Real Life ON HOLD

Real Life

Those lips. Those sweet perfect lips leaning in towards mine. His perfectly sculpted features were god-like and his eyes were an ice shattering blue that bore down on my own moss green ones. The golden stands that grew from his head were as soft as silk and I wound my fingers into his hair to pull him closer. I could smell his breath, a warm dewy smell, as his breath fanned my face. Oh he was so close now.

He was speaking my name, ‘Lily, oh Lily’. It sounded so nice.

‘Lily’, he said again, this time louder.

‘Lily! Lily! Lily!!’ Hang on why was he shouting my name?

‘Lily Rose Welch! Get up this instant!!’

My eyes flashed open as the dream world fragmented into to a bright white light. It was then I realised that it wasn’t the boy speaking; it was my mum, shouting at me to get up. My dream had ended without even a kiss. Great. Now I had to drag myself out of bed and face another day; not just any day either, it was a school day.

‘I’m awake now Mum!’ I shouted from my bed, where I was slumped against the pillows, ‘You can stop shouting now!’ The curtains were wide open with the brilliant morning sunlight streaming in, and my eyes were slowly adjusting to the contrast in light.

Seriously though, I had an alarm clock! I didn’t need her waking me up! Glancing over at the clock I checked the time; I couldn’t believe what it read.

‘7:45! Oh my god, I am going to be so late!!’ I screamed aloud.

To most people this wouldn’t be a problem as everyone who goes to my school gets a lift or catches the bus, but not me; I walk to school. It takes half an hour every morning to drag my feet to school after being physically forced out of the house by my Mum, it so annoying. I mean why can’t she give me a quick lift down to school in the mornings? Oh yeah, I know why. It’s because she has to look after my younger sibling Evie. Oliver comes to the same school as me, since he’s 12, but meets up with his friends, so that leaves Evie at home with Mum. Not that she need to be supervised! I mean Eve is like 9, so she should be able to handle herself, but my Mum has absolutely no trust in her whatsoever. Which I can kind of understand, because Evie is the brattiest little girl you will ever meet; she constantly whines and shouts, basically driving you up the wall. I shudder as I remember that I used to share a room with her, when she was younger, I can’t believe she’s transformed into an even bigger brat since then.

Anyway, back to the problem at hand, which involves me, being really late to school; I’ve got to leave in 15 minutes to be able to make it to school at 8:30!! Jumping down from my bed, yes it’s a cabin bed and grabbing my underwear and school uniform, yes I do have to wear a uniform, I throw it all on. My uniform is horrible. I mean if the bulky, black blazer with massive shoulder pads isn’t enough, then big, baggy trousers, that do nothing for my figure, just tops off the whole ghastly outfit! Sure I could wear a skirt, but the skirts barely cover your arse and honestly my legs would look horrible in a skirt.

As little as 2 minutes later I am standing in front of my full length mirror, dressed and examining my frizzy, knotted hair. It’s not too bad really, sure it gives me the crappiest bed hair in the morning, but after brushing it through a couple of times and putting it in a messy bun it looks decent. I don’t bother too much about my appearance really, unlike some of my friends who obsess over how they look in the mirror for hours. I don’t get why they do though, because all of them are pretty in their own way. I mean really inner beauty is the better trait to have, as what’s the point of being pretty on the outside if the inside is ugly?

Looking at the clock, I realised I had about 7 minutes till I had to leave the house so I rushed into the bathroom to wash my face and brush my teeth. After completing my morning ritual I rushed downstairs to grab my lunch from the fridge, I had made it the night before, and stuffed it into my bag, before saying goodbye to my Mum.

‘Hope you have a good day at school honey!’

‘I will Mum; I’ve got to go now though so see you later when I get back, okay?’

‘OK darling, oh and before you go, could you take Ollie’s lunch for me?’

‘Sure Mum, I’ll just text him to meet me if he wants it… Can I go now?’ I impatiently asked. Seriously when was she going to let me go?

‘Of course you can darling! Bye now!’

‘Bye Mum.’

And within a blink of an eye, I dashed out the door and headed down the road, before Mum could get another word in. Walking along the grey pavements, I plugged in my headphones and put on my ‘feel da beat’ playlist. I always listened to the same playlist every morning; one, it helped me to wake up and drown out all my worries and two, it helped me to keep a steady pace and not loiter on the way to school. I had it up loud so no one could talk to me, as I plodded methodically along the damp pavements with miss-matched tarmac patches.

This was going to be just the start of a very long day; I could tell.