses. "You literally have my location on." I get out of bed and push my glasses onto my face and stumble towards the kitchen. My mom is sitting at the table with her eyebrow raised in a questioning manner. Whatever.

"Babe, I'm streaming right now. I didn't want your actual location," Adam scoffs. 

"Okay, well I just woke up. Give me a couple minutes," I explain, grabbing a box of waffles from the freezer. I guess we're not getting an apology this morning. 

He sighs. "It's just embarrassing when my own girlfriend doesn't even want to support me," he says. "Not to mention, it's already eleven in the morning."

"Adam, I had a rough night, just give me a bit," I continue. "We'll talk later." I hang up on him, sick of his attitude. My mom's full attention is on me now and I give her a weak smile to reassure  her. "He's just in a bad mood this morning," I say, more to myself than to her.

"Seems like he's always in a bad mood these days," she says carefully. "I just want you to be careful, Chloe."

"I know," I say unconvincingly. I return to my phone and open the groupchat that I and my two best friends share. There's 45 unread messages, most of it nonsense and I skim them to see if I actually missed anything important. We'd made plans to hang out at noon, so I give up on reading through the messages and go to get ready instead. They'll fill me in on whatever happened once I see them.

I shower and blow dry my long, red hair. How could Adam be mad at me for not watching this one live stream? I watch him stream all the time. It just seems so insensitive for him to completely blow over how I might be feeling. I zone back in and my scalp is burning from not moving the blow dryer enough. Yikes. Whatever, it's not like I do enough with my hair for it to matter if I burn it all off or not. 

I pull on my black skinny jeans and band tee. It's my favorite band, Panic! At The Disco. They're super underground and it always feels good to step away from the mainstream music that my friends listen to. I shrug on a red flannel and put my hair up in a messy bun and pull out a couple of baby hairs to frame my face. I smirk to myself, thinking about all of the time my friends are probably spending getting ready. I just don't care enough about my appearance for it to really matter. I swipe on a quick layer of mascara and head out the door. I never liked wearing too much makeup. It just felt fake to me and Adam always says he likes it better when I'm natural. I hate those girls that absolutely cake makeup on their face. It just seems so deceptive.

We're meeting at Caris's house today. The drive to her house isn't terribly long and I play some of my favorite songs on the way. It lets me prepare for all the girly music that Caris and Jobeth will make me listen to today. I shoot the groupchat a text that I'm outside and turn off my car. They meet me at the door and I smile at my best friends. 

"Thank God you're here," Jobeth says, shoving open the door. I look down at her and laugh. She's the most dramatic person I know. She and Caris both give me a hug before we head inside.

We all take a seat on Caris's bed and I look around Caris's room. It's very...Caris-like. Her yellow walls and pictures she has hanging all over fit her personality really well. It's just not my vibe. I'd prefer a much darker room. 

"Wait, I didn't get a chance to read what you guys were talking about earlier," I say. "Fill me in."

Jobeth and Caris exchange excited glances. 

"Well," Caris begins. "You know One Direction?"

I rack my head for any information about 'One Direction,' but come up short. "Nope," I say bluntly.

A gasp escapes Jobeth's mouth and I can't help but laugh. "What is it?"

"It's not an 'it,'" Caris explains. "It's a band."

"What, are they all boys or something?" I guess. I glance over at Jobeth and she nods.

"They're a really influential band and we love their music," she begins. I nod, showing that I'm following what she's saying.

"Basically, they're going on tour and we want to go to their concert," Caris jumps in. They both look at me expectantly.

"Okay," I say. I'm not sure why they're telling me this. Even though we're a group, they don't need my permission to hang out without me. We all know this. 

They look at each other again. "No, we meant we all want to go. We want you to come with us," Jobeth explains. She pulls up a picture of the group on her phone and shows me. It's just five average looking boys standing in a line. I can already tell I'd hate their music, but I don't want to burst their bubble. 

"Guys, that sounds super fun, but I'm not really interested," I begin. Caris deflates a little and guilt begins creeping in. "I just don't think that it's something I'd really enjoy, I'm sorry. But you guys can still go and have fun without me."

"Come on, it'd be fun," Jobeth says and Caris immediately nods. 

"It really would be and even if they aren't something that you'd normally listen to, it's still something that we can do together and have fun with. Besides, you love concerts. You're always dying to go to My Chemistry's Love's concert," Caris pleads.

"First of all, it's My Chemical Romance, but I appreciate the effort. Second of all, my answer is no. But you guys have fun!" I encourage my friends. 

I knew today was going to be weird.