1
“BUZZZZZZZ BUZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ BUZZZZZZZ BUZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ”, my alarm clock continuously pulsed like a noisy EKG monitor and I immediately stood up without fixing my bed. I then went out of my room and walked towards the kitchen to see if we still had bread and milk left. I quickly passed by Sophia, who was watching The World Series of Poker on TV, as if she wasn’t there. Suddenly, she saw me and was shocked.
“Is there something wrong? You’re up so early today. By the way, you should try finding a job. We’re broke,” she said.
I ignored her since it was one jobless person advising another, but I knew that she was right. At least, my excuse for being unemployed is that I am a high school student. It was not like me to wake up this early. Even though I had to go to school, I would still procrastinate because I just can’t stand being in school. I would rather have a job.
My name’s Sebastian Song. And I would like to think of myself as an average 17 year-old boy who does not really care what happens in the future as far as school goes. Sophia, the one that I was talking to earlier, is my mom. I call her Sophia just for the hell of it. I just don’t see her as a mom. She’s greedy, lazy, apathetic, and rude. Anyway, I don’t really want to talk about her. She doesn’t even really care whether I’m sick or not or whether I’m alive or not. I was already failing in most of my classes, but she hadn’t said a word about it. The only thing she ever did for me was feed me horrible food that she would occasionally prepare for me. Sometimes, she would even forget to cook meals which didn’t bother me too much since it’s debatable if cardboard-tasting food is better than nothing.
After I finished my breakfast and took a bath, I put on my uniform, and of course, the watch that my old friend, Luke, gave me. I got in my car that my brother left to me and headed straight to school. While I was on my way to school, there were red, yellow, green, and orange leaves on the path. The wind was gently singing through my windows as the leaves fell in swirls everywhere. It was the most beautiful October I have ever seen. It was an autumn like never before. It was as if a new cycle of life was about to begin instead of ending.
Alongside the street, there ran a river and a sidewalk where students without a ride made their way to school. I saw a girl I barely knew who was a classmate of mine. I only noticed her on the side of the road because she was in the same uniform as me. She had this troubled face. I knew right away that she was looking for something. I was wondering what she was searching for, so I decided to pull over and observe for a while. After fifteen minutes, I approached her. I couldn’t stand watching her like that in such a panic.
“Hey, what are you looking for?” I asked.
She was surprised to see me. She hesitated, but finally said “I’m searching for a necklace. My mom gave it to me, so it’s really important that I find it.”
I helped her search for the necklace. As we both looked for it, she almost fell into the river, but I managed to save her by grabbing her hand and then pulling her towards me. I accidentally held her by the waist. We looked at each other for a moment and blushed.
“I’m sorry,” I said as I let go of her.
“It’s okay,” She said and laughed a bit as she quickly returned to the task at hand.
We continued looking for the necklace, but we still couldn’t find it.
“Let’s just stop looking for it. We’ve been looking for half an hour. Besides, school is about to start,” I said.
She shook her head and responded, “No. I must look for it. I can’t give up. I’m going to look some more.” I could see she was considering putting her search on hold.
“You’ll never find it. And pretty soon, you’re going to give up and quit searching for that goddamn necklace.” I said. I know I shouldn’t have said those words, but she was so stubborn.
She stopped and starred at me, “Don’t you have something that’s very important to you? We all have someone or something that we truly cherish. Wouldn’t you do anything to get back something you loved then lost?”
She was right. I mean, if I were to lose the watch that my friend Luke gave me, then I would keep looking and looking for it until I went crazy.
“Okay. Okay. I won’t force you.” I got inside my car again since I was about to be late. Not that I really care about being late, but I left in any case.
“My name’s Rena,” she shouted and smiled as I walked away.
“Sebastian,” I replied and then left. I smiled, too, as I put the keys in my ignition, waved, and drove off.
