Countdown

Thirteen Days Left

I stared at the navy blue, starry ceiling above me, trying to coax myself into getting up and joining my family for breakfast. Come on, Grace, I thought. Just 13 days. You only have to keep going for 13 more days. Knowing that any moment, my parents were going to wake me up and bitch at me for lying here so long, I climbed out of bed, feeling my feet hit the cheap carpet of my bedroom floor.

Last night, my parents had had a long talk with me. Apparently, when anything, ever, in my life goes wrong and causes me emotional distress, I have to tell my parents immediately so they can reassure me that everything will turn okay and coddle me. I imagined what would happen if I carried that principle out.

Hey, Mom and Dad, are you sitting down for this? I had this idea I wanted to share with you. I've decided to kill myself when I turn fifteen! How crazy is that?

The idea, in it's most basic form, had a dark, poetic humour about it, actually. I could basically pull out the rug under everyone if I wanted to. I'd be the first to admit that this wasn't for attention, because it wasn't. But then everyone would know what they had done to me.

Suddenly, my phone rang. At first I had expected another mean text, but this wasn't my default ringtone (Bittersweet Symphony by The Verve). Instead, what I heard was, surprisingly, Fall Out Boy. Alone Together, to be specific.

I hadn't set a FOB ringtone for anybody, had I? I ticked off my ringtones in my head.

Mom: Thank You Mom by Good Charlotte
Dad: Welcome to the Black Parade by My Chemical Romance
Izzie: Sheena is a Punk Rocker by The Ramones
Conrad: Somebody Told Me by The Killers
Hope (Apparently eight year olds need cell phones now): Hey Brother by Avicii
Ivy (She harassed me so much I needed to know it was her when she contacted me): She's So Mean by Matchbox Twenty

And those were all my custom ringtones. Then who was this?

Oh My God. No. Brendan Ford was not calling me. Not after what had happened. I knew we had gone out less than a week ago, but it felt like forever. He probably just wanted to make fun of me. But in spite of that, my hand reached over and flipped my phone open."

"Hello, this is Brendan Ford, may I please speak to Grace?" he said when I picked up.

"This is Grace, you idiot. I gave you my cell phone."

"Well, in that case, I was wondering if you wanted to go to Gamer Central later. We could grab lunch before at that sandwich place next to it, if you'd like to. My older brother can drop us off."

I'd admit, Brendan was one of the few people who could make me feel like I was having fun anymore. And I used to love that arcade back in middle school. My friends and I used to hang out there all the time. I missed that old life I had had back then, before I started going to Dixon and the darkness appeared.

"One, maybe? I still have to get out of bed and try to look like a human being before we go." I said, laughing. I hoped he would find it cute, not lazy that I was still in bed at 11:30. I never used to need this much sleep- i mean, seriously, a healthy teenage girl should not require twelve hours.

"It's alright, see you in a couple hours."

"See you." And he hung up.

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"So, wait, where I am I supposed to take you again?" asked Josh, Brendan's brother, snobbishly flipping his baseball cap around so the visor was in back. He wore baggy cargos and a huge sweatshirt, and a blue and red rubber bracelet emblazoned with a skull. We were in Josh's car, which was so dinged up that it probably should have been retired years ago.