October.
"Wow. It's...roomy?" Michael questioned, slowly walking into the room whilst carrying both of our luggage, setting it down next to my bed. Were those sheets even clean?
"I haven't been here in so long. God, it may be old but everything feels so new." I sat on the bed and bounced on it gently, then plopped back against it, and I couldn't help but smile. "I feel like I removed a huge weight off of my entire life."
"Well, watch out, you're gaining another one," Michael warned before jumping atop of me horizontally to get to my pillows and I bent my stomach inwards, groaning.
"I think you have a fancy for jumping on people. Remember when you jumped on Calum when he was asleep, and he like, attacked you?" I giggled, joining him under the beige bed sheets.
"Told me he thought I was a ninja, or something," he chuckled, getting up and turning my heater up to twenty, then walking back to the mattress and snuggling under the covers.
"But Tobe," Michael started, clasping his arms together on top of his stomach as he stared at the bumpy, white ceiling.
"Hm?" I replied, hiding my eyes in the fold of my inner elbow.
"Don't be mad," he assured, "But I think- I think your dad is right. I mean, you've been in New York for like, three to four years now? And you still aren't studying in some art school. I kind of get where he's getting at." He shrugged and I turned to him, staring back in small disbelief.
"Great. You've turned to the dark side." I shook my head at him, "Yeah, I get it. Alright? I'm practically broke, and I'll probably get to study at a university when I'm twenty-five with the money I have saved. But that's the thing, Michael, I already told you. I don't want to go to college. They've ruined it for me." I laughed heartlessly closing my eyes and already wanting to doze off. "I don't see the point in going, when they want me to study something I don't want to do."
I turn to my side and hum tiredly, signaling that I was done with the conversation. Michael didn't reply for a while, and I heard him sigh, getting out of bed and walking towards the door.
"I'll be back," he mumbled quietly, and with that, he stepped out of the room and shut the door quietly behind him.
It was like my parents had some sort of aura surrounding them that had everybody turn to their side. I've known Michael for a long time - why did he suddenly take their side now?
And that's what scared me - the way that even Michael agreed with my parents, saying that maybe, education was all I really needed. And what scared me the most, was maybe he was right.
Now that I got a seconds opinion (basically a fourth if I wasn't sugar coating), I felt like an idiot for being so independent and rebellious. I actually wasn't doing anything productive with my life, and it made me feel like a dumbass.
My phone rang next to me on the mattress, and even though I knew it was my Luke, I couldn't bring myself to pick it up. I reach for it anyway, sliding the phone icon and placing the phone on my face rather than holding it. "Despair, speaking."
Wow," he chuckled, his voice raspy on the other end. "Did it go well, baby?"
The nickname brought butterflies to my stomach, as I smiled and held onto the phone while shifting in my position. "Yes. No? I don't know," I groaned, twisting a piece of hair around my fingertips. "I feel seventeen, again. Except the only thing that doesn't feel different, is that I feel like they didn't even listen. Even Michael turned to Darth Vader's side."
