Ephemeral

Check Engine Light

Jonah and I were about to walk into our second class of the day, which just so happened to be English. I had got at least four hours of sleep last night since I was organizing those damn slides to our powerpoint...and we were meant to present today.

Brendon had complimented me on how terrible I was looking this morning – in fatherly fashion before Esther hit him in the upper arm with a glare.

This day was just beginning and I was already feeling drained – I had bags underneath my eyes. I felt the golden medallion around my neck...it was unnecessarily heavy today. That, or I was feeling incredibly tired and worn out.

I might have overdone it at the gym yesterday or something...even my arms and legs were weaker than usual.

"You ever notice how everything is going great in your life," Jonah placed his hand on the door handle of the classroom and pulled it open. "Then, the check engine light turns on in your car?" He held the door open for me as I trudged my feet through the door.

"No?" I asked, not completely aware of what he had asked me. I looked at him from the corner of my eyes. It took a few seconds as my mind slowly processed what he had just said. "Wait...Since when did you get a car?"

Jonah giggled lightly. "That's not the point – the point is," he stressed, taking a step into the classroom. "It's a bad omen."

We made our way to our seats in the back of the classroom.

"So, you don't have a car?" I questioned, wondering why he was using that analogy to begin with. "What's the bad omen that happened to you today, anyway?" I had wanted him to get to the point of it all. "Wake up on the wrong side of the bed? Your toothpaste splash you in the eyes when you were brushing?"

Jonah stared wide eyed at the last example. "I had that happen to me before and it burned for a couple minutes..." He shook his head before he shivered.

I let out a sigh and sat down in my seat.

It was pointless to talk to Jonah when it was still in the morning.

He wasn't about to become fully awake until after lunch when he had some food in him.

I blinked my eyes tiredly and the students were filling up the room. In the next five minutes the room was completely filled up, and the first presenters were headed up there, wasting absolutely no time.

Hearing them talk about whatever the hell they were talking about up there was...soul draining.

I tugged at the dark purple tank top that I was wearing. I decided to wear my black converse today and was tapping one foot impatiently on the floor. I didn't know why I was getting so nervous about presenting – it could have been the coffee that I had this morning or my irrational fear of public speaking.

Jonah gave me a glance with his laid back smile on his face.

It did nothing to help soothe my anxiety that I was currently feeling. My elbow was resting on the edge of the desk and my blonde, curly short hair fell in front of my shoulders.

Yes, even with everything that I had gone through in my life...public speaking was still a deeply rooted fear of mine.

"You're going to cause an earthquake with that thing," Jonah muttered out, leaning in close to my desk. I gave him a pointed look and slowly smiled, increasing the tapping speed of my foot to just make him irritated and anxious so that he could feel what I was. "Calm down, mama. Damn..." He brushed his hair back with his hand. "Starting to make me get stressed out."