Downfall [h.s]

↞ Chapter 1 ↠

It was the ass crack of dawn when my alarm started to go off. I cracked my eyes open expecting there to be a rush of light but instead I was greeted with darkness. For a second I was confused, why was I awake so early? But then I looked over to the alarm clock to see that it was six in the morning. That's when it dawned on me that today was the first day of school... My last first day of school.

Groaning, I forced myself to roll out of bed and over to my walk in closet. I riffled through the clothes before settling on a cream off the shoulder top with a pair of high waisted tan shorts and some black sandals. After getting dressed, I curled my hair into big beach waves before doing my make up. Once I deemed myself presentable, I grabbed my black and white tote backpack filled with nothing other than a pencil and a notebook and ran downstairs to snatch a quick breakfast of coffee and a thin bagel.

Once again I was greeted with silence as I shuffled around the kitchen. Both my parents had to get to work before dawn so I was usually alone when I woke up. My mom was a wedding dress designer and my dad was the founder of a software company. Often times they both traveled a lot, especially my dad, so this massive house usually really only ever housed one person. It wasn't too bad for the most part, but sometimes the silence could be deafening. So I quickly grabbed my breakfast and ran out to my car; I was already running late and it took me thirty minutes to get there.

A little while later, I found myself pulling up to the school five minutes before first bell. This meant that I had about fifteen minutes in total before I had to actually be in class, which also meant that I could eat my breakfast in peace, or so I thought before there was a loud knock on my driver's window. Sighing in frustration at the interruption, I glanced over to see my best friend Mackenzie tapping obnoxiously on the glass with a shit eating grin on her tan, freckled face. My frustration turned to glee as I unlocked the doors so that she could get into the passenger seat.

Mackenzie Garrison was 5"5 with long sandy blonde hair and not a single ounce of fat in her body. Mack loved to surf and because of that, she was really lean, somewhat muscular, and very tan. She also had long legs that anyone would kill for, along with her green-blue eyes, freckles, and always blemish free face. My best friend was the image of perfection and the complete opposite of me. I was 5"4 with long light brown hair that did this weird curl thing at the end and light blue eyes. Ballet made me a little more slender and willowy, but also made me more graceful than Mack who tripped over thin air.

"So how was your summer?" She asked as she settled into the passenger seat. For the first time in years, we hadn't spent our summer vacation together. She had been off traveling Europe with her parents while I spent most of the summer at home doing the same old things. Wake up, dance class, come home, sleep, eat, repeat. Not that I didn't love dance, but life was a little more lonely when I didn't have my best friend to share it with. The only great part of the summer was the few weeks that I spent at dance camp in New York. It was nonstop dance with hundreds of other dancer studying under some of the best trainers in the world.

"Same old same old. How was Europe?" I asked, tearing my bagel in half so I could share some. She gladly accepted as she began to ramble on and on about her summer. For a second I became a little envious because she had been on vacation with her family, something I can't remember ever doing, but I was happy for the fact that she had a great time. "That sounds amazing Mack. I'm so glad that you had fun."

"Thanks Red. So... What did you do?" She mumbled through a mouth full of crumbs. Laughing, I handed her a napkin so she could clean the crumbs from her lips before they ended up in the grooves of my leather seat. 

"Nothing really. A lot of working and dancing, just the normal. Dad was in Canada setting up a new location and mom was in Italy designing a series of one of a kind dresses for this new client's wedding. But I did get to go to that new dance camp in New York that I've been dying to visit," I answered, finishing the last bit of my breakfast.