Trading Pieces of Sky [COMPLETED]

2

My alarm went off too quickly and I hit the snooze button before shoving my phone beneath my pillow and closing my eyes again.

I felt like I had barely closed my eyes before it started ringing again. I squeezed the lock button to make it stop and rolled over to face the bottom of my brother's bunk.

I yawned and stretched my body as far as it could go in my bunk and climbed out of bed. I stood on the edge of my mattress and shook Waylin's shoulder and he eventually groaned.

"Five more minutes," he said roughly.

"No, get up," I said as I hopped to the ground and switched on the overhead light that was right above his bunk.

He growled and buried himself into his blanket. I left the room to shower and could smell the scent of something burning. I rushed into the kitchen to find my mom pulling out two pieces of charred bread from the toaster.

"What are you doing?" I asked, confused as to why she was cooking us breakfast for probably the first time in years.

"Oh! Good morning Sky! Sit down. I made some food," she put some eggs onto a paper plate and set it down on the kitchen table.

Of course she was going to be nice and pretend like nothing happened yesterday. She always did this. Throw a fit when she was in withdrawal, get her fix, and then be the sweetest person until the next time she ran out of pills.

"How did you sleep? Sit down," she said when I didn't move.

"Fine," I lied as I took a seat at the table.

She placed a bottle of ketchup in front of me after placing two more pieces of bread in the toaster and flicked her eyes across the cut on my face.

"Where's your brother?" She asked when the toast popped, the moment passing for her to apologize, not that I actually thought she would.

"Probably still in bed," I said between chews.

"Go get him before his food gets cold," she sighed.

I threw my empty plate away in the trashcan before heading back to our room.

"Waylin," I groaned when I saw that he hadn't moved, "Mom made food, go eat before it gets cold."

He said something unintelligible into his pillows before rolling over and sitting up.

"Hurry up," I said before walking away and into the bathroom to shower.

After a quick, hot shower I re-bandaged the cuts of my arm and wrapped myself in my robe. I grabbed my school uniform and changed in the closet in case Waylin came back. I found a clean pair of knee high socks and slid them on noticing my need to shave my legs before exiting the closet.

"Good, you're dressed. We're leaving in 10 minutes," I said when I opened the door.

He nodded as he buttoned his polo shirt. 

I grabbed my backpack that I had prepared with pencils and notebooks before zipping it shut and heading out to the kitchen. I noticed that my mom was in the shower as I passed the bathroom. I grabbed my water bottle and refilled it in the kitchen sink and quickly washed the dishes that had been dirtied during my mom's cooking escapade this morning.

"Waylin," I called as I dried my hands, "are you ready to go?"

"Yeah," he called from down the hall in our bedroom.

I slipped on my shoes by the door and quickly laced them.

"Let's go," I sighed as I picked up my house keys from the small table beside the couch.

I followed Waylin along the walkway and down to the ground floor of the apartment complex. We walked to the main road and waited for the school bus to arrive. It was cold outside and I hugged my chest to keep the air from seeping through my thin cardigan.

"Is mom okay?" Waylin asked as we sat in silence on the curb.

"Yeah. She's fine. Don't worry."

"Who was that guy?" He asked.

"No one. It doesn't matter. He won't be coming back ever again."

I'd tried hard to keep Waylin innocent to my mom's addiction, but it was getting harder as he grew older. Now about to turn eleven, he was even more curious than he was when he was younger. It was more difficult to explain her sudden erratic behavior when she started to crash from a high. And with the dealer actually at our house yesterday, I'm almost certain Waylin overheard some of what was going on.

The bus approached and we both stood up brushing off our bottoms.

"Good morning," our bus driver Daryl called as I climbed the steps into the bus.

"Morning," I sighed as I found an empty seat in the front of the bus.

Waylin continued down the aisle and took his usual seat at the back. Being the first stop on the bus route had its perks. Especially since we were on one of the short busses. Living in such a small town where the majority of the population was affluent had its perks.
My one savior that kept me sane at school was my best friend Cassidy, Cass for short. She was one of the other few bus riders. We met in elementary school when her parents moved out here from the city.

I killed some time on my phone by scrolling through Pinterest. The bus lulled across town gradually picking up students here and there. A couple of Waylin's friends joined him at the back of the bus and were apparently having loads of fun. I drowned out their rowdy adolescent behavior with my headphones until we reached Cassidy's stop.

"Good morning," she sang to the bus driver before sliding into my bench seat.

"Hello Cass," I smiled taking in her over the top appearance.

She was wearing a baby pink scarf in her hair, sunglasses and carried a large, jewel-studded cup that was probably filled with coffee. No doubt she also had on makeup beneath her eyewear.

"Good morning, darling!" She said with a dramatic accent tucking her purse beneath the seat, "and how are we this sunny Monday morning?"

"Just fabulous," I said, copying her tone of voice.

"Oh how delightful," she said rubbing her glossy lips together.

I laughed at how much energy she had.

"I think you need to cut back on the caffeine. It's way too early to be this happy," I joked.

She laughed before taking another sip from her straw.

"Please, you don't want to see me without having any coffee in my system, especially on the first day back to school. Speaking of, I heard that Robert Bates didn't get to graduate because he failed his summer class and has to repeat senior year," she said, turning to look at me.

"Oh my God! Sky!" She hissed as she reached up to turn my face towards her, "What happened to your face?"

I shooed her hand away and shushed her looking around to make sure no one had heard her exclamation.

"Nothing, I just hit my cheek on the corner of one of the cupboard doors. It's nothing. Really," I lied hoping she would just let it go.

She pushed her sunglasses up revealing her perfect eye makeup so we were looking each other in the eyes. She stared at me for a few moments before speaking.

"I don't believe you, but I won't make you tell me right now."

I rolled my eyes and turned to look out the window. We were pulling into the school parking lot now and I mentally prepared myself for the first day of senior year.