Out Of Sight, Out Of Mind - Treebros

Chapter 38: "You Will See A Better Day"

Sunday, June 9th

Something about the clicking of the colorful plastic snapping into place is soothing, like a clock ticking. It's easy to let myself get lost into the rhythm of searching for the pieces.

I had been cleaning my room. I hadn't cleaned it in a while, and it got kind of messy. Old homework was strewn around the floor, socks and shirts tossed about. A year ago, I never would have stood for this. A year ago, I would have broken down at the sight of it. Now, though, I can't bring myself to care a whole lot. But I'm bored. And this gives me something to do.

I had been clearing away the junk under my bed when I found an old LEGO box from when I was 8 or 9. It was astronaut themed, with pieces for a moon and spaceship. I figured I had time to kill, and started building it. It's nice. I don't have time to think about school or friends or Connor.

My phone rings from across the room. Speak of the Devil and he shall appear. Not that Connor's the Devil. It's just a saying. Whatever.

"Connor?" I ask, holding the phone up to my ear after I accept the call. Why is he calling me? He knows I usually don't like calling unless it's an emergency.

"Are you coming or what?" he asks. He sounds mad. What's new, though?

"What are you talking about?"

"My house. We were supposed to hang out at my house at 2pm. I don't know if you've fucking noticed, but it's 4:29," he answers. Since he can't see me, I roll my eyes. He didn't even bother to check the date before yelling at me.

"That's not today. That's next week. My mom's supposed to have the night off tonight so we said next week," I correct, sighing. As if he even needs an excuse to be mad at me anymore. I just can't do anything right, apparently.

"No, we said 2 and then you were going to go back by 5 because your mom had the night off," he says, voice patronizing and haughty. Before I can bite back a reply, I remember planning this and sitting next to him stiffly in AP Psych.

"I thought we rescheduled it?"

"We talked about it but we decided on today," he explains, exasperated. I bristle, squeezing the small yellow brick in my hand.

"Well, it's not my fault that I forgot so I don't know why you're so angry about it." It's not like I tried to forget. He knows I've been making an effort, so why is he so mad? It was a one time thing.

"Really? You can't just say sorry?" I'm being unreasonable. I should just apologize.

But he's the one who came into this conversation with guns blazing before even hearing me out.

"You immediately called angry and now I'm the one being unreasonable?" I scoff. The plastic corner of the LEGO pierces my skin.

"I never said you were unreasonable! I'm angry because we had this planned for a week and you forgot! For what? What could you be doing that's so important that you blew me off?" he asks. Definitely not building a LEGO spaceship.

"I- I'm just cleaning my room," I stammer. Because I consciously made the decision to ditch him for that. Of course.

"Oh, okay! Of course! No wonder you didn't show up, you're so fucking busy!" Connor yells.