❝𝐢 𝐰𝐚𝐬𝐧'𝐭 𝐚𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐢𝐭 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐨𝐟 𝐦𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐦𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐚 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐚𝐥 𝐡𝐢𝐠𝐡 𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝. ❞
━━━━
East Bridge High-a place of artificial, forlorn personalities that were adorned with the most expensive items in orde...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
NATHANIEL stood atop his balcony, his beat up converse grazing against the concrete with every fidget of his feet. He glanced down chuckling to himself, admiring the creases and the worn out fabric of his shoes, thinking about the rapid insults Joshua would spew at him for wearing something so beaten up. Holding the cigarette between his pointer and middle finger, he then brought his gaze to the city skyline instead.
Nostalgia surged through his body, but instead of bringing comforting feelings like it usually does, he was met with a sense of emptiness. The stark difference between the reality of his life now, versus the innocent juvenile childhood he once had. Nathaniel's life now consisted of this. The endlessness of the city, the feeling of overwhelming greatness and opportunity he felt he could never amount to. So much opportunity at his fingertips, but the only thing he could grasp onto was the paper of a cigarette.
Nate wishes he could go back to the time where his converse were brand new, not a mark or scuff on them. However, just like everything, it can never stay untouched.
Continuing to ponder the vastness of the city, the skyscrapers that looked like they could touch heaven and the speckle of light indicating life, he took one more swift puff of the cigarette before tossing it off the balcony. Nathaniel then slid the glass door of the balcony and was quickly met with the overbearing warmth of his apartment, his eyes swiftly darted to his mother who sat on the edge of his bed.
"Nathaniel, you need to stop smoking those cigarettes." His mother's arms were folded as her frail figure moved over, prompting for Nate to sit besides her.
Noticing her gesture but insisting on standing he played with a loose curl attempting to recurl it before responding. "How do you know that's what I was doing?"
"Well firstly, your scent greeted me before you did, and it's a glass door, son." Marie Livingston teased.
"Oh no, you caught me." Nathaniel unenthusiastically said, his eyes never meeting hers. He still felt a lingering sense of guilt for getting caught though, despite his mother being aware of his bad habit.
"How's school? I heard that Lauder boy came back." She sweetly smiled as she inquired, doing her motherly ritual of checking in on her son's life. Nate fiddled with the watch on his wrist, mentally preparing for the rest of questions she was about to spitfire at him.
"School's the usual, same thing it is every year. And yeah, Josh is back. It's nice having an old friend back." Marie nodded in response, adjusting the silk scarf wrapped around her head.
"That's good to hear, I'm glad he's back even though he's a little mischievous. Just like how his dad was." She recollected as an old memory played back in her head. Nathaniel could sense a sort of hesitation though, as if she was building up to ask him something.
He quietly muttered "Yep," under his breath, standing uncomfortably in the empty silence. He looked around the room in order to find some object to occupy his eyes, along with his mind.
