Skybreak [not to be continued]

I

Tick tock. Tick tock.

The clock ticked slowly, robotically in the classroom where I sat: ticking down to the end of the day, the end of this year. I was 17 and we were let out of school early on study leave for our A levels. We had weeks, nearly a few months, off before our exams and I was planning to spend the majority of the time with my best friend, Gray.

Gray and I had been close since we'd started primary school together, at the tender age of 5. We were inseparable and practically sisters from the perspective of most people. We studied together and we both taking identical exams: her, English, Biology, music; me, English, Biology, drama. Our exams weren't taking place until much further this year and in between that time, I had my 18th birthday with I was so excited for. Gray was a few months older than me, but she kept herself to herself and hardly celebrated her 18th - only inviting some family plus me and a couple of close friends out together, whereas I was planning a massive party (with all my friends and nearly everyone I knew and was in our year) invited.

Rudely interrupted by my thoughts, the bell rang (as loud as a mob of screaming fangirls) symbolising the end of the school year for me and the rest of upper sixth form. I sighed in relief as I packed up my folders and dawdled to the staircase outside where I knew I was meeting Gray. We'd met there after class every day since year 7, and scarily, this was the last time in ages to come.

Sighing and rubbing her temples was Gray, already waiting and leaning against the metal pole which supported the staircase from beneath. I quickened my step and arrived close to her, smiling before asking how her day had been.

"Hey Grayscale, how was your day?" I greeted her as I walked towards the pole. 
"Good, thank you Rosa-Lina," she greeted back in an Italian accent. Let me tell you, that girl can speak in millions of accents! I was shocked that she didn't take drama. "How was yours?" she asked, resuming to her normal British accent. 
"Alright, okay. Depends how you want to put it. Not amazing, not awful." I replied, looking down and kicking the stones at my feet. I heard the noise of footsteps disappearing away from me and looked up to see Gray running down the slight incline, leaving all her bags and folders at my feet for me to carry. I sighed and cursed under my breath. Looking back at Gray, she was running around and giving me what looked like the 'loser' sign I picked up all her luggage and stumbled after her, muttering nonsense as I tried to catch up with her.

"Rosa!" Gray called, "Take your time, why don't you! We don't want to miss the bus!" 
I laughed at Gray's paranoid behaviour. She always wanted to get everywhere early, no matter how many times I told her it was unnecessary. The bus wasn't due to leave for another 10 minutes, we had plenty of time, yet she was fretting like her best friend was going into labour or something. Wait, I'm her best friend... And nope, not going into labour anytime in the near future so she shouldn't be panicking. 
Finally, I caught up with her and kindly dumped all her bags and folders into her awaiting arms. 
"Oh Darling, did you miss me?" Gray cried in a stereotypical upper class British accent, throwing herself at me. "I could feel my heart breaking into two, my life flashed before my eyes, I couldn't live without you!" Gray overdramatised. I looked at her before walking past, leaving her alone on the pavement as I got a good seat on the bus. Gray acted grief-struck for a while, before passers-by got worried about her, when she finally too boarded the bus where we both burst out laughing. Nobody else quite understood us. We were sixth formers with the maturity levels of 5 years old. Our friendship was something that had never grown up, purely because there was never a need to, and as a result we acted like young children in each other’s presence.

The bus pulled up at my stop and I turned to wave goodbye to Gray, who was happily engrossed in something on her phone. She nodded to acknowledge my farewell and I walked off the bus and headed toward my house.

My house was one of the smaller ones in my neighbourhood, as only my mum, brother and I lived here. My dad had left us many years earlier for many reasons that I still don't understand. My brother was only 4 at the time, and it was painful for me to explain to him that his dad wasn't coming back, ever.

On my way home, I picked up my brother from his primary school, where he was in year 6. It was scary that next year he would be attending the school I was leaving. As usual, Daniel completely ignored me in front of his friends in the playground, but as soon as we walked out of the gates, his hand latched onto mine and he started rambling on about his day.

I opened the front door and let Daniel into the house, filing in after him. It was getting lighter in the evening now, a sign that it was nearing summer - my favourite season. I chucked my bags down at the bottom of the stairs and headed up to my room where I rebooted my laptop, an old thing that worked slightly faster than a snail, and opened my saved work, one of the many pieces of music I was working on.

I sat for hours, tweaking little passages and adding lines to my composition, just because I wasn't taking music for A Level didn't mean I didn't love it and writing music. After successfully finishing the entire score for one of my songs, I saved it and headed to the kitchen to start making tea in time for when my mum would be home.

Daniel was sat in the lounge on the computer, probably playing some video game, and my mum was still at work. She worked stupidly long hours to earn the money to pay rent, and I helped by working full time on the weekends and during holidays. I was working full time as of Monday, until my exams took place, to earn some extra cash to help pay the mortgage. Mum always tried her hardest and put on a facade, but I knew that ever since dad left money had been tight.

I was just dishing up tea, Daniel sat patiently at the table, when the door burst open and my mum ran in, as delightful as always. Daniel jumped up to greet her, and ran over tackling her into a hug. She hugged him and smiled at me, "Thanks Rosa, for making tea. I do love you, you know that?"
I smiled in reply, "Of course mum. How was your day at work?" 
Immediately, my mum's smile disappeared and was replaced by a frown. "I'll talk about it later, for now let's enjoy this lovely meal!"

Let's just say work wasn't going well. My mum's pay had been cut and she'd have to dramatically increase her hours to earn the same amount of money. I urgently needed to start working to help support mum and pay this month’s bills off. Only then could I start thinking about actually using my study leave for studying.

However, I pushed all of these thoughts aside as I pulled out a chair and joined my family who were sat around the small table, to eat the tea that was sat waiting to be devoured.