Marigold

8.

Beep. Beep.

  Albany forced open her eyes. She rubbed at her eyes and stretched her arms before abruptly sitting up in bed.

  The alarm clock on her desk was still beeping.

  She groaned and slapped the alarm clock off her desk. The alarm clocked stopped beeping for a few seconds, but started up again.

  A groan of frustration ripped its way out of Albany's mouth. She jumped off her bed and hit the off button on her alarm.

7:32

  Albany needed to catch her his at 8:13. She quickly did the math in her head. Forty one. Forty one minutes was more than enough time for her to get ready.

  She opened the door to her closet and stared at her clothes for ten seconds. She yawned.

  She grabbed a black red Mickey Mouse shirt and some black leggings and quickly put them on. She put on a pair of white nike socks.

  Then the bracelets.

  She hasn't been cutting in a month already. Her mental state was better than usual, and even when it got worse, she had just enough of self discipline to stop herself from hurting herself.

She can't hurt Conner any more than she already has.

Just then, a rhythm of knocks sounded from her door. It was her mom. She knew it. Each family member would have their own unique knock pattern. That way, they would all know who would be knocking on their door.

Albany wants to hear her dad's and her brother's again.

Albany's Mom opens her door and peeks in. "Breakfast is on the table, Aly. I made you bacon and eggs. We haven't had that in a while."

Albany gives a slight nod.

They really haven't. They used to have it all the time. Her mom, Dad, Aiden and her would all sit together and talk about anything and everything. Her dad would always make the breakfasts. He made the best breakfasts. Her mom would always set the table for everybody, and Aiden would just be messing around with his toy dinosaurs.

She was really jealous of Aiden. It wasn't fair. He didn't have school.

  It might sound weird, but she missed feeling jealous of him. She missed the rawr's and groar's that she awoke to every morning. She missed the feeling of fluffy black hair under her fingertips when she would ruffle Aiden's hair for being so annoying.

  She pushes away those thoughts before Conner notices something's up with her at school. He always notices. She always thought she hid her emotions so well.

  She puts her hair up into a lazy bun with no effort out into it at all. She brushed her teeth and went downstairs.

  The smell of bacon drifted into her nostrils when Albany was half way down the stairs, and she immediately increased her speed.

  When she arrived downstairs, her mom was waiting for her. It felt like the old times, except two people were missing.

  Despite so, Albany smiled.

  —

Albany's Mom drove Albany to school today.

She stared outside of the window and watched  the way the yellow and orange trees looked like goldfish swimming by. Her breath fogged up the window, and she drew a little heart with her fingers.

  She happened to meet Conner on her way in to the school.

  "Al! Al! Al!"

  Albany raised one eyebrow at him. "Your hair's down!"

   Right. It was cold today. She didn't feel like putting up her hair. She hated leaving her hair down because it would get so messy.

  "Nice observation Mr. Obvious."

  "Stop it. It makes me feel stupid. I have straight As right now! In fact, I take algebra together with you. That's two years ahead!"

  "Stop being so loud. People are staring."

  Conner looks around. Students faces we're turned in their direction. Conner looks at Albany, who's cheeks are blushing from the cold air. She pushes some of her long hair into her face to hide it from the people's stares around her. She hated attention. Conner smiled.

  "Allll~" He sounded like a drunk person; slurring out the 'l' like that.

  "Don't hide your face. It's pre-", not paying to his surrounding, Conner runs into the door.

  Albany blinks and lets out a snicker. Two silent seconds are shared between them. Then, Albany bursts out in laughter. The sound rings through Conner's ears. If it meant he would listen to that sound forever, he would be willing to run into doors for the rest of his life.

***

Algebra was so boring. The teacher was talking about some statistics thing that she learnt in fifth grade.