summertime

f**k this small town

ava jane

100 days, i've been living in this picturesque suburb. the ones you would see in those teen movies about coming into your own. except, i was not made for those movies.

i'ma non-binary lesbian who goes through a pronoun change every other month. i've lived my whole life in sunny california, i had a small group of friends who were all losers, but actually cool people. then, my parents in the summer before sophomore year decided, let's move our whole family and lives at the end of the year.

february 22nd, the day my family moved to renolds, maine. i moved 2 months into the second semester.

i miss california, but i have to live with it. the whitest state in america that is maine, is my home until i graduate high school.

"ava! hunny please come here," my ever loving mother yells across the house. i groan and reply,"coming mom."

i see my parents sitting at the kitchen table and walk over slowly. the last time this happened, i was told we're moving to maine. "hi honey, you're father and i wanted to speak to about your lack of, um, friends," my mom says with a slight nervousness in her voice.

"hey, i do have, uh um, a friend. that's good enough. there's no need for me to be in a whole ass group of people for me to have friends. i'm fine," i say defensively. my dad says," honey, you're going to summer school."

hold on, there's no way i'm going to summer school. i have a 4.0 gpa, an a in all my classes. that's like the one fucking thing i'm good at. now i have to go to summer school.

i grab my phone and the car keys. i am honestly not in the mood for a speech from my parents about how this is for my own good, that i'll learn from this experience.

i turn on the ignition and reverse out of the driveway. i drive to the first place i could think of, forrest rivers blue's house. forrest is the first and only friend i made by myself. my other friend is phoenix miller, but he's out of town until next week.

i knock on their door and i hear a bunch of mashing and banging from their room to the front door.

"hello, uh, what the fuck was going on? it sounded like you were going through a fucking war," i say as step foot in their house.

the house is white, smooth and overall minimalistic. that's every room, except for forrest's room. it's covered in posters and polaroids of phoenix, them and i. the walls are sage green.

there's 3 pride flags hung up on their wall. a non-binary flag, a gay male flag and the progress flag. overall, the room is cute and also like the only room in the whole goddamn town that has any personality.

"guess what, my parents are sending me to a summer school program. now i have to go to school all over again," i say in a huff.

"guess what, my parents also signed me up for the program and phoenix's parents did the same. they are planning our downfall," forrest said, pacing around their room.

looks like i have to go to school tomorrow, i fucking hate it here.

leo madden-smith

just before i get the chance to get out the door, i hear a classic," where do think you're going,"my mother's catchphrase. i turn around and respond," i was going to get lunch with my friends."

she gives her knowing stare and i give her a stare back.

my mom is a, how do i say this, a special breed. she's caring, loving and sometimes a total bitch. i'm one too, so i can't really say shit. she isn't the biggest fan of the fact that i want to be an artist.

she wants to me to be work for some corporation or to work in the economic sector. i can barely do any math, let alone make this shit my whole goddamn life.

i proceed to walk out the door and to my car. i drive down to melton's house, my best friend.

melton is peculiar case. he's always been a rebellious kid, from when we were 4 years old to now. he gets into fights, almost went to juvenile detention for repeated acts of violence.

he got his first tattoo at 15, which is totally illegal, but he couldn't really give less of a fuck about it. he's kissed almost every person in the whole school body. he hasn't kissed 12 people in the whole school, and they're all lesbians.

he's, how do i say this, a total whore. i love him, he is my goddamn best friend. he just doesn't understand what the word commitment means. apparently has an allergy to it, or whatever the fuck he is trying to use for the fact that he kissed everyone at school. me included, but we don't speak about those days.

i sit there in his room, i wish i could hide out here, but his mom would just tell my mom that i'm here. you see, my mom put in a summer school program, she wants me to have great grades and a perfect repertoire for my college applications.

was this close to having a fun summer before my senior year of high school, but my mom happend so there was no way that was happening.

i lay on the floor of his bedroom, as some random song is playing in the back. it's his turn to play music right now, i let him, because i could not genuinely give less of a fuck today. i'm to busy wallowing in my own sadness.

"dude, you do great in school, you can do whatever the fuck you want for summer school. tyler and i are going to be there so you don't have to go through this alone," melton says to me.

no matter how much he tries to play himself as the cool guy 'who doesn't give a fuck', i know for a full fact that he gives a fuck. he just puts up the act for fun. he's basically an anxiety ridden nerd underneath his exterior.

as they say, life's a bitch, but what i say is a very effective, fuck off. yeah, you know what
fuck this, annoying, stupid small town in the middle of goddamn maine.

i hate it here and almost everyone here.

*split screen between ava and leo*

"fuck this small town"

*author's note*

let's hope that this one sticks through