What is Death?

Miss You

Chapter 6

Everything was going as usual. Khalon waited, in the spot he always did, for Anstice to appear. When she did he yelled her name.

“Yo!” She yelled back and flashed him a peace sign. It was her signature wave. Anstice was Khalon’s best friend. She had been since they were just little kids. She shoved Khalon’s Ipod in her bag and ran across the road to him.

Khalon hugged her, and criticized her taste in music. He couldn’t really call her an emo and mean it since it was his Ipod she was listening to. He had let her borrow it since she didn’t have one of her own. Really, she could barely afford a decent cell phone. Hers was one of those old flip phones with the extendable antenna.

When she punched him lightly on the arm, he feigned being hurt. It made Anstice smile and Khalon liked to make her smile. 

"You're such a dork." She said patting Khalon on the head. "Now come on or we're gunna be late!" She grabbed his hand and started to drag him. He could see that she was trying to hide a blush.

"Alright I'm coming." He said finally moving his feet.

They walked together for a while and he asked her why she was so tired since she was trying to cover up a yawn with her hand.

"I had to get up earlier than usual this morning.” She shrugged it off nonchalantly, as if it was nothing. She told him why and it made him angry. Khalon hated Anstice’s so called mother. She was the reason why Anstice couldn’t afford anything. She spent all their money on booze and beer. She was just a drunk. That is all there was to it. Khalon hadn’t ever met Anstice’s dad. He couldn’t even grasp the life Anstice must have had since he grew up in such different conditions.

 He had both his parents, and they had good paying jobs. He lived in a nice house and had many friends. He was different from Anstice, but he still liked her.

They had made it to school in the time Khalon was thinking about how much he disliked Anstice’s parental unit. Anstice and he walked to their shared locker. He pretended that he forgot it again. “Here give me your bag.” Anstice said to him. He handed it to her and she hung it neatly on the hook inside the blue locker. Her own she just shoved in the bottom.

He flicked his eyes to the end of the hallway and immediately let go of Anstice’s hand. Cassandra was walking past. She flounced by swishing her hips. The head cheerleader was an eyeful.  Even he couldn’t help but look at her. Anstice hated her with a passion so he tried to avoid looking at her when Anstice was around.

A voice started to nag at him at the back of his head. It said to quit looking at Cassandra before Anstice noticed.

“Are you done eye raping her or what.” Anstice asked him. He could hear the venom in her voice.

“I just don’t want nasty rumors about us circling around.” He lied to her. Khalon tried to give Anstice a reassuring look but she wouldn’t buy it. She was too smart for her own good. 

“Sure whatever.” She scowled and slammed the locker door shut.  Storming off she didn’t even look back to say goodbye to Khalon. He knew he screwed that up and it bothered him for the rest of the school day. After class he rushed to their locker not wanting to miss Anstice. She wasn’t there. Downcast he started to walk away and got halfway down the hallway when he heard someone skipping from the other end of the hall.

It was Anstice. Mrs. Hale must have kept her after the bell.

“Okay, then I’ll see you tomorrow.” She walked out of the room her heals clicking rhythmically against the hall’s tiled flooring. Hoping from tile to tile he could tell that she was trying to not step on the black ones. She was about five tiles away from their locker when she accidentally stepped on a black tile.