oh dove | Daniel Applebaum

chapter 14: yoreh

The recurring wave of helplessness coated the warmth of my bedsheets, the pale blue ones that should have been washed and cycled out every Tuesday, but by the time I had actually mustered the motivation to do so, it would be well over a week overdue. I pulled myself out of the familiarity of my bed; the newly foreign air of the house brushed against my bare legs causing a shiver to trace its way up my body.

I sighed.

I had somehow managed to force my way through the three days of school since the altercation with my mother, but the suffocating tension in the house proved to be the cause of my deteriorating motivation. Of course, she apologized countless times (I attempted to as well), but no matter how often I thought over the interaction, no real progress would be made since that night. I love my mother, really, and I tried to the best of my ability to return our family to what it was, but I knew there was something in me that prevented my full commitment to forgiving the person who had raised me my entire life.

~

Despite the lack of attention I placed on my hair and attire that day, I still somehow managed to leave the house at a later time than I usually did. It was probably the moping and extensive opportunity I spent laying on any comfortable surface in the house, but still, the loss of time was anything but reasonable to me.

"You're late," a feminine voice suddenly spoke as I pulled the key from my doorknob.

"Shit, Annick," I half-yelped, recognizing her voice from its characteristic rasp. "Sorry, you scared me."

"I think that's the first time I've heard you speak profanely," another voice joked, this time much more masculine than the first.

After shaking the doorknob for safe measure, I turned around to face the voices. The two blonds looked back at me with expressions that were basically their signature at that point, Annick with her blank half-smile-half-scowl that could be taken for either depending on the context and Daniel's cheeky grin that one could probably find on any child with a mischievous disposition.

"I think late's the wrong word–you two are probably just early," I said, spinning my body around to face the two as we began down our usual route.

Annick's focus remained on guiding her bike, but Applebaum glanced over at her stone face before replying with his palms forward.

"Don't look at me, Annick said you're usually out earlier," he checked his watch. "I haven't been doing this long enough to know what's normal."

Annick scoffs.

"If this Melvin here arrives before you, then you're probably late," she remarked, not a hint of a grin on her face despite the comical nature of her insult. "He has a habit of being caught up in his own personal matters and forgetting he has to be somewhere; for example, Couret's class."

A single chuckle burst out my lips before I had the reflex to moderate my reaction in front of the culprit himself. He looked down at his shoes for a second before returning his gaze upwards, his face still a fleeting pink from embarrassment. I grabbed the tips of his fingers to comfort him before spinning back around so that I was no longer walking backward in front of the two.

"Did you finish Goff's homework?" Annick questioned, turning her head to look at me across Applebaum.

I inhaled through gritted teeth. I hadn't; honestly, as of recently, it was a struggle for me to even focus in class, much less gather enough motivation to concentrate at home. It was like that for the last few days except for the evening directly following the argument. Somehow, then, I powered through the pages of various subjects, but it was obvious that something had disrupted my ability to complete the work in front of me. It was almost as if a plug had been pulled out of my mind, draining my drive to do anything in a matter of a day.