Holding On // Jack Gilinksy

Chapter 1

The first thing I felt once I woke up this morning was pure dread. It was a typical Monday morning and my feet were freezing cold from sleeping with a short blanket that barely covered my toes, my hair looked like a bird's nest, my face was breaking out, and I just hated Monday's in general. There's really no point in Monday's but either way we have to start out the weekend somehow right?

Although I may have woken up in a rather disgusting way, there was still a hint of hope for a better Monday. My friend and I were planning to ditch school and go to the Louvre which I thought was a dreadful idea but she seemed to really want to ditch and what could I say? I didn't want to go to school either so I gave in. Claire, my friend, has this fetish for art although she doesn't paint and I on the other hand just appreciate art so what's a better place than to go to the Louvre? We weren't that far away anyways.

I was putting my hair up in an ugly, basic ponytail when I suddenly heard the daily obnoxious knock on my front door, Claire.

" Come in!" I yelled as I walked to the closet to get my purse. Claire and I decided to go eat breakfast out in the local coffee shop because she said Shawn was going to be there and she has a huge crush on him so I didn't want to be mean and say no even though I third wheel when I'm with them.

Claire has had a major crush on Shawn since what seems like forever (actually since 9th grade). She is always talking about how cute he looks when he's brewing her coffee in the mornings and to be honest he actually is. Shawn is beautiful, he has brown hair and a nice body but he's not my type. He's very sweet and very friendly and I occasionally talk to him, I can see why Claire has a crush on him.

Claire walks into my living room leaving a trail of muddy water and chunks of wet dirt all over my floor. She doesn't seem to notice and I roll my eyes, " There's a super cool invention called a doormat you know? I think they're used so you can wipe your dirty shoes before you enter someone's house so you won't leave a trail of mud everywhere, I think I happen to have one too!" I sarcastically exclaimed. Claire just shrugged her shoulders and sat on my couch, I stood there looking at her, waiting for her to react but she didn't, this was my cue to go get the mop and clean Claire's dirty mess myself.

" Wow Audrey you look like you're in such a good mood!" Claire rolled her eyes so fiercely that they looked like they were going to roll back so far she would be able to look at her brain, if she had one.

" Ha ha very funny, Claire." I told her, my voice obviously unamused with her sarcastic remark. Claire and I have a very weird relationship which consists of being very sarcastic and rude, love, trust, and humor. I guess she is like a sister to me, we are legit inseparable.

Once I finished cleaning Claire's mess she instantly got up and started walking out the door with me following behind. My " house " was actually an apartment in Paris but I've lived in it all my life so it's home to me. My dad has always had this dream of living in one of those cliché vintage apartments in Paris so that leads us to where we are today.

The elevator ride down the building was quiet and peaceful. I enjoy mornings like this, me and Claire don't really need to talk because we like to save our conversations for later, it's a nice thing of ours.

When I got out of the elevator and outside the building I noticed that it was raining very hard and me and Claire forgot an umbrella.

" Did you bring an umbrella?" Claire asked me.

" No, it just started raining out of nowhere I'm not some fortune teller."

" Oh god, I guess we have to walk through all this rain now, at least the coffee shop is like, right next to your apartment though." Claire told me, I nodded and put up the hoodie on my jacket so it wouldn't mess up my hair and she did the same thing. We sprinted out of the building like maniacs, getting annoyed looks from bystanders walking past us but Claire and I didn't care. We stopped once we reached the coffee shop and we panted like worn out dogs, dripping rain water all around the entrance floor.