Pained Inhales

Chapter 3

I woke up in bed. Sitting up, I raised my hand to my head. Luke must've carried me back? Shrugging, I got up to notice that I was still in jeans and a flannel from yesterday, but my shoes were gone and my hair was completely down. I walked into the bathroom smiling, undressing and hopping into the shower. While washing my hair I regarded the fact that I had no idea what had happened after Luke said that he would always be there for me.

After getting out of the shower, drying off, and then throwing on some jeans and a sweater, I brushed out my hair. While finishing with a tangled, black curl my phone buzzed. 'Hope you're doing good today, be safe. See ya soon, Love Lukey Pookie <3'

I put it in my back pocket, and grabbed my backpack after applying some makeup. I opened my door to see Brenna standing there, her fist up in mid knock. Her face kind of flushed and she looked at me obviously surprised.

"Sorry, I thought that you'd still be in bed..." She mumbled.

"Well, I got up early this morning," I shrugged and walked down the hallway starting down the stairs. I looked to see Jeff and my mom sitting in the dining room, both having a cup of coffee in their hands. My mom was smiling as she took a drink. They were having a simple morning conversation as I walked in to grab some breakfast.

Jeff finally seeing me, got up quick and scurried over to the fridge. "What'll it be this morning, Ari?" He hadn't said my nickname in over three years.

"Uh, toast and an apple would be fine," I mumbled. He looked over at Brenna as she entered.

"Breakfast Bren?" Jeff asked while pulling butter out of the fridge.

"A Breakfast bar is fine, I guess," she sighed.

I was suddenly aware of my moms gaze fixed on us. I wondered how she was thinking about this sight. Something good must've had happened after I had left last night. She was smiling when I turned my attention back towards her. Taking another sip from her coffee she got up and went out of the dining room.

Jeff turned to hand us our food, kissing us on the forehead as we took it.

"Hope you two have a good day today," he smiled as he pulled back from Brenna and strutted out of the room. Brenna stood, her mouth agape, and looked over at me.

"What. Was. That?" She squeaked. I shrugged and took a bite out of my apple. She looked at me, her eyes scanning every square inch of me. "You look really pretty today. Your face isn't as pale, and did you do your makeup? You know I saw in seventeen magazine that that's a perfect winged tip for your type of eye shape," she told me, her face blank.

I hadn't really been expecting another surprise and wasn't sure how to respond to her compliment. A smile tugged at the corner of my lips and I took another bite of my apple.

"Let's go," I slurred through a mouth full of green apple. Brenna nodded and followed at my heels as I walked out of the kitchen towards the front door. We were silent when exiting the house and even while getting into the car, but it was a nice silence, not too awkward.

Sure my morning had been abnormal, for me, but at least our morning drives hadn't been changed. We were about 10 minutes from school when Brenna finally turned on the radio. We only got 4 stations in this small town. So it wasn't hard for her to know what station to put it on. 'Not everything can change in a single day,' I thought. Boy, was I sure wrong.

•••

It was about 7:25 when I heard the news, there was a new boy in school. I heard it everywhere I went. Like, 'Oh did you see his hair?' , 'Yes! How about his eyes?!', I even heard 'he looks like he has a firm butt.' I honestly didn't see what the big deal was. I was walking with Luke and a few of our other friends, and we were all laughing about a joke our fiend Garett had said.