Gabriella Hart
Walking slowly up to my locker, I grabbed a few of my books that I would need for studying later on and covered my face inside of it. My head was completely full of all the thinking I had been doing, and I just needed a rest. The first thing I wanted to do was to get out of this school already.
As soon as noise erupted around me through the halls, I pulled my head back out, due to not wanting to look like I had escaped the asylum down the road. However, pulling my head out of my locker also resulted in me seeing a scene that I really didn't want to see this morning, or ever.
Caleb had his lips pressed against Haley Smith's neck, probably placing large and noticeable hickeys all the way up to her jaw. She was always known to be a girl that gave it up to almost anybody, but I didn't think that Caleb would go for someone like her. I assumed that he would see her as too easy.
My heart sunk inside my chest as they slowly brought their lips together and kissed for what seemed to last forever until she pulled away and walked off with his arm wrapped around her shoulders. It made my heart sink into my chest and I really wasn't sure why.
Knowing Caleb for such a short amount of time didn't give me the permission to be jealous or annoyed. I closed my locker hastily and slowly walked towards main school doors.
My head dropped when I realised I didn't have a car to drive home in and I had to endure a long walk home. After everything that had happened today, I really wasn't in the mood to speak to anyone anyway. Therefore, I turned on my sad playlist on Spotify and placed the earphones into my ears before letting the music drown out the silence.
Skipping school really wasn't like me and so every step I seemed to take away from school, the mor wrong it felt that I wasn't there in a class. However, after what had happened this morning with Flora in the bathroom, it was probably best that I skipped the last few classes and the football game later on.
It's not like I was really going to learn from classes or watch the game when my head was constantly filled with my made up image of James and Flora together. It was also filled with the image of Haley and Caleb, kissing each other as if their lives depended on it.
The thought of the two couples together was making my head begin to hurt. They were all going to be happy, leaving me out of the picture completely. I still couldn't believe that we were barely a month into senior year, and my life had already fallen into a mess.
I still couldn't help but imagine what could've happened if I hadn't taken Caleb home that night from the party. James and I would still be together, but I wouldn't have known that he was willing to cheat on me so easily after a small disagreement.
My eyes opened properly to look at the street ahead where I could see the house I was having to live in for a while.
I was actually starting to miss my mom. She was the one person I could always talk to about anything and if it weren't for my pathetic excuse for a father, I would still be at home with her. I would have able to come home and cry into her lap whilst she played with my hair and fed me ice cream by the tonne.
As I approached the house, my knuckles were beginning to really sting from punching Flora. The bones inside were in pain and I was starting to worry that I had broken something. Although, I'm not sure Flora's face is hard enough for me to break anything on it.
My emotions were still mixed up and I wasn't sure whether to be angry or upset that I had lost two extremely important relationships in my life. James was someone I would always go to. He would be the first one to text me in the morning and the last to text me at night.
Where as, Flora was my best friend. I could tell her anything and she could tell me everything. We were inseparable and knew every single thing about each other.
I wasn't sure which relationship I cared most about losing.
• • •
Kylie and Clara arrived home around three hours later to see me slouched on the couch with a large tub of almost finished Ben & Jerrys ice cream beside me. Even if I wasn't upset, I would still be devouring the cookie dough until I was scraping the carton.
"Hey Gabriella," Clara called as she saw me. However, her expression slightly faltered when she saw that I was already dressed in my pyjamas and watching a marathon of friends episodes. "Were you at school today?" She asked before sitting down next to me and watching the episode.
"I had to study so I left before the game started," I quickly replied and hoped that she wouldn't notice the fact that there were no books anywhere near me, and instead there was just a bunch of junk food that I had bought for times like this.
Kylie, however, being the brat of a younger sister that she was, sat down beside me with a knowing look. "Flora had a big nose bleed today," she mentioned and I immediately tensed up. "Know anything about that?" I gulped back slightly as I gave her a small glare.
"She gets nosebleeds often," I quickly shut her up as they both continued to watch the show without asking anymore questions. "Guess who asked me to the winter ball?" Clara said to me, seeming really excited all of a sudden. I guessed that it was a way to forget that the only date I would have to the winter ball would probably be Netflix and some more Ben & Jerrys.
"Who?" I asked, joining in with her excitement. I attempted to mask the pain that I had been feeling for the last few hours and smiled lightly at her. "Graham Perry," the name quickly struck my mind as I realised he was one of the extremely good looking sophomores that basically every freshman worshipped.
"Yay!" I smiled and hugged her lightly. "And who are you going with Kylie?" I asked with my eyebrow titled upwards. I hoped that I would be getting her back for asking about Flora, but she remained shy and kept her eyes away from me.
"Who is it?" I asked Clara as she smiled like she didn't want to tell me. Clara simply shrugged and looked over to Kylie, as if to ask if she could tell me. "Do you want me to tickle you, Ky?" I asked her as she whipped her head round and shook her head profusely.
"Don't you dare-," before she could finish her sentence, I began to poke at her sides and she erupted into a loud laughter, not being able to stop. I knew she was extremely ticklish there so I easily used it to my advantage.
Almost as soon as I started, she was on the floor with tears flowing from her eyes. "Stop, stop! I'll tell you." She tried to say between each laugh as I pulled my hands away and waited for her to tell me.
"It's Henry Campbell." She spoke quietly, although I still heard the name being muttered. My mouth was gaped open as I brought the face to the name. "You mean, the British boy in your grade?" I asked as she smiled and nodded. I couldn't deny that the kid had been blessed with some extremely fortunate genes.
"Lucky bitch isn't she?" I laughed at Clara as we all slouched down and played some more of friends whilst stuffing our mouths with Hershey's kisses that had been left in a pile for only my own consumption.
• • •
The front door creaked open before a figure walked in. I mentally scolded myself for wanting it to be Caleb, but that thought was immediately extinguished as Katherine and Mike walked in with bags in their arms.
"Hey girls, can we have some help putting the groceries away?" Katherine asked as she carried a few to the kitchen.
Without thinking, we all got up and ran to help them. We loaded the refrigerator items in, whilst Katherine dealt with dry foods and placed them into their correct homes. "Kylie and Gabby, we have some good news and some bad news." Katherine asked as she put some of the fruit in the bowl in the middle of the table.
We both nodded as she began to speak again.
"The good news is that your mom is fine, I have been in touch with her and she misses you both, so much," Katherine started. My heart raced slightly at hearing something about my mom. She was safe, and that's all I cared about, no matter what the bad news may be.
"But the bad news is that she won't be back for a few more weeks." Katherine swallowed back heavily, waiting for our reply. After everything that has happened these past few days, this news didn't even seem too bad. The both of us looked at each other before smiling gratefully back at Katherine.
"Are you sure it's ok with you two? I'm sure we could ask a cousin somewhere to look after us." I offered but Katherine and Mike laughed lightly at me.
"It's fine! We love having you two here, and you need to stay in this state to go to school" Mike told us with a wide smile as well as he continued to load some food into various cupboards around the kitchen.
I haven't really gotten to know Mike and Katherine yet because of the party and carnival I went to, plus their work took up a lot of their time as well.
"Since Caleb is at a friends' house and I know that you're all not busy tonight, why don't we have a family night?" Mike questioned as he finished and walked back over to Katherine. "We'll play some games and order some pizza."
We all happily agreed together before continuing to put the groceries away and cleaning over the kitchen table to be used as our games area. I knew I needed something like this to make myself feel better, especially after everything that's happened.
Once we had set up the game of jenga and played for a while, arguments had already erupted about who had lost and who had made the tower fall.
"No, you pushed it!" Mike shouted jokingly at Kylie as they both laughed when the jenga tower fell down. We built it back up again and we played and ate the variety pizzas that surrounded us in the cardboard boxes.
The door, once again, creaked open and this time, Caleb walked in, looking bored like always. My heart almost stopped when I caught his eyes with mine, but I quickly diverted them and looked elsewhere.
"Hey, come play?" Mike shouted to him as he sighed heavily, looking tired from probably being with Haley all evening. "I'm fine thanks," he groaned out as his eyes flashed to mine again and gave me a strange look before he disappeared up the stairs.
Why did he look at me like that?