Mistress(es)

Ep. 10a: Back to Our Regularly Scheduled (mind) Programing

Abigail Bronson's last year of high school had been going shockingly well. Aside from the stress of trying to maintain her perfect GPA, she was very happy about the lack of drama she was experiencing. Skyler, the thing she had been worried about the most this year, was closer to her than ever, spending at least a couple nights each week hanging out with everyone or, even better, alone with her. Better yet, Skyler almost seemed to be getting more smitten with her, at least, from what she was sensing. He was a lot more touchy and always finding an excuse to be around her, and while Abby was an insecure wreck who simply dismissed this all as coincidence, one couldn't deny the longing glances and the overly lengthy hugs the boy had been giving her as of late. Abby wasn't going to let herself believe it though. She didn't want to get her hopes up, when she knew a girl like her ultimately stood no chance with Skyler.

Speaking of, the one person that Abby had been worried might have that chance was now somehow her new best friend? If you had told Abby the day that she'd seen Erica Depson enter class and sit next to her, that the girl would become the newest member of their friend group, she would have probably laughed hysterically. To her surprise though, after a few days of being around the girl, she'd found that her old bully was now an absolutely lovely person to be around, always building her up and complimenting her. It was quite the whiplash from how Abby was used to being treated by Erica, but she wasn't going to complain. While she was worried at first that Erica entering the group might spell disaster for her eventual confession to Skyler, the affinity she began to gain for the girl started to far outweigh her concern. And while there were plenty of moments she still felt the hollow pit of jealousy in her gut when she saw the two flirting or laughing together, Abby did her best to get over them. It was just nice to have a new friend.

That being said, Abby knew she needed to hurry up and just tell Skyler how she had been feeling about him. Time was running out, and according to Cleo, Erica had been talking about maybe making a move soon if Abby didn't. The timing was all lining up. Abby was about to be forced to tell him, but considering how friendly Skyler had been to her lately, she was feeling as confident as ever. So confident, in fact, that when she awoke that morning, she decided to herself that she was going to tell Skyler that night after school. She made the plans with the boy, told him she'd like to meet him at his house if that was alright, and then waited. And waited. And waited...

The day was dragging on impossibly long, and the worst part was that Abby couldn't focus on a damn thing. All of her mental space was taken up by daydreaming and freaking out over what might go down later in the night. Would Skyler say no? Would he laugh in her face? Would it ruin their relationship and make things awkward?

Then again, what if he said yes? Oh God, that might be even more complicated. Would they last outside of high school? Most high school sweethearts don't, she reminded herself. Then again, Skyler said his parents were before their passing. And so were her neighbors, and they were old. If they were like, 80 and had been together since highschool, early relationships have to work sometimes, right? What were the odds? Was there an equation she could use to calculate it?

Abby stabbed herself in the thigh with her pencil, trying to force her brain back to reality and focus. She eyed the recorder on the edge of her desk to make sure it was still recording, and luckily, it was. She had gotten the device near the beginning of the year in order to record lectures and play them back later when studying. The one she had was also very nice, because it automatically synced with her laptop, so any recordings she made, she could pull up once she got home and studying, fast forwarding and scanning through a lot easier than one could usually do on a tiny recorder. The little device was going to save her life today with the collective 5 minutes of the lessons she'd actually paid attention to.

"You all good?" Skyler leaned over, poking her leg where she'd just stabbed herself.

"Huh? Oh yeah, just trying to stay awake," Abby joked back, "Ms. Pepper's voice always makes me super sleepy."