Just you and I

VIII

I feel someone tapping my leg as I'm listening to what I think is the third song, I flinch and open my eyes, I'm greeted with the familiar amber eyes I've come to see quite often lately.

I take off my headphones and wait for her to say whatever it is she has to say.

"You're on my bench."

Yeah right. I put my headphones back on and close my eyes again. I don't feel like being nice after how she's been acting.

I feel her picking up my legs, sitting down and then putting them back down, this time they're on her lap. I sigh and make some noises that mean 'i'm annoyed'. I take my headphones off and look at her.

"I get that I'm amazing and all, and I know how much you've been wanting to spend quality time with me, since you've been given me detention every 2 seconds. But seriously is annoying me all you have to do?"

She laughs. Like an actual genuine laugh, I've never seen her do that, didn't even think she was capable of it. She gets little dimples when she smiles, just like Sofia does, they're adorable.

"Saylor, I've been coming to this bench since I started teaching, you're not that special." She went from laughing to a serious look on her face.

I put my hand on my heart and give her a fake devastating look. She shakes her head and chuckles.

"What are you listening to?" She points to my headphones in my hands. I look at the song on my phone that's playing right now from my playlist. "Family line by Conan gray."

I get sad thinking about it, the song hits close to home. I've been in my head a lot more lately, wondering how my parents are, what they're doing. They've tried to reach out, especially in the beginning of the summer.

I picked up the first few times, thinking they wanted to apologise, or thinking it was an emergency, they just screamed at me, clearly drunk.

After I hung up the last time, I never picked up again. They stopped calling, started texting.
I'd just leave them on delivered, no point in arguing with someone who doesn't have the ability to hear you.

I feel Ms. Jones putting her hand on my leg, I flinch since I was surprised by it. It was completely out of nowhere. She takes her hand back. "Sorry, you were shaking."

That's just my triggers acting up, shaking, scratching, panicking, all the fun stuff.

I take my legs off of her lap, and sit down with my knees up against my chest instead. I rest my head on my knees and just stare off in nature.

"Why did you tell me you were just visiting your sister in town?"

"Because I kind of was. I didn't used to live here, I had to drive a few hours every day just to teach. I stayed with my sister a lot. I started moving closer in the beginning of summer. Just took me a lot of trips to get all my stuff here, the day I saw you and Sofia was the first day I actually got to explore the town."

I guess that makes sense, although I would never drive that far every single day for some students who probably couldn't care less about school.

"What about you?"
"Um, moved here last summer."
"Is Sofia yours?"
I laugh out loud, "no, she's my sister dummy"

She smiles but in a shy or embarrassing way.
"I didn't want to assume."

I give her a small smile. Yes, a small one.
Just a tiny one, I'm not a cold-hearted robot.

"Thanks for not assuming. I mean I guess I've been more her parent than our actual parents ever were. But biologically, she's my sister. Well, half-sister."