Maybe I Hate You

1 - The First Day of School

282 days left until I'm free. As soon as graduation is over, I'm leaving. I'm going to go see the world. Today is my last first day. I repeat that to myself for a few minutes as I convince myself out of my bed. It doesn't take that long as my bladder is a strong motivator. I sit up and swing my feet over the side of my bed. I stand up but instead of walking, I fall flat on my face. A perfect start.
"Ow." Scott groans as shoves my legs off of him. "You know I've been sleeping on your floor for years and yet you still manage to forget when I'm here."
"I'm sorry," I yawned. "I'm still half asleep."
He rolled his eyes and pulled the covers back over him. I rolled my eyes back and got up to finally head to the bathroom.
Scott starts stretching obnoxiously on the floor where he lies. It's not that we don't have spare rooms for him, hell there's one that's unofficially his, but we both had anxiety about the last first day of school, and he refuses to fall asleep in my bed on purpose. He says it's a respect thing. As I splash my face with water, I think about the first day Scott and I met in kindergarten.

It was the day we came back from winter break. The beginning of one of the worst years of my life. It was the end of the day and most everyone else had already been picked up. I was sitting on the bench outside, waiting. I was used to waiting but this time felt longer than normal.
"Hi." I heard someone say.
I flinched a bit as I was lost in thought and wasn't expecting there to be any humans present. It was a small boy with light hair and blue eyes. He had millions of freckles sprinkled across his face and arms.
"Hi." I blinked back.
"My name is Scott." He held his hand out. "Can I sit with you?"
"My name is Jane, and sure." I awkwardly shook his hand and he sat down next to me.
"If you don't mind me asking, why are you still here?"
"My dad is late, again."
"What about your mom?"
I shrugged. "I haven't seen her since Christmas."
"Oh." There was a brief awkward silence before he quickly filled it. "Well, I'm still here because my parents' car broke down, again. Dad says we'll get a new one in a few months after we are further settled."
"At least he has a good reason," I mumbled.
"Well, now you have someone to wait with."
"It might be a while." I looked down at my feet.
"Then we just have more time to get to know each other."
Scott then proceeded to ask me an obnoxious amount of questions, but it was nice to be distracted. Even once his dad showed up, they gave me a ride home. My dad still wasn't home when I got there, but my new nanny was.

I sighed and came out of the bathroom. Scott wasn't anywhere to be seen, I assumed he was also in the bathroom followed by the kitchen. I began to put on the clothes that I laid out the night before; dark jeans and a basic grey tee. I pulled out a black sweater and set it on my desk chair with my book bag. I stood in front of my mirror to fix my hair into a halfway-decent bun and apply a bit of cc cream followed by mascara, eyeliner, and lip gloss. Not much but enough to keep me from looking dead. I pulled on my black boots and grabbed my bag and sweater before heading downstairs.
I wasn't the least bit surprised to find Scott sitting at the kitchen counter, devouring a bowl of cereal. He looked me up and down and then looked at himself as if he was still in sweats.
"Well shit," he drank the rest of his cereal in several loud glues. "I guess I should get ready."
"Probably," I said setting my stuff on the counter.
Scott stood up and placed his bowl in the sink. "Back in a flash." He said before running up the stairs.
I rolled my eyes and grabbed a bowl for my own breakfast. As I sat and ate I enjoyed the way the morning light looked in the kitchen. There was one small window in front of me above the sink, but most of the light flooded in from the large windows in the living room behind me. The couch is set facing the opposite direction from me toward the TV.

"You ready?" Scott yelled as he came down the stairs.
I finished my cereal with a big gulp and stood up. "Yup!" I called back.
I grabbed my sweater and bag before meeting Scott by the door. He opened it and stepped aside. "After you, madam."
"Why thank you, kind sir," I said jokingly while walking out the door onto the large wrap-around deck. You could feel the summer starting to come to an end in the morning chill.
We walked down the steps together and down to my car. It was a matte black VW Beetle i had been bought for my 16th birthday.  Totally makes up for everything. I hopped in and triple-checked my face in the mirror before starting the car. I took a deep breath and looked at Scott who was doing the same thing. I finally started to back down the driveway when Scott said; "We're stopping for coffee, right?"
"Is that even a question?"