Diary of a High School Has Been (18+)

Entry 28: I skipped school with Preston

Well, not the whole day. Just the end of the day, but still.

With mid terms just around the corner (literally next week), I've been studying and studying and studying. In school, all we were doing was reviewing material so I took my work home after practice and did the same there. I've never been so consumed by my academics in my entire life. I'm truly convinced that if I can get an A on every single exam, including mathematics, my parents will let me go on the trip to the mountains with Preston.

Wishful thinking, I know. But I will do ANYTHING to be able to go.

Since I've been studying so much, I felt like I was neglecting Preston. In truth, I was. On top of school, I still had cheerleading practices and games and he had the band again, along with work at the garage. It was like we could never see each other anymore.

So for the first time today, I approached Preston in the cafeteria. Ever since the weather turned too cold to sit outside, Preston had been sitting at a table by himself everyday. When I walked over, he looked up at me and smiled.

"Hey stranger, can I sit with you?" I asked politely.

"Of course."

Preston pushed his books aside, making space for my tray. I sat down across from him and placed my book bag on the seat next to me. I watched as he closed his books and I reached my hand out to stop him.

"You can keep working if you want," I insisted. "I just wanted to come over and keep you company."

"It's fine," he said, packing up his book bag. "I feel like I haven't seen you in forever."

He was right. We hadn't so much as hung out in like two weeks due to our conflicting schedules.

"How's the studying going?" He asked.

"Pretty good, actually," I smiled. "I don't think my brain can hold anymore information though. I just keep quizzing myself and reviewing all of my work from the semester."

"So you're pretty much set?" He asked.

"Yeah," I shrugged. "If I don't ace every single exam then I'll know it's rigged and my teachers just hate me."

"Well since you're the smartest girl in school now, wanna get out of here?"

I looked at my boyfriend in disbelief. I never ditched school before! The only time I did, it was club period because that's always just us cheerleaders sitting around chatting. I still had three more classes for the day, I couldn't just skip them??

"Preston, we can't, there's three more periods left..."

"So," he shrugged. "Live a little."

About a million reasons as to why I should remain steadfast in rejecting this scheme shot through my mind. But as I was looking at my boyfriend, I noticed something.

His bruise was healing and had faded significantly. It was almost gone. He looked so different from the last time I saw him. I swear even his hair had grown like a centimeter longer. For a moment, it felt like we were estranged in some way.

In order to rectify this, I returned his devious smirk with a devilish smile of my own.

"Okay," I giggled, still unable to believe I was going to cut three whole classes. "Let's go."

Preston and I packed up our book bags and headed for the doors of the cafeteria in a hurry. I looked back over my shoulder at Leah who cocked her head and raised her eyebrow. I shrugged my shoulders and she turned back around to the other cheerleaders.

We walked out the back door as if it were nothing and casually made our way over to his car. Preston was quick to pull a pack of cigarettes and his lighter out of his book bag.