Falling

T W E L V E

"Hey Princess, you're up early." My dad walks into the kitchen wearing a button up shirt tucked into some nice pants, his usual work attire.

He plants a kiss on the top of my head and then makes his way over to the coffee machine and pours himself a cup.

"Yeah, I woke up before my alarm this morning and then couldn't go back to sleep. So I decided to just get up and ready for the day." I explain.

I'm sure you can understand my annoyance when I found myself awake at 6 this morning, when school doesn't even start until 8, and not being able to go back to sleep. After 20 minutes of trying to fall back asleep and clearly failing, I dragged myself out of my beloved bed and decided to get ready for school. Since I was really not in the best mood this morning I didn't put much effort into my appearance. I put my hair into a messy (but put together) bun and settled for a green crop hoodie and skinny jeans matched with my white vans. Although I did keep the look slightly feminine with my big diamond earrings and my white bow scrunchie that I used to make my bun, and I finished off the look with my normal makeup routine.

"Bad dream?" He sips his coffee with his eyes trained on me.

"No, I don't know why." I push myself onto the island counter and swing my legs back and forth.

Mom walks into the kitchen and I notice she's wearing my black platform sandals with her black skinny jeans and cute sweater top.

"Where are you going?" I question my mom.

"I'm going to breakfast with my sisters. We decided we would go after they drop their kids off at school." She pours herself a cup of coffee and leans against the counter next to my dad. He puts his arm around her waist and pulls her to him in a side hug.

Poor mom. She's the oldest of her sisters which means she's the only one that doesn't have little kids anymore. Which means when they all go out for meals, mom has to match her schedule for theirs. Usually that means waking up before 7 am to be ready when they are after dropping theirs kids off at school. She says she doesn't mind though, she loves getting together with her sisters.

"That reminds me," my dad turns to my mom. "I told Chris that I would help him paint the baby's new room after work today. He said Aubree wants you to come over as well for a girls night type of thing."

"Oh she didn't mention that to me. Well that works out just fine, I didn't want to make dinner tonight anyways." My mom laughs at her own laziness.

This is where I get it from.

"So since you'll both be gone tonight, is it okay if I have some friends over?" I lace my hands together under my chin and give my best puppy dog eyes.

"Sure, honey" my mom says at the same time that my dad says "What friends? Boys? You're too young for that."

My mom and I both share an eye roll as she rinses her coffee mug and loads it into the dishwasher.

"Yes, the girls and I have been hanging out with this group of guys. They're Peyton's boyfriends friends." I pull my lower lip in with my teeth and gently naw in it, unsure of what my dad might say about it. I mean he obviously can't tell me that I can't be friends with them, he knows that too. But what he can say is that I'm not allowed to bring them around the house.

My mom and dad share a look with each other, a silent conversation. Mom is giving him that stop being so weird, she's 17 not 7 look. Dad is giving her the stop looking at me like that look.

Lucky for me, mom always wins.

Dad turns to me "I suppose you could have a few friends over. But I want to meet these boys before your mom and I go over to Chris and Aubree's tonight."