An (Un)Easy Silence

A Day in the Park

I flopped down on my mattress with a sigh. Tonight had been less of a bomb shell and more of a World War II air raid.

Lumos coming to me for advice, possibly even comfort, and then putting his life on the line only so I could show up and, by some absurd trick of the universe, save him? Insane.

"What did I do to deserve this?" I groaned into my pillow.

"Morgan?" A voice called from outside my bedroom door. "Is that you?"

Oh crap.

"Yeah, Dad, it's me." This was one conversation I was not looking forward to.

Not even three seconds later, my door was thrown open to reveal a man with graying hair and a very dissapointed look on his face.

"You said your study group ended at ten. It's one in the morning and I didn't even hear you come in," he gave me his best glare, the one I tried to copy when facing bad guys. "When I called Samantha's parents, they said you left hours ago."

"I was walking home and I ran into a...friend," I bluffed, snatching a stray feather from my hair before he could see. "I tried to call but my phone died."

Dad huffed a massive dad sigh. "What am I going to do with you, Morgan? You can't keep staying out this late. You're always exhausted and now your grades have started to drop. I would ground you if I still thought that would work."

"Dad, I'm sorry, I really meant to call." This display of dissapointment was way worse than his usual explosive reprimands.

He just shook his head. "Goodnight."

He shut the door, leaving me feeling worse than before.

...

The next morning I woke up early and left the house before Dad could lay his disapproving eyes on me again. That was the last thing I wanted on a Monday morning.

I took the bus to school like usual. As I stood sandwiched between a greasy old guy and a greasy fat guy, my phone buzzed.

"Morgan Marlow," Samantha's voice chirped through the receiver. "You better have a good excuse why you didn't email me the bio lab report."

Ugh, another mistake, another person mad at me. "Damn it, sorry, Sam. I was so tired last night, I guess I forgot."

"Tired?" She scoffed. "From doing what? You never have your homework done so it must be something else."

"I'm just worn out, alright? What's with the twenty questions?"

The bus jerked and wheezed to a stop.

"Whatever, you better get me a copy before class or you are so dead," she threatened in a cheery voice. "Love ya, bye!"

Well at least she didn't seem genuinely upset.

I squeezed my way off of the crowded bus, heading straight to the school's library computers to email Sam the lab report.

Unfortunately, she was waiting for me, along with Keith Allen.

Keith and Sam completed my little ring of friends. We all grew up in the same apartment complex until I moved to the other side of Brooklyn.

"Woah," Sam gasped. "You got here early for once?"

"Well I couldn't leave you high and dry with the bio homework. You never would've shut up."

"Remind me why you copy off of Morgan?" Keith butt in. "You always complain that she never does her work, so why do you rely on her to do yours?"