Summer School

two

"How was school nerd?" Austin asked me immediately when I got home, poking his head out of the kitchen.

"Fuck off." I grumbled at my brother, hanging up my keys and kicking my shoes off. Hungry, I went into the kitchen and dumped my bag on the bench.

"You smell like smoke." Austin accused as I grabbed an apple.

"Alright Mom." I rolled my eyes at him. 

"I'll tell Mom you smoked again."

"If you do I'll tell her about the porno magazines you hide under your mattress." I countered, taking a bite out of my apple as I opened the fridge. Austin was silent, and then he huffed, grabbing his plate and leaving me alone. 

Taking out a can of coke, I grabbed my bag and went up to my room. I plugged my computer in to charge and left everything on my desk before flopping down onto my bed and taking out my phone. Scrolling through my messages, I replied to a few friends and then switched to Facebook, mindlessly tapping through posts. That annoying 'people you might know' post popped up and I moved to scroll past it before my eyes caught on the second profile. It was Travis.

Curious, I clicked on it. His profile picture was of him and a little boy, maybe four or five. It must be his son that he'd mentioned when he was introducing himself. I peered at the photo, noting how the little boy was pretty much a copy and paste of Travis, except for the dark curly hair. He was pretty cute. 

Moving past that, I scrolled through his page. He didn't post, but he'd been tagged in a few that I looked at. Just things like vacations, birthdays, random events. His information said that he was twenty-eight, and I quickly did the math in my head. So he'd had his kid when he was twenty-two. Damn. That was kind of young to have a kid. No wonder him and his wife divorced. I'd bet they probably got married in their 'young and stupid' phase. But who was I to judge? I was young and stupid.

Growing bored, I exited out of his page and kept scrolling. After a while, I heard the beeping of the washing machine announcing that it was finished and got up with a sigh, knowing Austin wouldn't take care of it. He was a typical sixteen-year-old boy with no idea how to do anything except eat and play games. I got the washing out of the machine and hung it up outside, humming to myself as I did so.

"Hi honey." Mom smiled at me when I walked in from the back door. "How was school?" She asked as she hung her keys up.

"Sucked." I shrugged. 

"Sucked as in you'll give it a try? Make an effort?"

"Can't I just work full time instead?" I sighed, putting the washing basket away. 

"No honey." Mom sighed. "You need to get this year passed. I know you hate it, but once it's done you can do whatever you want. Work stays on the weekends."

I huffed but didn't argue, too tired to bother. It would be so much more helpful if I could just work full time and save up enough money to move out. But Mom had made me text my boss and say I couldn't work while I was at summer school, so that wasn't an option.

"Honey do I smell smoke?" Mom sighed at me as she paused on her way to go past to her bedroom. "I thought we got past the smoking problem."

"Nah, some of the guys were smoking at lunch." I lied. "Guess the smell got on my clothes."

"But you didn't smoke?" Mom asked, and I shook my head. She narrowed her eyes at me and then held out a hand. "Give me your hand." She said.

"Mom I said I didn't smoke!" I insisted. 

Mom grabbed my right hand before I could move away, lifting it and smelling my fingers. She huffed, shaking her head at me.

"Taylor I can smell it on your fingers." She accused. "You're grounded. Give me your phone." Pressing my lips together, I took my phone out of my pocket and slapped it into her hand. "No going out unless it's school or work. You'll get this back on Thursday."