Why can't I? {wlw}

Chapter 2

"Hey, I've heard of you. Are you that strange loner girl?" Asked the shorter girl. "I'm Max and you are?"

"You got weeds in your ears? I said fuck off." I say, not bothering to acknowledge the question that Max asked.

"Look, I just wanna know your name." Asked the shorter girl, who really wants to know my name and if I'm the quote unquote 'strange loner girl.'

I debate on answering the girls questions and confirming who she thought I was. I can practically predict the future of what will happen if I tell the girl my name and elaborate on who I am. I'll get outcasted even more than I already am.

"My name is Taylor, okay? Now fuck off... please." I say, my previous annoyance more evident as I just want to be left alone.

"You seem... lonely." The other girl asks as moves to sit next to me on the log.

I move away in response as I struggle to get my lighter working. "For fucks sake." I say as the girl sits down next to me but it was not directed at anyone as my lighter refuses to work.

"You know, smokings bad for you." The other girl says as she looks at the scenery of the small forest clearing, ignoring all the cigarette butts scattered around.

"No shit Sherlock, your not the first to tell me that." I say, refusing to look at the girl as she stares off into the distance of the forest.

"It ruins you, y'know?" Max takes a shaky  breath, making me pause my attempts at lighting my next cigarette.

"I watched smoking ruin my family's life. Don't let it ruin yours." Max says, getting up after a moment of collecting her thoughts. The girl glances back at me and then leaves the small clearing, leaving me alone with my thoughts as my lighter starts to work again.

I now sit in my new found silence as I close my lighter and put the unused cigarette back in the box. I stare up at forest canopy and think.

I get up and go home since it was starting to get dark in the woods. I walk home as the sun goes down and the sky changes for a purple, pink, and orange to a dark shade of blue that gets darker as the minutes tick by.

————————TIME-SKIP————————

I wake up in the morning groggy.

I reluctantly pull myself out of my warm and comfortable bed and grab fresh clothes and head to the shower.

Once I'm out of the shower, I get dressed then head back to my room and put on a baggy hoodie that hid my upper body. I lay there for about another hour before I decide to go to school for the first time in awhile.

I get out of bed and grab my backpack, going through it to make sure I had everything since it had been almost a three weeks since I've been to school.

Once I make sure I have everything I need for the day at the hellhole know as school, I put on my shoes and leave my room. I head down the stairs, careful not to wake up my dad who is sleeping on the couch surrounded by empty and half empty beer cans.

I quietly open the front door and close it with the same amount of sound as a mouse sneaking into a kitchen.

I hop on my old and rusty bike and held to school.

After about a 20 minute bike ride, I arrive at earths version of Hell's gates.

I get some disapproving stares from some kids in my grade and some sympathetic looks from those in the grade above me. 'God why are seniors so annoying? I don't need their sympathy.' I think to myself as I walk through the gates of Chapel Hill High School.

I enter and head towards my locker. I put in the combination and open the small locker to grab a book Id need for first period History.

I close the door to my locker and head to my classroom, not bothering to look at anyone so I don't have to receive anymore looks like the ones I got outside.

I arrive at Mr Smiths 11th grade history class and take my seat. Mr Smith looked at me with sorrow knowing about what happened in 8th grade and how much it affected my schooling. He was the one who is helping me get all my class work from my other classes.

I lay my head on my desk in the back and ignore the whispers from the other students. I zone out and stare out the window of the classroom and pray that today goes by quickly so I just go back home, to the woods and smoke, maybe even get high.

I slowly feel my lack of sleep catching up with me. I'm about to fall asleep when the loud cheerleaders enter the class.

I groan and sit up when I hear Sarah Millers making jokes about the fact I actually showed up to school today as she and her cronies enter the classroom. I look at the group and see the girl who found me in my spot in the woods.

She smiles at me apologetically as her fellow cheerleaders mock me and sit down in their own seats, still chatting away.

The bell rings and Mr Smith starts the class with a smile, explaining the start of world war 2 and I feel myself drifting off to sleep again.