The Player Game

Chapter Five

“Bailey hurry up” I heard my mother piercing scream. I was running late again. I quickly found a pair of flats and grabbed my backpack from the floor.

I ran down the stairs, skipping steps, still holding my shoes. I made my way to the door and slammed it behind me. My mom was already in the car. She was screaming into the phone now. I noticed shes been more stressed lately. I assumed its something at work. My father wasn’t home, so it couldn’t be a fight with him.

I got into the car. “Go, go, go!” I hurried her. She slammed her phone shut, yes my mother still one of those old fashioned phones. She said that they produced hardly any radiation compared to smart phones.

I put my shoes on. I just noticed that they didn’t coordinate with my outfit. I was wearing a sheer sea blue button down shirt that was tucked into my black skinny jeans. My flats were hot pink. I face-palmed myself. At least I had the decency to curl my brown hair a bit and apply mascara.

I looked down at my phone. 7:58. Great I thought, this morning just keep getting better. I lived about twenty minutes away from school and it starts in two.

I sighed. This is the second time I was going to be late this week. I blamed Liam for being late. Lately I’ve been lacking sleep, due to the fact that I stay up later than usual doing homework. I use to do it after school, but now tutoring Liam got in the way of that, so I had spend late nights doing homework.

Speaking of Liam, he puzzled me, he hasn’t tried anything this whole week with me. I mean, usually he would try to flirt with me, but not since that night and it wasn’t normal. I guess I liked it better that he didn’t, but it wasn’t... normal. Ever since he came back, it feels like...he hasn’t been himself. I knew better than to pry and try to ask him where he was, especially after that one night.

The fact that I worried about him was starting scared me. It scared me every way possible. Since when did I even care? Since when did I let my mind consume so much thoughts about him? Just let it go Bailey... Just let it go. I thought

I began to drift away, until I heard my mother piercing scream. “Jesus, Bailey this is the fourth time I called your name”

“Oh... what?” I asked confused

She looked at me like I was stupid. “Get out of my car!”

“Oh cr-” I stuttered looking around and realized we were in front of my school.

I scrambled out the door and ran towards the entrance. I was never really a runner and quickly out of breath Just as I was about to round the corner to my classroom, I stopped to catch my breath.

“No, I don’t care who he was to her-” I stood up a little straighter trying to make out where was the source of the noise.

“He was a jerk-” That sounds a lot like Liam. I slowly peaked around the corner.

It was in fact Liam and he was talking on the phone. He looked very frustrated... but more than that, he looked angry.

“You’re not going to hang up on me ag-” He took the phone away from his ear.

“Great” He muttered. He opened the door and entered into the classroom.

I quickly recomposed myself, trying to make sense of what I heard. I quickly rounded the corner and entered the classroom.

Ms.Coin was writing something on the board. She didn’t notice me slip in quietly. I took one of the available seats in the back, right by the door.

I started to take out my calculus notebook and all the things I needed for this class. I felt glare piercing through me. I slowly turned my head to the right to see Liam sitting right next to me. I couldn’t make out the expression on his face, it was... weird. I felt like he had just seen a dog he didn’t like.