In Six Years' Time

Convenient Friend

I forgot how entirely draining high school was.

It didn't help to add onto the fact that I had to do a lot of extra stuff in hopes of saving my grades and not being a complete failure. I have the chance to redo my entire life for the next six years, and I have several months before I even meet Kace and go about fixing the issues we had. I'm not going to waste it being a disgrace.

But oh my god. How does anyone expect a teenager to be able to do all of this? Every class assigns homework. Most kids are in clubs, so that takes up time after school. Not to mention if they want any kind of social life. No wonder I never did my school work. It was impossible to fit all the things I was supposed to do in one day.

I studiously ignored my cell phone. I got countless texts from my group of 'friends' wanting to go to the bowling alley. It was our regular hang out place. We'd smoke, bowl a little, sneak in some beer or liquor and have fun. But I wanted to separate myself from them sooner rather than later, and if I kept being nice to them, it'd just extend the hurt.

I sat in the middle of the living room floor trying to do this damn homework. You don't think about it when you get older, but I don't think I retained any of this information the day I graduated.

I looked at my math homework in abject horror. What was all of this shit? Symbols, letters, triangles. It was like alphabet soup. And the school's text book was ancient, printed and sold before I was even born. It explained the math like it was explaining it to someone who was there when the equation was created.

I groaned in defeat, about ready to give up when mom got home. She startled when she saw me in the living room, probably forgetting that I've changed and aren't the hermit I used to be. "What are you doing on the floor?" She asked, putting her purse away.

"Homework." I grumbled, and when only silence greeted me, I looked up. She was staring, open mouthed in shock. "Yeah, yeah. I need help. I don't get any of this. In what world will I ever need the Pythagorean theorem?"

I have to admit, it was nice to sit together with my mom and discuss things, even if it was an entirely useless math equation. I knew for a fact if I went back to my old job, I'd never use this. But who knows? Maybe I can pull myself together enough to go to college and make something of myself.

But first I had to make something out of this homework.

We mulled over it for a few hours, only breaking once to order some pizza, and then again to answer the door when it arrived.

Except, when I opened the door with a friendly smile and enough cash to leave a good tip, my smile faded and my hand crumpled the bill so it hopefully couldn't be seen.

Joe stood in front of my door, arms crossed over his chest with a stupid grin on his face.

"Lia! You didn't answer our calls so I thought maybe your phone broke in the wreck. Let's go to the bowling alley!" I peered around him and saw a few others awkwardly standing on the sidewalk, a couple more in a car. I couldn't remember who the car belonged to. It wasn't a friend of mine, I was the only one with a car between us. Just another scrub I hung out with back in the day.

Stuck in my thoughts, I didn't realize Joe had still been talking to me. I tuned in just in time to hear "... if you have extra cash? Cause I'm a little short so I was hoping you could spot me and I'll pay you back later?" But he never paid me back later, let's be real. If I accounted for how much he borrowed from me up to the moment I cut him off, it was probably well over a thousand.

"Joe," I said, effectively cutting him off. I reached behind me and shut the door, thankful my mom hadn't heard any of this or suspected anything other than her daughter collecting the pizza.