The things we can't control

Chapter 16

My father walked into the kitchen, placing a kiss on my mother's forehead. I looked at the scene with narrowed eyes. I can't believe she's acting like nothing happened. He deserves to know. 

I shoved the last bite of corn flakes into my mouth and hurried out of the lie-filled-room. I had school in ten minutes, so I was officially late. I grabbed my backpack, slipped on my shoes and glanced at the mirror beside the front door. God, my hair is getting long. I thought, combing through it with my fingers. Out the door I went, with my hands buried in the pockets of my sweater. I love this temperature. It was refreshing. My mouth opened wide like a lion roaring, as I let oxygen reach my brain. I was still pretty sleepy, which made sense because I didn't get much sleep. Last night I was thinking about a lot of things, life in general, but I was mostly just restless. 

I picked up my pace as I realized the bell for school would ring in two minutes. Why didn't I take the bus? What the heck. I wondered, thinking it was really stupid of me. I'm so out of it. I rubbed my eyes, but kept speed walking down the sidewalk. 

After a solid ten minutes longer of hurried walking, my school was in sight. I lightly jogged to the entrance and pressed a buzzer to let me in. My head ached, the thought of learning was not satisfying. I rushed to Mr. Milson's office, the guidance counselor for students whose last names started with the first ten letters of the alphabet. Rubbing my eyes again, I walked in, "You're late, Dylan. Up all night partying or doing homework?" He asked, writing me a late slip. "Neither, I forgot to take the bus this morning. For some reason." I yawned.

He stared at me with suspicion in his eyes, "Alright, get to class," and handed me the slip. 

It was Alice's first day back in school since leaving the hospital. She missed three days and I looked forward to seeing her in school again; it was pretty dull without her, plus I couldn't concentrate until I knew she was okay. I wondered if she was feeling better from last night. But I knew she was a strong person, and she gave me strength whenever I couldn't be strong on my own.

First period wasn't exciting, as usual. Especially because Samantha was in my class and she wouldn't stop staring at me. She still tried to make me jealous, but it didn't work. I mean, at first, seeing her kiss another guy twisted my stomach because I wasn't used to the idea of it. But I've always loved Alice, and kissing her, man, kissing her made me feel something I've never felt with anyone before. The more I thought about kissing Alice the more I wanted to, but I still hadn't bumped into her.

"Dylan, my man." I turned around to a fist pump from Asher. He had an overly large smile on his face that wouldn't go away. "You're in a good mood." I said, glancing around the students that filled the hall in hope to see Alice. 

Asher put his hand on my shoulder, he wouldn't stop moving. "Yeah, someone hooked me up with some MDMA before class." He leaned in close to my face like he was going to kiss me. "You want some?" 

I backed away, "Nah I'm good." 

"Whatever you say, man. But lemme tell you, I feel great."  

"Well you certainly look great," I mocked. He put his hand on my shoulder again, he kept doing that for some reason. "Thanks! Catch you later my man." As I chuckled to myself quietly, my eyes were covered by two cold hands. Hands I was too familiar with. "I've been looking for you." I smiled. "I've been hard to find. I ditched class," Alice replied. I turned around with confusion, "You ditched? Why?" She placed her arms around my neck and smiled, "What's the point, I'm dying." The smile on her face was painful to look at, she acted like she was thrilled to have cancer. Not to mention last night she was really, really down. This was a drastic change, it almost freaked me out. I took her arms off my shoulders and shook my head. "The point is that you're not dying. You're living until you die." Even that was hard to say. She laughed, "Yeah, sure Dylan but you're gonna have to eventually face the fact that I am dying. I mean I've faced it." She just wouldn't lose the smile. It seemed like she was trying to fix her pain by forcing herself to be happy, but maybe I was wrong.