Soft Served August

Chapter Four

"Av—"

"Bye, mom! And I'm sorry! Love you!" I quickly yelled through the door as I slammed it close, preventing my mother from uttering any additional dialogues. I have absolutely no time left to eat breakfast, much less engage in a conversation, even in one as short as the ones mom provide every morning.

I promised myself last night that I would wake up early today, but being the very responsible girl I am... I overslept.

But I can't really entirely blame myself for this, and especially not my mom. I didn't have an actual alarm clock. My phone served as it, but I lost it. And to wake up at five was seriously impossible when you slept at one, much more if you're tired as a fat rabbit who had just finished chewing off a thousand carrots in one minute.

My mother didn't wake me up for today because she forgot to set her alarm last night of tiredness, considering she had just finished a surgery yesterday, and additional check ups for her patients. I actually was the one who woke her up this time. And, well, I couldn't really count on John Cinnamon to wake me up, since he really isn't the 'I'll-lick-your-face-until-you-wake-up' kind of dog. He's more of the 'I'm-a-lazy-lazy-dog-who-loves-fruit-salads-so-much' type.

I glanced at my wrist watch and my heart started thumping loudly and profusely when I read '6:43.' The sun was up and shining as I quickly made my way through the bustling streets of people either honking their car's horn very loudly for I don't know what stupid reason ('cause traffic was but a mere imagination, it really didn't exist here), or having garage sales that seemed to be a foolish idea since everyone else was busy going to school or work and it was too early for other people in the neighborhood to go out and decide, "Hey, I think I want to go buy an old used chess board from a garage sale at 6:43 AM, 'cause I'm that excited to get checkmated."

Wow, I'm so stressed I was actually paying attention to the lives of people around me. Maybe even paying too much attention.

I continued walking until I thought I had already passed quite a number of houses, and then looked in front of me, seeing a sea of fast-moving cars while I was at it. I couldn't cross yet, of course (unless I wanted to get run over), nor could the people around me here at the sidewalk since the stoplight was still red for pedestrians. I started tapping my right foot impatiently, it was only a minute left before we we're allowed to cross, but I can't sacrifice that. It was already 7:00, and my classes start at 7:30—I can't miss English, my teacher will kill me.

I continued thinking of worst-case scenarios and started planning out what I needed to do to get out of it, but I was called back to Earth when someone accidentally hit my shoulder, whispering an apology as they walked away. Only then did I realize that everyone else had already crossed or were already crossing the crosswalk while I stood there, clueless of what was happening around me, drowned in thought.

I looked at my watch again and saw that I wasted a good five minutes thinking of stupid things that may not even happen when I could've spent it rushing to get a cab to school.

"F.M.L.," I repeated over and over as I crossed, race walking so I wouldn't bump into anyone. But once I was on the other side, I broke into a run. I couldn't care less if I looked horrible by the time I got there. The goal was to get to school in time, not to get there looking as if I had bathed in rainbows and sunshine.

I was so engulfed by my thoughts that I didn't notice a car coming straight at me, almost running me over. I couldn't move from where I stood, even as the driver let out an earsplitting honk.

"Hey!" Someone called out, capturing my attention. I looked to my right side and saw a boy's head sticking out of the black car's window, glowering at me. I just stood there, not knowing what to do. Okay, actually I did know what to do, and that was to move along, but I couldn't do it. Was it because of shock?