Being Shot

P h o t o #32 - One Lone Dandelion

P h o t o #32 - One Lone Dandelion

I practically floated on my toes through the regular senior classes that I was obligated to attend by law for the next two weeks. The usual stress that weighed down my head like a badly fit hat barely even scratched at my brain's interior. It was as if I had suddenly woken up for school on the Monday morning following my birthday in a completely new light.

And it felt nothing short of wonderful. It was such a normality for my school days to almost always heavily consist of feelings of dread or anxiety, swarmed in small pin points of self loathing as I followed every direction thrown at me from students and teachers alike to a tee as if it were nothing but muscle memory.

Now, not that I was saying I gave up on my teacher's pet mentality, but I did have to compliment on how my motions didn't feel so forced, nor relatively stiff, anymore.

It was as if the next few days had whipped by me in a flash, pitching me already halfway through November with no issues reining their ugly heads whatsoever. Every weekend was spent at the Appollo household, laughing with Mr. and Mrs. Appollo, who were spending the next few months at home on a much needed break from their cosmetic company's headquarters down in the Caribbean, so they told us, eating food that Kayla still vehemently insisted on creating, and visiting places (courtesy of Parker, who happens to know where anything and everything is located within a hundred mile radius) around the city, generally having a good time each day. Every weekday was spent at school, listening to the teachers drone on about their selected teachings, sneaking small texts back and forth with Kayla while she was at university during my lunch period on my dinky flip phone, all while hanging out with the boys and dodging the very few count of girls that still tried to pluck at my nerves.

Over all, my outlook was pretty positive. Though their were minor set backs sprinkled into the mix now and then, this was a tremendous change for the better. It seemed that lately I had been on the better side of things. Just knowing this made me want to jump for joy.

I smiled in spite of myself, not even paying attention to the wind as it pecked at my pink cheeks. One thing that made all of this even better was the fact that even after all this time, I was still able to enjoy my lunches behind the school, outside in my once-appointed-oasis. It was like icing on the cake, even though I knew that soon as the weather began to grow cold and the vegetation began to snooze, I would have to venture inside for the season before the snow could catch me.

"Hey, Emma," A familiar voice called out from my upper left. I glanced upwards from my usual white bench that still sat planted into the stone path behind the school, locking eyes with Cooper, who had come alone.

"Ah!" I jolted out of my trance and nodded to him, "Cooper, you're here early...and alone." I peeked behind the boy, realizing for sure now that the other three boys were nowhere to be found.

"Y-Yeah..." He scratched the back of his head sheepishly, "Parker was called down to help out with the computer's in the main office and Jonas offered to help a new kid around school...and Elliot..." A slightly shaky voice trailed off above me.

He didn't need to speak anymore. It wasn't unknown to me that Elliot hadn't been consistently coming to school for the past six days, repeating the same actions as he did at the beginning of the year once again. I shook my head, understanding that Elliot had his own problems to sort through, even though I had no idea what those problems were.

Loneliness swirled in my gut, but I shooed it away without a second thought. There was no reason for me to be feeling this way. Just because of the events that took place the night of my birthday had made me feel as though we had finally broken what I thought would be an unbreakable barrier between us and had formed a strong sense of trust, doesn't mean that my wishful thinking was 100% correct. I understood that just like me, Elliot and I'm sure the others have things they are uncomfortable with sharing at the moment, even though it was hard to imagine. I also understood that I was completely okay with waiting and listening with an open mind when the time came for them to open up.