Words // Hood

5

Oh my soul, find peace in the stillness. In the dark silhouette of tree on sky, mountain on fire in the clouds,find the calm you are choking for.

Listen now, slow the beat and listen,all things will find their way to you,all things will settle and the lackswill flood over once more.

Have no fear, for you have passedthrough the darkness and carry thestains of color and residue of lightfrom before it surrounded you.

-

The next morning I woke to the sound of a car honking. More precisely, I woke to the sound of Ashton blaring his car horn, signaling me to get up and get out to his car for my ride to school. "For fuck's sake Irwin, you could've just called after the second one!" I yelled out to him from my window. In the process of running back to the other side of my room for jeans, I ended up tripping over a couple of Matty's toys. Great. "Dammit Matty." I mumble to myself.

"Well then get an alarm so your ass can be out here when I am!" I hear him yell, but from inside. "Safe?" He asks from outside my door, referring to whether or not I had a bra and underwear on. Even though Ashton is a boy, and even though he's a few years older, I've always felt comfortable in being this undressed in front of him.

"Safe." I said, looking through drawers to find a shirt to wear. After finding a dark blue sweater, I decided on black skinny's and boots. "Uhm, black skinny jeans." I tell Ashton, meaning that I wanted him to find them for me. I ran into the bathroom to brush my teeth, and Ash lent against the door frame once he'd put black jeans and gray Uggs onto the counter next to me.

"So, any new stuff with that Asian dude who read through your journal?"

"Calum?" He nodded. "Well, I guess. I don't know. It doesn't matter anyways I guess." I said once I'd finished getting my jeans and boots on. We began walking downstairs. "Food?" I asked when we got into the kitchen. He nodded quickly, and I threw him a poptart.

"What do you mean 'It doesn't matter.'? Blake, haven't you liked this guy for a while?" He gave me a sympathetic look while biting into the pastry.

"Yeah. But it doesn't matter. He doesn't like me back." An almost awkward silence fell between us, neither of us knowing what to say. "We need to get to school. Let's go."

We walked out to his car after he'd finished his breakfast, and we made our way to the high school in less than 5 minutes. He pulled up to the curb in front of the place known as hell for teenagers, but a place I'd grown to actually enjoy the last few years. "I'm just gonna walk home after school. Bye." I said quickly, something I do everyday. I heard him say his goodbye as well, and I shut his door and began my walk to the entrance.

As soon as I walked in, I knew it would be a weird day. Why? Because of who came up to me and began talking to me. "Hey, Blake, wait up." I heard Luke yell. I turned around and saw him slightly jogging up to me.

"Hi, need something?" I ask once he was next to me. I kept walking, wanting to get to my locker, and then make my way to my classes so I would be prepared.

"No, just wanted to talk." He said, giving me a smile. I noticed something black on his lip, and stopped to examine it.

"You got a new lip ring." I said, looking closer and smiling a bit myself. "When did that happen?"

"Last night," he smiled back, biting his lip as well. I had to admit, it was a bit hot that he had a piercing. "It hurt like a bitch to change them out. But, that's not what I wanted to talk about."