Awks. ✓

Chapter 13: Average.

"Marianne!"

"Hmm?" I hummed with my eyes closed, not bothering to move. I was in a very comfortable position lying down on the couch and I wasn't planning on ruining it by moving.

"You weren't even listening to me." My grandma complained. "It's like talking to a brick wall, goodness."

"Sorry Grams, I'm just a bit tired." I apologised.

She was upset because I had promised her a packet of chocolate chip muffins from the café when I came to visit after my shift. With my whole schedule for the day being messed up by the one and only Mr Peterson, I had totally forgotten about it after coming back from my little trip to the city and came to her apartment empty handed.

"And how's that charming boy. Tom, was it?" She asked.

I scoffed at her choice of words. "Yeah." I sighed.

"He sure seems like a nice, young man."

"Yeah." I opened my eyes and stared at the white ceiling on top of me. I hadn't really noticed how nice he was to me before then. I always felt annoyed by his presence, completely ignoring his friendliness.

"Look at you, smiling to yourself just at the thought of him. Looks like someone has a serious case of the love bug." She teased.

"Nope." I replied, closing my eyes again in an attempt to block out any more nonsense leaving my grandmother's lips. She was trying to be funny and it wasn't working.

"I'm just saying. I'd really like some great grandkids before I leave this world. I'm not getting any younger and I don't have much time left." She casually said.

That was enough for me to sit up and stare at her. "Don't say stuff like that Grams, it's not a joke." I said, almost choking on my words at the thought of living without her. "Don't you ever say anything like that ever again."

She let out a warmhearted chuckle and sat next to me on the couch, taking me in her arms. "Don't you worry Mars Bar, I'm not going anywhere." She said, stroking my hair. "Not just yet."

She kept stroking my hair until sleep became something so favourable at that moment. Her hand moved its way from my scalp downwards, her fingers untangling the messy waves of my hair and before I knew it, I had fallen asleep.

***

I woke up the next day to my alarm ringing off.

I'm a poor human being whom alarm clocks seem to have something against. I either don't wake up to them at all or I wake up, turn them off and then go back to sleep. For that exact reason, I have multiple alarms scheduled on my phone for work;

• 9:00am
• 9:05am
• 9:15am
• 9:25am
• 9:40am
•10:00am

The alarm I happened to wake up to was the fifth one. Which meant I had exactly twenty minutes to get ready and leave for work. My grandma's apartment was closer to the café than my house was, but I had so much to do in so little time. I had to take a shower, do my hair, eat breakfast, okay maybe I can skip breakfast, wash and iron my uniform and leave. I was having a mental breakdown. I was sat on the couch I had fallen asleep on with my hands in my hair, procrastinating when my grandma walked in.

"You don't want to be late now, do you?" She said, leaving the kitchen with my uniform in her hands. "Here are your clothes. I washed them and now they smell like lavender." She took a whiff of the white shirt before placing it on the coffee table. "Get your butt in that toilet while I whip up some pancakes."