Sketched

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ALISON POV

Early Saturday morning, I awoke to the most irritating sound humanly possible, the sound of my phone vibrating. I rolled over groggily and peeled my eyes open. The glowing green digits on my clock told me it was 8:30am.

I groaned and left the phone to ring out. The house fell peacefully silent when it did but, moments later and it started buzzing again. 

‘Only one person could be this stubborn,’ I thought as I snatched the phone from the bedside locker.

“What, Chelsea?!” I snapped.

“Gooooood morning, sunshine,” Chelsea sang on the other end of the phone, “I was thinking about your upcoming birthday and I decided that it was shopping spree time!”

“Chelsea, can we talk about this later?” I mumbled, closing my eyes and rolling onto my back.

“Of course!  Just meet me outside your estate in an hour and we can spend the day talking!” she chirped.

“Shouldn’t you be hungover?” I whined.

“No! I am very responsible with my drink!” she said, offended.

I snorted. “You almost made me smell Harvey last night!” I laughed. I sat up slowly, now fully awake. “I’ll see you in an hour,” I sighed before disconnecting the call.

I scanned the room, searching for what, I wasn’t sure but, whenever I gave up on searching, I ran a hand through my tangled hair and dragged my legs off of the mattress. I regretted it instantly.

My ankles and claves were stiff from constantly being ran off of my feet in Nando’s and all I wanted was to grab my fatigued muscles and haul them back to bed. But, that was not an option with Chelsea. She was known for her stubbornness, hell, that’s what brought us together.

I pulled on the first, clean t-shirt I could find, along with my bleached jeans and my grey ankle boot, pulling a brush through my knotted hair. I frowned in frustration as it began to curl before pulling it into a high ponytail. I glanced in the mirror, peering at myself.

Would there be a point in me wearing makeup?

“Of course there is,” I mumbled, shaking my head. Chelsea would, of course, be looking as fabulous as ever and I was already plain enough. Maybe that’s why we were friends, I made her look ten times better.

Groaning internally, I applied some pathetic eyeliner, nowhere near as professional as Chelsea’s cat-eye wings, before dashing downstairs and defrosting some waffles.

After eating, I grabbed my handbag and jacket and left a note to mum, explaining where I had disappeared to. I slipped outside into the warm morning. It forecasted for a good day.

I wasn’t waiting long for Chelsea to come and pick me up. She nattered on about pointless profanities as we drove. I zoned out, nodding my head every now and then. I was too distracted, mentally calculating how much exactly I could afford to spend today if I wanted to afford college.

It was a pathetic financial mentality to have, especially at my age. I mean, girls my age could now legally drink and were using their opportunity to their utmost advantage. However, a bad experience with alcohol in my experimental adolescent years had turned me off of alcohol for a long while to come.

And I had worked so hard in Art in secondary school. All that for nothing? No, no matter how stuck up or frigid I seemed, Art college was it. It was the dream and if you don’t live out a dream, what else have you got to live for?