Rejection

Chapter 1: The Shift

I woke up this morning like I woke every other morning, maybe just a bit later than usual. The heaviness in my eyelids kept attempting to lull me back to sleep. The aching in my bones came from yesterdays yard work and it exposed the exhaustion I felt on my body. My room was in the attic. It was cold and dusty up here but the candles I often lit at night helped mask the old wooden smell that wafted through the dense air. There were little streams of light that poured into the room and lit it dimly with patterns across the wooden floor boards. It lit up my room enough to expose the contents I had; which were a cot I used as my bed, and two topless bins that worked as a storage for my clothes.

I kept the attic as clean as possible but it still did little to minimize the dirt that slowly accumulated onto the bottom of my feet or socks whenever I walked around the room. I focused on getting ready for school. I found a plain dark blue t-shirt and a pair of jeans that weren't dirty. Then I slipped on my only pair of tennis shoes which were beginning to show sign of wear and tear. Once I finished, I went towards the attic door. The hatch was propped open with a ruler so that it wouldn't shut completely and lock me up here. I slipped my fingers in the gaps provided by the ruler's propping and lifted it up completely. I grabbed the hatch connected to the folding ladder and pulled it down so the ladder fell to the hallway floor, allowing me to begin my descent down from the attic.

I made sure too descend as quietly as possible but it did me no help when I noticed that my mother was only a few distance away, sitting in the living room, sipping on a cup of coffee and reading a newspaper. Once I had both feet planted on the floor, I folded the ladder and let it raise to the ceiling with only the hatch hanging down low enough for me to grab and pull back down for later on. I turned for the bathroom immediately after but my mother's voice reached my ears and stopped me in my tracks.

"Why are you up so late?" Her voice was dull and void of any motherly love as if she was talking to a stranger who had over stayed their welcome and had the nerve to wake late the next day. I was used to this tone. She never spoke sweetly to me.

"I wasn't aware that I was." I answered her, slowly turning away from my current journey to the bathroom to face her. I knew if I didn't it would upset her. Our gazes met as she lowered her news paper to turn her brown eyes towards me. Her gaze was tight and tense and it clashed against my tired and relaxed gaze. We didn't get along, she knew it and I knew it but the way we looked at each other, was never a look that didn't clash.

"You normally leave before sunrise..." She told me dully, glancing towards the window, she pointed with a thin and vein-y finger, it looked like a twig broken from a branch. "The sun has risen and yet you are still here. What if Miranda wakes and finds you in her bathroom?" My mother looked back towards me with a more challenging look in her eyes. She let her twig of a finger drop.

Miranda is my sad excused for an sister. She's a year older than me, popular amongst the high status alphas in the pack and is a glorified fertile and beautiful omega. She also could not stand her lame, late bloomer of a sister. It's why my room was in the attic and why this bathroom is quote on quote "Miranda's Bathroom". I didn't how to respond to my mom. Well I did but I knew my response wasn't wanted. I've become good at evading trouble so while I could easily just point out to my mom that I had no phone, clock or alarm to remind me of the time, that I had no other bathroom to use but this one, I chose to say:

"I'll be quick." As a means of keeping the peace. My mother raised a part of her upper lip exposing her canines with a distinct look of disgust. As if she smelled something foul and then she scoffed.

"You won't use it all." She stated turning to her newspaper to block me from her view. That's how I knew the conversation was over and that I wouldn't be taking care of my personal hygiene at home this morning. Instead I took my desperation from the house and began my journey to school.