Behind These Bruises...

Behind These Bruises...[Part 12]

Monday.

Why did people hate Mondays so much? I feel bad for Monday. I mean, if you think about it, if the weekend was extended to include Monday, then people would hate Tuesday. Really, whatever the beginning day of the school/work week is, it will be hated. The poor days of the week.

I was depressed. I felt like my life was at an all time low. I hadn't felt this crummy since my mother passed away. And that was exactly what was bothering me currently.

Talking to Leah's mom brought to surface the emotions that I had managed to bury the previous spring. It had been 7 months, a little over half a year, since my mother's death. I missed her. She was the only I could talk to about anything. Yeah, I had Alisha. But having a mother was a different matter. Every girl needs her mother, no matter what kind of mother she is.

"Mila?" Alisha asked, snapping her fingers in front of my face. I blinked and looked at her.

"What?" I asked.

"What are you thinking about?" she asked. We were at lunch, inside again, because it was raining.

"Nothing," I replied, looking down at my untouched food.

"You know better than to lie to me," Alisha said. I looked up at her.

"I'm just having one of those days," I said.

"Well, whenever you're ready to talk, I'm here," she told me. I forced a smile and nodded. We heard loud laughter coming from Leah's table. We both glanced over. Leah had her hand on Derek's arm and her head was thrown back, a giddy expression on her face. Derek was the only person at the table not laughing. 

Leah had made it official that her and Derek were dating this morning. The whole school knew. I tried avoiding Derek in all of my classes. This was difficult, seeing as I had three classes with him and one of them I had to sit next to him.

Alisha was being very supportive, always shooting out snide comments about how big a jerk Derek was and how douche-y Leah was. I sat silently and listened to her, not agreeing or disagreeing.

"What are you doing after school?" Alisha asked.

"I need to study. I have a Sociology exam on Wednesday that I haven't started studying for yet," I answered. This was partially a lie. Sociology was an easy class. I didn't need to study for it. I just didn't want to be social at all.

"Oh. Yeah, I need to study, too. Biology exam on Friday. Cell respiration and crap. I hate that stuff. So confusing," Alisha said. I nodded. The bell for the end of lunch rang. We gathered our stuff and walked off to our separate classes. Alisha went off to the science department for Biology. I made my way to the social sciences department for Sociology.

"Mila!" I heard. I turned to see Kyle walking towards me.

"Hey Kyle," I said quietly, continuing to walk. He walked in step with me.

"Umm, how are you?" he asked. I shrugged.

"Tired," I answered.

"Yeah, Mondays..." he mumbled. "I was wondering if you were busy Friday night. I thought maybe we could catch a movie or something," he said casually. I stopped walking and he did, too.

"I'm really sorry, Kyle. I would love to, but I'm just...I'm dealing with family stuff right now. I'm not planning on being very social this week," I said. He looked disappointed and I felt a pang of guilt when I saw his expression sadden. "Maybe next week," I added, not knowing why. His expression lifted a bit.

"Great! Well, I guess I'll see you around, Mila," he said, giving me a pearly white smile. I nodded and walked off to class. I needed to stop being so nice. I sat down in my seat and put my head down. I promptly fell asleep. The sound of the bell ringing woke me up. I started and looked around as people were packing their bags to go home. I put my books away and started to get up, but Mr. Callahan, my teacher, stopped me.