A Hopeless Echo

Oliver

        All I could hear were the faint sirens as they got closer and closer. I feel my head pounding as my breathing turns more shallow ... what happened? I open my eyes slowly to see Noah right next to me. I can't move my arm to reach out to him so I try and call out his name. I know I said his name, but I hear nothing come out of my mouth. I continue to repeatedly yell his name, to get some sort of response but nothing- I start to drift off again, I try to stop myself but I can't. 

        I continue to stare at the picture frame of Noah and me playing soccer together until I hear my mom call my name.

        "What mom?" I yell from my bedroom. 

        "Are you getting ready for school? You're going to make your little sister late again," She yells back at me. 

       "I'll be right down," I say as I start to hurry to put some pants on. 

        I rush downstairs, where I see my 8-year-old sister with her backpack on, ready to go as always. I grab a gorilla bar and rush out the door with my little sister, its exactly 7:45 so I have 15 minutes to drop her off and get myself to school. I take a deep breath before starting the car, and start to head towards the school. 

        "Have a good day at school Sabrina," I say, as she hops off the car. 

        "You too, Oliver. I love you bye-bye," She says, closing the car door and running towards her group of friends. 

        I start to head towards school and realize I'm most likely going to be late, which at this point is pretty typical of me. I turn on the radio and the first thing that comes on is Ariana Grande, I go to change it, but stop as I start humming to the beat of the song, "The Way" featuring Mac Miller. I get into the school parking lot, turning down the music and start heading inside. I wander around the school, as my first period, P.E. class doesn't matter to me. I put in my AirPods and open the discovery playlist on Spotify, and proceed to walk throughout the school. 

       "Where are you suppose to be? Excuse me, where are you suppose to be?"

        "Talking to me..? Oh currently in P.E. class, just heading there actually," I say, smiling. 

        "Ohh I didn't know P.E. was across the school," She says.

        "Yeah well, don't you remember? They reconstructed the school and now the gym is over here. Yeah...like it took all summer."

       "Yeah, no I've been working here for 3 years and that's definitely something I don't recall." 

        "Ohh really? Guess I never had your class, well nice to meet you, I'm Oliver," I say, reaching out my hand.

        "Nice to meet you, Oliver, I'm Mrs. Johnson and you're really close to getting written up if you don't head to class right now."

        "Yes, of course, have a nice day Mrs. Johnson," I say, grinning as I turn around. 

        At this point, I should be heading to class but there are only 5 minutes left so I might as well start going to my next class, English 12. The bell rings just as I get there, and I head inside to sit with my group of friends. It's fair to say, I'm friends with a group of dumbasses, but we've all been together since sophomore year. Its always been me, David, Gabriel, Alex, and Jacob. At school were known as the all-stars in the soccer team though, amongst other things. As we sit in class, we forget about the essay were suppose to be doing, and instead, talk about the party we are hosting at Jacob's house for Valentine's day. His parents are always traveling somewhere new, so naturally, all the big parties happen at his house. 

        "We'll see you at the soccer tryouts for this season tomorrow right, Oliver?" David asks as the bell rings. 

        "Yeah, I don't know yet," I say packing up my things. 

        "Why?" They all consecutively say. "Is it because of what happened last year with your friend? 

        "Yeah, partly. I don't want to get into that right now." 

        "Bro we can't be the all-stars without our best goalie," Alex says, as we all start to head out of class. 

        "Yeah, I'll think about it guys. See ya at lunch," I say as I go to my next class of the day.