Just For Glory | COMPLETED

Three Long Months

I'm not dead I promise. I've been busy packing because I'm moving back to Portugal!! I know crazy! 😂😂 Here's an update for the lovely and paciente readers. ♥️.

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"Just a guess, but you haven't been listening all that closely, have you?"

I glanced up at Piper, trying to think up a plausible excuse, but she just raised her eyebrows slightly. With a shrug, I muttered, "Sorry. It's just hard to concentrate lately."

She nodded and shifted her folded-up legs into a more comfortable position beneath her. We were in my room, Piper on the floor and me on the bed. Despite the fact that she'd been over regularly for almost three months, she never sat on my bed or any other piece of furniture in the room—only the floor. I gave up arguing on that eventually. Her English binder was open on the floor in front of her. Piper had been attempting to quiz me on The Great Gatsby, but I had all but forgotten the reason she'd even come over.

"Truth be told, I'm sure you know this novel better than just about anyone in the class. Besides," she said, meeting my gaze, "three months is a long time, Donovan."

"Yeah, no kidding," I deadpanned, granted with Piper's sardonic half-smile by way of reply. She seemed as if she wanted to say more, but she shook her head slightly and looked back at the test review in front of her. Breathing deeply, I pressed the heel of my palm into my forehead and did my best to concentrate.

Barely one week after school started, my mother came to me with the "proposition" I had been expecting for a while: I could stay out of a professional facility for my habits if I'd agree to just a few new rules. Namely, I could go to school, work, and Piper's house—she was the only non-family my mother saw as a good influence rather than a potential catalyst into my previous lifestyle. My mother even set up a conference with the school's principal to request that the administration "buckle down" on any signs of truancy on my part.

Surprisingly and contrary to my mother's wishes, Piper never attempted to be an out-of-home correspondent. My mother would have loved for Piper to go into detail about anything I did at school or at Piper's house. In fact, the one time I had skipped my last three classes, Piper had found me after school and asked if I was sick. When I had practically sneered that she should tell my mom that I wasn't being a good boy, she'd just shrugged and said that she wouldn't have to—our English teacher had dutifully noted my absence. I'd told her she could have made something up—that I had some sort of emergency or something—but Piper shrugged and said, "Donovan, I'm not going to babysit you and try to make you suddenly do everything right like your mom wants, but that certainly doesn't mean I'll lie for you."

Also unexpected was the ease with which I quit smoking cigarettes. Even if my other issues weren't so easily got rid of, I hardly had any problems giving up tobacco. I mentioned this fact to Piper, and she said that it was strange. It seemed to me, however, that we both knew that if she had followed me around when I went to parties on the weekend and plucked beers and joints out of my hand, they would've been just as easy to quit.

"Hey, Donovan? Perhaps we should abandon this particular attempt." I looked over at Piper, who quickly wiped the quietly sympathetic smile from her face. "I'm hardly paying attention to this either," she said, closing her binder and stuffing it unceremoniously into her bag.

"Do either of us really need to study for this test?" I wondered out loud. Piper grinned but didn't reply, standing up and lifting the bag's strap onto her shoulder. I got up as well to head downstairs with her. By that time, Piper had been over enough to be familiar with the house's layout, but it was just a force of habit to walk her out.