Days to Insanity

Chapter Eight

Charlie

I'm so sick of this shit. Watching my phone ring, I slowly sit up. The time it took for me to come back to this moment was longer than any of the times before. Well, I guess that makes sense. I died at half-past eleven last night.

The ringing is annoying me. I pull the covers off of me, picking up my phone and throwing it at the wall as hard as I can. It makes a loud noise, but I don't care. I get back into bed, staring at the ceiling.

I'm not able to sleep well. There's so much frustration now, and any sadness before is gone and my blood is boiling. I'm so sick of this shit. Tossing and turning, I manage to sleep for a couple of hours, but that's soon interrupted by Mom telling me to wake up.

"Charlie, you haven't wrapped Rye's gift yet?"

"Leave me alone," I grumble. Mom leaves quickly this time. Slowly getting out of bed, I stare at the eyeshadow palette sitting on my desk, throwing it on the floor before picking up my towel. Casper runs towards the bathroom but I grab him by the back of his shirt, pulling him backward.

"Dibs," he says, turning around and smiling slightly.

"Fuck off," I push him away and walk into the bathroom. Casper bangs on the bathroom door and I hear Mom starting to scold him. I shower for longer than I'm supposed to do, then wear normal clothes and leave with just my bag, looking down at my smashed phone as I exit my room.

When I leave the house, I watch as Finn's car pulls up into the driveway, but walk right past it and make my way down the street. I'm taking the bus today. I hear a car behind me and see that it's Finn. Rolling my eyes, I turn to face ahead again.

"What the hell, Charlie?" Finn says as he rolls down the window. "Where are you going?"

"To the bus," I reply, pointing the bus that's just pulled up, raising my arm so the driver sees me, breaking into a run and managing to get into the car before Finn can say anything further. Nate's there. I sit somewhere ahead, watching the houses pass by. When Julian enters, he raises his eyebrows at me slightly, but I barely pay attention to him. I feel like I'm almost in a daze.

When the bus finally reaches the school, I exit the bus, walking as fast as I can inside the building. Somehow, the school bus always manages to reach around the time Finn, Rye, and Sylvia do. Just my luck, huh?

I pull my sweatshirt closer to my body. I forgot to grab a coat, but couldn't really care less. Even if I die of hypothermia, the day's just going to repeat once again.

I enter the French classroom before I see any of my friends, sitting down at my desk. I know there's really no point in me doing this, but for today, I don't want to try to even have fun. I'll go by the day as I have to. Just minus Rye, Finn, and Sylvia.

Nate

I don't really know what to do. I guess today's my day to lay low and make sure I don't do anything out of the ordinary. Not that I did anything marvelous yesterday, but I can't lose my cool. When I enter the French classroom, I find myself looking at Charlie, who's staring down at her notebook, looking bored out of her mind. Today, she doesn't even look at me.

Maybe that's for the best, but seeing her dead last night left a bad taste in my mouth. Maybe it should be only me that dies, but I don't know how this day works, and I definitely don't know how to do this right.

"Charlie, what does en especes mean?" Ms. Wilson asks.

"How the fuck should I know?"

Jesus, okay. She's not having a good day. I'm not going to bother her today. The class seems to quieten down, almost as if they can feel the anger in her bones, but they can't. Only me and Charlie know infuriating this feeling is, clawing its way through our gut, clouding my judgment, and by the looks of it, hers too.