High School Never Ends

Chapter Three

I narrowly avoided the conversation with my mum. When I woke up that night she was already heading to bed and Ali was heading out. I was quite pissed that he was probably going out drinking with his friends and not inviting me.

Okay, maybe I do have a tiny bit of a drinking problem.

A TINY problem.

Having nothing better to do I laid in bed going through my Instagram feed only to find a picture of Al and Francis.

Looking... happy.

I mean, I should be happy for Alfie, I really should. But I can't bring myself to care. Getting pissed off at Alfred I threw my phone across the room and forced myself to go back to sleep.

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My mum woke me up that morning by patting my head.

"Artie, Artie wake up. It's time for school." My mum cooed. I grunted, "Artie you've been sleeping for 20 hours, are you okay?" She worried.

"Huh? Oh, yeah," I yawned, "'M okay." She wasn't convinced, I could tell. She looked sad, and it pained me to know that it was probably from me.

"Artie..." She sighed and didn't meet my eyes, "You have a doctor's appointment after school."

"What?" I screeched, "What kind of appointment mum?"

"Ah, it's getting late sweetie, get ready for school." She smiled weakly, kissed my head, and walked out the door.

'bloody hell.' I thought and got ready for school. I smelled the pancakes cooking on the griddle but I wasn't hungry. So I showered, got dressed, and headed out without eating, stating how I don't have time to eat today, I'll miss the bus.

I met Alfred at our bus stop, sans Francis. I couldn't help but to feel a wee bit excited to figure out that Francis wasn't coming to school today.

"Hey, Artie." Alfred yawned, "Franie is sick, he's not coming to school today." He stated.

I allowed myself to smile ever so slightly "I'm sorry Al."

"Nah, it's okay. He should be getting better. Oh! Yeah, I forgot to tell you, Gil's gonna be having a Halloween party tomorrow, wanna come?" He said all too excited.

"Of course, if it's Gil's party there's bound to be," I paused, I wanted to say beer, but Al didn't need to know that, "it's" bound to be a good time." I smiled and looked at him.

He didn't seem to be convinced, but he didn't peruse it. The bus came soon after, talk about saved by the bus.

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I didn't want to go home after school, but going to Alfred's house would of been too obvious so I found myself going home. My mum's car was there and I felt bad. She must of called in sick so she could take me to this... appointment.

"Mum I'm home!" I yelled, tossing my backpack beside the door.

"Great! Just in time," she smiled, "We have to get going in 10 minutes, I don't want us to be late." She smiled ever so innocently. I groaned, not liking where this was heading. But it's not like I could do anything about it. She was determined to get me to this appointment and once she was determined to do something hell, she was going to do it. So, in about 8 minutes she lead me to the car and we were on our merry way.

"Mum, what kind of doctor is this?" I asked.

She paused and bit her lip 'oh no' I thought, "Well, Artie, it's um.," she took a deep breath, "It's a therapist."