When I woke up for school the next morning, I couldn't seem to find the motivation within me to get up. Instead, I picked up my phone, and started browsing through Instagram. I stopped on a post from a news article account.
'15 Found Dead in Atlanta Fire,' the headline said.
Skimming through the story, I picked up words like, "purposefully," "gasoline," and "match." The ending sentence was something along the lines of, "The suspect's whereabouts are still unknown."
For some reason, I was startled by what my eyes were showing me. It's not like I haven't seen stuff like this before, so I don't know why my eyes lingered on the page even when I had finished reading.
I decided to get up when I heard my stomach growl. After I brushed my teeth, I quickly put some sweatpants on. I shuffled downstairs, and ate some Lucky Charms.
I was early for my bus, so I had to stay inside another 20 minutes and wait. I sat wondering the reason why people murder. Do they have a disorder? Do they believe life is treating them unfairly? I would've probably kept thinking if my bus didn't come.
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Later at school, third period to be exact, I saw Raihana and Angelika in the halls. I briefly walked towards Raihana, remembering that I had the English 1 homework I forgot to tell her about in my book bag.
"Hey, Raihana!" I called out to her.
She turned around, Angelika at her side. They were both smiling, trying to hold in laughter, probably from a joke.
Suddenly, I felt like the odd one out; Like I was excluded from a group I was not a part of. I pulled out the paper from my book bag, and Raihana walked towards me, slowly. Angelika stayed where she was at, and I could tell the girls did not want to be separated; Especially by some random guy giving a chick's best friend her homework.
"Thanks!" Raihana said, and with that, she turned on her heel. She left for her next class with Angelika, and I could feel Angelika's eyes stay on me just a little longer before she left. They were curious; Not glaring. But I assumed that was because I didn't know her like she knew Raihana. So I ignored it.
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As the day went by, I met up with Andrew in the hallway. We decided to skip class and stay in a secluded area in the school. When 8th period came, we started walking home, talking about Raihana and Angelika. He told me this stupid conspiracy, claiming that they could like each other...which I figured was somewhat true, but hard to believe. When we got to Andrew's house, we were officially 1 day sober without smoking. This is why Andrew has asthma. He says I have lungs of steel.
Anyways, I ate dinner with his family, (I was used to eating authentic Asian food.) As I was eating, an idea popped into my head.
I texted Raihana: Hey, can you help me with the Romeo & Juliet story? Ya know, just to study :)"
Andrew says that it was too formal of a message, but I didn't care. Gotta respect gals, ya know? After I sent the text message, he asked if I wanted to stay the night at his house.
"Sure," I said, hesitantly. We walk to his room, and start setting up our sleep space. His parents were home, so we so we snuck up to the roof to smoke, (ya know, to celebrate our 1 day of sobriety.)
We talked about the usual things, until Andrew brought up my dad.
"Jonas, are your parents ever going to be home? I've only seen them like 7 times, and that was when we were really young."
I didn't respond.
"What do you even like about her?" He drags out a long smoke, looking towards the sky. "I feel like she's using you. I've been thinking about it, and I think she knows how you feel about her."
I really felt sick to my stomach hearing those words. 'I feel like she's using you.'
I couldn't sleep; The words echoed in my head, keeping me up late.
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When I woke up, I felt kind of dizzy. I don't recall what I was thinking at the time, but it must've been something like, ' Ohmygod, I'm going to pass out before I can even meet Raihana and talk about Romeo and Juliet and I won't ever get to find out if Raihana is in love with Angelika or-' My thoughts were interrupted when I felt a hand on my shoulder shake me out of my state.
"Hey, Jonas, you okay?" I heard Andrew's voice snap me back into reality.
"Huh? Oh- yeah."
I didn't really feel good.
After my small mental breakdown, Andrew and I headed downstairs to eat breakfast. His parents were gone again, not to my surprise. Andrew cooked us some omelettes with a side of grapes, (which tasted DELICIOUS by the way), and after I had my share, I was so full I could barely stand up. But satisfied in a sense. Andrew looked at me when I finished, and laughed.
"What?" I looked at his empty plate. Seemed like he was done about 15 minutes before I was. Knowing Andrew, he at fast. I once saw him chug down a gallon of soda in 30 minutes. What can I say? The dude was always hungry.
"You always eat so slow," Andrew remarked. I chuckled.
"Yeah? Well at least I'm not overweight," I responded, and I saw Andrew's face twist into one of shock. He pouted and put his arms in a criss-cross motion.
"I'm not overweight! It's called 'muscle mass,' which I ASSUME you know nothing about."
I laughed at his response, and cleaned up the table. While Andrew was doing the dishes, I picked up a pice of paper that had fallen off the table. I noticed that it was a report card upon further inspection. He had all B's, except for his grade in science. Andrew was never good at science.
"Hey, Andrew, need help in science?" I called out to him.
"What?" Andrew looked over his shoulder towards me. When he realized what was in my hand, he rushed over, and snatched the paper away from me.
I looked at him, confused as to why he was so upset over a small grade.
"It's only a D," I responded.
Andrew glared at me, and threw the report card in the trash.
"My parents got onto me the minute they saw the notification that our report cards were out. That's the only reason they ever come home. To see my grades."
I closed my mouth. After I packed my bags, the only words I said after 2 hours of our argument was 'goodbye.' He probably felt like his worth was determined by a score he got on a test. I guess I was more lucky than him. He was still abandoned and empty, just like the rest of us.
Sorry, that was too "deep." This sounds like an edgy 12-year-old wrote it. I'll get back to telling the story.
A/N: Thank you guys so much for reading! Please vote if you enjoyed the chapter ^^
[This story is a collaboration between Alex and I! Some parts will be written by Alex, some parts by me. Updates should be out every Friday! If you enjoyed this chapter, give it a star!]
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