Forever 27 club | l.s.

1

Welcome to the Jungle - Guns N' Roses

As every morning, I hear someone banging on my bedroom door. I immediately know it's my uncle Noel waking me up before school. This unpleasant routine has been going on since I was thirteen, five years ago, after I moved in with him. I don't have any expectations as I think about my upcoming day, the start of my last school year. It's going to be a living hell as it has been since I live in America.

As soon as I get out of bed, I put a black t-shirt and black skinny jeans on and tie a bandana around my hair. I finish brushing my teeth and head to the bus stop. There are already some students that take the same bus as me waiting on the sidewalk. I hung my head low and put my headphones on to be sure that no one notices me or tries to talk to me. As I hum along to some Guns N' Roses, I hear loud voices that I recognize behind me. I listen more attentively to their sayings and realize that they are talking about me.

"If it's not our favourite depressive, Harry Styles?" I hear Jack say with a mocking tone. I know he's trying to provoke me and wants me to answer, but I have no ambition in giving in

"Where?" ask Niall and Ralph at the same time. Both of them weren't really mean, but they were attached to the hip with Jack. They've been friends since elementary school, Jack was always the leader.

"C'mon guys, leave him alone, it's the first day of school," I finally hear Liam say, scolding his friends.

As I ignore what they are now saying, the bus arrives and I enter first. I head directly to the back and sit brutally on the hard seat, posing my bag beside me to be sure that nobody sits there, even though nobody would want to. I rethink about what the four guys were saying. They are all popular boys at my school, all part of the football team. Liam has always been the nicest, if it wasn't for him, they would have probably beaten the shit out of me a couple times in the past years. I'm not surprised that they teased me as soon they saw me, it has become a routine for me, but I never really cared.

The school is already filled with loud noises when I enter the huge building. Everybody seems quite happy to see each other again and to start another school year, I am definitely not. I have nobody to greet and no friends to joke around with. I'd rather be at home working on my music. I have one year left and no ambition in going to college. I'll maybe go back home and pursue my music career there.

I search through the hallways for my locker and I find it rapidly, nobody that I recognize seems around which satisfies me. I don't want to do small talk with someone that thinks I'm interested in what they are saying.

Once I grab my manuals for my first class, I see Taylor Swift arriving. She's quite popular and is already surrounded by lots of her friends. She always seems strong, independent and so happy, the kind of person you hate, but admire and secretly wish you were. I catch her gaze on me, she doesn't seem displeased nor happy, but more like intrigued. Her icy blue eyes scan me, stopping as they arrive to my face. She smirks a little and I can read on her face that she has come up with an idea.

Taylor stops talking in the middle of her sentence and heads towards me. She walks with assurance, taking each step knowing where she is going and what she wants. Nobody seems shocked by her sudden interruption, it's something she usually does, but everybody freezes as she stops beside my locker. She waits for me to greet her or at least say something, but I don't. I stay quiet and ignore her.

"Hi Harry!" she says in her too joyful and posh tone as she looks at me directly in the eyes.

"Hi," I answer probably too sternly. She continues to stare at me as if she was waiting for me to say something else. "What do you want Taylor?" I finally ask after a long awkward silence.