Anxiety Attack

Chapter 14

Finley's P.O.V

My alarm went off at three am, playing Neon Trees' Everybody Talks. I groaned and rolled over, switching it off and happening to glance at the time when I noticed that it was only three am, and I had a good three more hours of sleep. I spent the next three hours trying to sleep until the time on my clock finally clicked to six in the morning, and I rolled out of bed.

Too lazy to take a shower, I simply put my hair up in a ponytail and pulled on jeans, half asleep as I jumped around, wiggling and trying to get my skinny jeans over my butt. Finally, they were on and I was exhausted, tempting to just fall over and fall asleep again. I grabbed the first shirt I saw, a gray shirt with a dream-catcher on it and I thought, this is a sign from the universe. I should go back to bed and dream.

Just as I was sitting down on my bed, my mother called up the stairs, "Finley, come on, you're going to be late!"

Glancing at my clock, I saw that I had half-an-hour until I had to leave for school. Stupid parents, thinking that you really needed more time than you actually did.

I dragged myself downstairs, simply hovering around my kitchen, unwilling to eat anything, as breakfast was overrated. So what if it was claimed to be the most important meal of the day? So what if my health teacher told me that a good breakfast helped your brain jump-start on the day? Who cares? No teenager I know, that's for sure.

"Honey, aren't you going to eat?" Mom asked.

"Not hungry," I grunted, messing around with a mug, debating if I had time for hot chocolate.

"But you need to eat breakfast!" she trilled from behind me.

I closed my eyes and internally groaned before turning around to face my mother. "Mom, I don't eat breakfast. I'm not hungry," I explained, trying to make her understand that I wasn't about to eat anything any time soon.

"Well, did you make your lunch?" Mom eyed me. "And make a sandwich?"

"Mom, I barely have any time to eat lunch anymore," I explained, for what felt like the hundredth time. "I don't have time to each a sandwich, and even if I made one, I'd probably just eat my apple." Or steal Eli's chips from the vending machine, I added in my head, although I think if I said that aloud my mother would smack me upside the head.

Luckily for me, I saw that I had to leave by the time Mom tried to come up with an argument. I quickly kissed her on the cheek. "Gotta go, bye, see you later!" I called, as I was already in the garage and slipping my black Toms on.

Breathing a sigh of relief once I was in my car, I was ready to just go back to bed, and I hadn't even been at school yet. Mom was just so clingy, and making sure that I was absolutely ready for school, even though I had been getting myself ready since middle school, and that was seven years ago.

Pulling into the lot of the great (i.e. old and decrepit) Dr. Pennington High School, I set my sights on the part of the building where my locker was located and sighed deeply, more than ready to just turn my car around and go back home.

...

I hitched my backpack over my shoulder, glad that school was finally over. I got to see Eli, and that was always a bonus to my day.

Humming a random tune under my breath, I rounded the corner and stopped short, my backpack almost falling to the floor.

Eli was kissing a girl.

I had no idea who she was and they were kissing pretty enthusiastically, her hands in his hair and his wrapped around her tightly. I blinked several times, trying to delude myself into thinking that I was having a very, very bad dream.