~•Me And The Boys•~

1 ~ Back To Business

The morning I had to go back to school was the day I dreaded. Getting up at five in the morning, showering, and dressing all having a very broken foot isn't ideal.

I bend slightly over the counter, holding myself up with one hand and holding my comb in the other. Combing my hair down to its usual position and staring into the mirror, I loudly exhale, not exactly ready to start my day. 

My eyes slowly drift down to my neck, where multiple nevi were. A few of them were scarred over or had scabs on them because of my habit of scratching and messing with them. I drop the comb and push myself away from the mirror, deciding to skip out on brushing my teeth, because why the hell not. It's not like I had anybody to brush them for, they were yellow and grimy anyway, and brushing them once wouldn't change that.

My mother called out to me, yelling and asking if I was ready. 

"Just a second, ma!" I yelled back to her. I pause to take another glance at the mirror before speeding out of the bathroom.

I made it down the stairs, which proved to be difficult because every step was agony. She looks up from her phone for not even a second before going back to some King brand game, blaring the shitty music as usual. Hilarious how she spends all day on her phone, but won't let her high-school age son who plays football have one.

"Finally, what took you so long? I thought that you fell in for a second! I almost went in there and fished you out!" She laughs at her own mediocre attempt at a joke before gesturing to my binder.

"Oh, quit being such a party pooper. Get your stuff, we don't want to be late!" She smiles at me, standing up and finally putting the phone down

As she said, I took my binder off of the table and hurried out the door. As long as I believed that it would be a great day, it would be.

I use my crutches to the best of my ability on the hole filled driveway and hop in the front seat, waiting for her slow ass to get in the car and start driving.

She eventually gets in and starts the car, responding to some text.

"Mom, come on, we don't want to be lateee," I groaned, to which she just looked over at me and glared.

"I don't like your attitude, mister. Drop it or you're in trouble." She threw it out as an empty threat. I knew she wouldn't act, she never did. She just pretended that she would keep me from going to practice, which right now doesn't even matter.

It's not like she could take anything from me, I don't have any electronics, and I don't care what she does or tries to do.

I turn to face the window and roll my eyes as we finally get moving. We fly down the road, passing a bus and many, many homes. I wonder, how many children are in these homes? Do they go to my school and I don't know it?

"What's got you so quiet? Normally, you're talking my ear off!"

I hesitate before answering. Do I really have to tell her what's been on my mind? No. Instead, I decided to go with a basic answer to get her off my tail.

"I'm just tired. School sucks." I replied. She doesn't respond, and I glance over to her.

"You know, you can tell me anything, right?" She questions, sounding genuinely concerned.

"I know, I know, I'm fine," I grottily reply to her worry as we pull up to the school front.

She sighs, eventually giving it up and starting to yell at the car in front of us for going too slow or something, even though we were way past the speed limit. I saw familiar parks and houses fly by, and eventually we came up on the roads that would bring me to school.

She yells some more about how tired she is or whatever and again, yells at me for nothing.

I ignore her, starting at the trees and doing that dumb thing where you imagine some guy is going the same speed as the car and doing parkour.

She rants on and on, giving me a headache, switching the topic every two minutes. I close my eyes, trying not to listen to her latest rant about how ungrateful I am.

"And you kids these days- Landon are you even listening to me?"

"Yes, ma. I'm listening." I respond without opening my eyes.

"Don't give me attitude. It was a question. I swear, you kids these days never know how to respect your elders."

I resist to the urge to ask if that makes her old, even though it would have been hilarious, and she is in fact old.

I shake my head, making up scenarios, trying to imagine how my friends would react, but all of the scenarios came out bad. I suppose I'm just good at that.