A Year Without Snow

-2-

Monday, 28th November 2016

Just as the white drawers from my kitchen greeted me, my phone started to ring in the back pocket of my jeans. My friend's name Scarlett flashed on the screen along with a picture of her where she wore a playful expression her tongue out. I pressed the green button and her voice sang throughout my phone.

"Hey, you! I texted you all weekend, you fucker!" Scarlett greeted me.

"I have lots of tests coming up, Scar. I've been studying." I answered.

"I'm not buying that BS, Daisy. I'm not Grace. It was only a harmless party."

"Okay, whatever Scarlett. Why did you call?" I asked her, already tired of the conversation.

"You know, just to see if my best friend was alive. The usual." She replied and I rolled my eyes while making my usual cup of coffee, and putting a waffle on a plate.

"Look Scarl-" I irritably started to answer.

"Just kidding, just kidding! No need to get pissed." She quickly added. "I'm actually calling to see if you want a ride to school?" Scarlett asked and my heart made the second jump of the day.

"Depends on who's going." I simply replied while sitting on the kitchen counter with my coffee and waffle.

"Just me and Grace. And I promise you that you are the only one we are picking up in your street." She responded as I took a sip of my coffee. "You can't be hiding in a fucking shell all senior year."

I took a deep breath. It was only a ride with my friends, "Okay, Scar. Time?"

"Be there in twenty!" she happily replied and quickly hung up.

I rested my elbows on the counter, placed my face in my hands and groaned. All year long I had left for school twenty minutes earlier than usual, just to avoid an unwanted encounter.

But Scarlett was right I shouldn't be hiding, I didn't do anything wrong, whether people believed it or not, and I was tired of acting like so.

Now seeing that I had more twenty minutes than usual, I decided to scroll through my social media's feeds while eating my breakfast. Photos of last weekend's party covered the screen. Some were unfocused due to the drunk photographer and others were selfies taken with black-tonged teenagers. The usual shit, I thought.

One photo, however, caught my eyes: three boys standing in the middle of the woods surrounded by other teenagers, each one with a beer in hand: the one on the right was small and skinny, with a crazy blonde hair and a playful smile, Dallas, I thought; the boy in the middle had a build-up body, tanned skin, a shaved hair and wore a sly grin, which I recognized by being Rafael Carson, and the last of the boys was the one that made my heart jump with anxiety, Bryson Kanne. He had messy ginger hair and a bright smile, he was slightly shorter than Carson. My heart felt like it was being smashed between my ribcage and the same old knot took place in my throat. I swiftly locked the phone and angrily slammed it on the counter, screen down, as if it's light could pain me even more.

I got up from the high chair, raising my fists into my brown hair. No matter how long it passed my anxiety didn't seem to want to go away.

I was walking from one side to the other in the kitchen, my hands covering my face trying to calm my breathing when my mom came in.

"Came to get a glass of wa-" She started to say, "Daisy... are you okay?"

"Oh, mom. Yes! Just thinking about school. Very stressful... you know." I answered absently.

"Daisy, you know that you can talk to me, flower, even if it is about Brys-"

"I know, mom." I swiftly dismissed the matter, I was definitely in no mood to talk. "Look I have to go, Scarlett and Grace are picking me up," I added and rapidly hugged her, and left the kitchen.