Until You're Cured

Sixteen Days

Sixteen Days     

I wake with a start. There's a tinny beeping coming from somewhere. I always forget that, since Scott's family has more money than mine, he has a real digital alarm clock. I realize a second later that Scott's not next to me.

I hit the off button on the clock and can finally hear the shower running in Scott's bathroom. I pull out the clothes I'd stuffed into my backpack yesterday morning. Simple grey t-shirt and the jeans from yesterday. If only I was bigger, I could borrow one of Scott's shirts that are nicer than anything I own.

I'm frowning down at my plain outfit when I hear Scott speak from behind me. "Good morning, beautiful."

I whip around to see Scott standing bare-chested in front of his open closet. "Who are you calling beautiful, gorgeous?" I ask coyly. Scott just shakes his head at me, smiling.

When we're both dressed, we climb the stairs to breakfast. Katy and Eli are at the table already. Katy looks up and seeing me, smirks.

"Good morning Scott, Mitchie." She says, sweetly.

I roll my eyes at her, but still answer, "Good morning, Kitty." I glance over at Eli who is glaring at his bowl of cereal. "So, Eli," I begin, causing his glare to refocus on me, "what'd you do to get in trouble on your first day?"

"None of your business," Eli hisses.

"Maybe, but I wanna know." Scott inserts.

"Screw off," dark haired boy in front of me mutters.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk, Eli. What nasty words. Does that have anything to do with what happened yesterday?" I chastise.

"No."

"Then what does?" Scott asks. I swear, if it were possible for us to get married, we'd be the best parents, but our kids would hate us. Finally, I can see Eli give in.

"I punched a kid who called Alex stupid. It's not Alex's fault he doesn't do well in school, his parents are always busy so they can't help him with his homework." Eli admitted. Alex is his best friend who's always been in remedial classes.

"Eli are you insane? If you keep it up, they'll send you to the Crypts" Scott blurted. The Crypts are the city's combination prison and mental institution. No one wants to go there, we've all been inside though. It's mandatory that everyone visit the Crypts in fourth grade as a way to scare kids into behaving.

"I know. Hey, it's almost seven, shouldn't you be gone?" Eli mutters.

"Shit, we're gonna be late." I hiss. Scott and I grab our backpacks and start the walk to the hell we call school.

Hours of trying to force myself to pay attention to the teacher, not Scott, later, we're walking over to Kevin's house to meet up with him and Avi again.