At 17 years old Sage Aurora never thought she would be stuck trying to rebuild her life and mending her heart.
Throughout her younger years she thought nothing could stop her. She was popular, free-spirited, and felt on top of the world. At least t...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Squirming on the plastic-coated seat in the most annoying class ever created, were your exposed legs. It wasn't even summer yet, but the morning air felt sweltering, akin to living in the dead heat of Satan's ass crack. Amid the droning words about economics, your gaze floated towards the open window, tracing the vacant expanse of the parking lot outside. Your head rested in the palm of your hand as you slouched over your desk, yearning to be anywhere but there. Even as you tried to lose yourself in a pleasant daydream, your imagination remained elusive. Not even that felt like showing up for support. A moment of silence jolted you back to reality, and you glanced over at the teacher, relieved to find they weren't addressing you. You had thought somewhere in your Economic daydream your teacher realized you didn't give a shit about being there.
Your body slumped further in the chair, the empty parking lot offering little respite from the class. Your restless fingers flicked a pencil across the paper, seeking distraction from the stifling atmosphere. You were fidgeting with anything that could keep you from the red hot energy that pulled you to the right. It had been a week since you and Eddie ceased communication. Yet every Tuesday, his presence in first-period Econ served as a painful reminder. You'd push past it during the day, going on your merry way and forgetting about him, only to see him in the lunch room or the hallways later on. You would have assumed existing in each other's worlds would have ceased to exist, but you couldn't escape him even if you tried. Although you didn't try very hard.
You and him didn't hang out anymore, or speak to each other, but despite the distance, you two were still connected through passing glances and subtle interactions. He would give you faint smile as you walked by his empty locker in the hallway, or you would give him the smallest hint of happiness in the parking lot if you two arrived at the same time. This morning you pulled in as he stomped out his cigarette, and you quietly trailed behind him, noticing his eyes on you as you both checked the reflections in the cars as you walked by. It was little things like that which showed the two of you were still connected. A testament to the unresolved feelings lingering beneath the surface.
You were thankful he didn't completely despise you for probably ripping his heart out, assuming he liked you that much, but although he didn't completely ignore you, this allowed your saturated heart to remain damp. Holding onto a sliver of each other pained you more than the latter, and the delicate connection weighed heavily on your heart, contrasting with the ease of being forgotten. Each passing moment with a trace of Eddie reopened old wounds, leaving you torn between longing for closure and yearning for indifference. Maybe you wished he'd pretend to not know you at all. Then maybe it would be easier to forget him.
As nervous energy manifested in the tapping of your pen, you grew increasingly hyper-aware of your surroundings, realizing you had been doing it longer and louder than intended. Yet no one seemed to be bothered. You were projecting your own anxiety onto those around you, but still, no one else seemed to care. You lifted your legs one-by-one again to unstick them from the plastic coated wooden chair and forced yourself to sit up straight. This class was going to be the death of you.
