In a Heartbeat || Cindy Moon [1] [ON HOLD]

one: in a heartbeat

       There was a pounding in my head, a cramp in my hand, and a heaviness in my eyelids as I sat, hunched over in my desk. A mechanical pencil was in my hand, and open textbooks and journals, along with stray pieces of paper were sprawled out across my wooden desk. With a heavy sigh I dropped the pencil onto the wood and rested my head in my hands with a groan. I had been doing homework for almost three hours now, since I had decided that it would be a good idea to procrastinate until the last minute to finish everything. I was very wrong.

I stared up at the frames hanging on my wall above my desk, blowing air out of my cheeks as I tugged the hair tie out of my silky, long black hair. Just as I was about to reach for my pencil again, I heard my phone start to violently buzz from my bed. I spun around in my roller chair and rolled it over to my bed, stopping just before I ran it over the fluffy white rug at the base of my bed. I reached for my phone and looked at the screen, watching as it lit up and revealed the contorted face of my best friend (I had personally edited myself) covered the entire screen.

It was the normally stunning Betty Brant, however, the edited photo showed her face completely round, her eyes huge, and her nose looking like squidward's. Betty was calling me, like she normally does every single night, and I slid my finger across the screen to answer.

"Hey." I said softly, plopping back onto my bed, onto the plush white quilt covering it. I relaxed back into the mattress with a soft sigh as my long, slightly tangled hair spread itself out around my hair and shoulders.

"Hi, what's up?" She answered in a calm yet cheery voice. There was soft music playing in the background of the call, and I instantly knew that she was in her small room in her apartment. I pictured her sitting on her bed, her candles on her windowsill lit, with her large textbook open in her lap.

"Homework. Algebra, what else is new?" I said sarcastically.

"Oh, the one you had all week to work on but decided to do it tonight instead? The one you'll probably be up for the majority of the night working on?" Betty joked.

"That's the one." I replied with a smile and rolled over onto my stomach, turning my phone onto speaker and resting my chin in my hands. My feet dangled in the air and hovered over me as I listened to my best friend continue talking about algebra. Betty eventually trailed off amidst her babbling and let out the smallest of sighs.

"Yeah...anyways. I'm so excited for the field trip tomorrow, it'll be good to actually get out of school for once." She murmured.

"I agree. I'm seriously so done with school at this point, I'm just ready for winter break...which feels like an eternity away." I replied and closed my eyes, rolling over onto my back again.

"Well, it basically is. Homecoming was literally last week, so...like, two more months." Betty muttered into the microphone of her phone. I groaned in response and opened my eyes once I heard footsteps stomping up the stairs of our townhome. I let out another groan and sat up, staring at the seemingly endless mess of homework on my desk.

"Here comes Albert, I'm assuming dinner's ready. I have to go." I sighed. Betty let out a sigh as well and we both said goodbye, and she hung up just as my younger brother, Albert, entered my bedroom.

"Mom told me to tell you that dinner is ready. She also told me to tell you that you have to eat with us tonight. At the table." Albert said, his big, doe-like eyes staring down at me only slightly as I stood up from my bed. Albert was in seventh grade, and I was only an inch or two shorter than him now. It wasn't hard for him to outgrow me - I stood at quite a short five-foot-two.

"Okay, I'm-"

"She also told me to tell you that you need to stop locking yourself in your room all the time." He asked quickly.