THE WEEKEND WENT BY A LOT FASTER THAN I EXPECTED, and before I knew it, I was falling back into my morning routine for school again on Monday. The weather was supposed to be in the sixties today despite the fact that it was the beginning of November, prompting me to wear my black leather skirt and white lace top. I tied my red flannel shirt around my waist to cover my mid-riff so I wouldn't get scolded by my father.

When I went downstairs for breakfast, I saw my father drinking a cup of black coffee and watching the daily news. I remember him telling me black coffee was good for the heart and that I should try it, but I didn't like the bitter taste. I would choose tea with a little bit of coffee creamer over coffee any day.

I walked into the kitchen and fixed myself a bowl of Captain Crunch cereal before joining my father in the living room. He was so enthralled with the morning news report that he didn't even notice me sitting down on the couch. It was only when I began loudly slurping the milk from my cereal that he noticed my presence.

"Morning lemon," Dad said with a smile. "How did you sleep?" He asked.

"Just fine," I shrugged as I set my empty bowl down on the glass coffee table. "How about you?"

"I barely got any sleep at all," He sighed while rubbing his lower back. "I think I need a new mattress."

I furrowed my eyebrows. "What's wrong with the one you have now?" I asked him curiously.

Now my father was the one to shrug. "I don't know. It's pretty old. Your mother and I had it for nearly a decade," Dad replied. "I read somewhere that you're supposed to change mattresses every ten years because of the buildup of bacteria."

I cringed at the mention of bacteria. Whenever someone said that word, I couldn't help but picture bedbugs and dust mites crawling on the sheets and laying their larvae. I shivered at the thought and stood up immediately, grabbing my empty cereal bowl.

"Well, good luck mattress hunting. I've gotta head to school," I told him as I walked into the kitchen.

"I want you to put that shirt on before you leave the house," My Dad ordered, referring to the flannel wrapped around my waist.

"Alright," I sighed before complying with his request.

I placed my dish into the sink and texted Sia to see if she was close by. She replied by telling me to come outside in five minutes. When I entered the car with her, it suddenly hit me that by the end of the month I was going to have to make new travel arrangements to get to school. I think I was going to miss our car rides together the most.

As usual, Sia and I tuned into Elvis Duran's morning prank calls and listened to a little bit of the radio. By the time we reached the school parking lot, we had only ten minutes to get to our first period class, but Sia was having trouble finding a parking space.

"What the hell? It's like everyone decided to purchase a car overnight," Sia complained as her eyes looked at each row of cars we drove past.

I squinted my eyes and looked over the parking lot for empty spaces. The only vacant spaces that I could clearly see were the handicapped lanes, but then my eyes landed on an empty space in the second lane of the sixth row.

"There," I pointed to the sixth row as we drove past the fifth. "I'm pretty sure that second spot is open," I told her.

"On it. That parking space is mine," Sia said with a look of determination on her face.

Another silver car had been approaching the parking space too, but Sia drove the fastest I've ever seen her drive and managed to snag the spot before the other vehicle could. The two of us giggled when the window of the silver car rolled down, revealing an unhappy Alice Sexton glaring at us with with scowl.

"I was totally going to take that spot," She claimed as if we should care.

Sia rolled down her window a little more and smirked at Alice before saying, "That sounds like a personal problem to me."

I covered my mouth with my hand to muffle my giggles and watched Alice roll her eyes before driving away. After she put the vehicle in park and rolled up her window, Sia and I rushed out of the car and raced up the school steps. I barely had anytime to grab my books from my locker, but I made it to my first period class before the bell rang.

Ms. Barnard handed back our DBQ essays, and I found out I got a 4.5/7 which made me frown. I had been getting that score all year but didn't know how else to improve my writing. I slumped back in my seat with a sigh as Ms. Barnard lectured us about the causes of the American Revolution for the rest of the class.

My mood significantly brightened when I was in Calculus, but that was only because I got to see Harry. He offered me a subtle smile when I walked past his desk with my worksheet and headed toward the back of the room. To my surprise, Mr. Harris was absent today, so we had a substitute instead.

While the substitute teacher instructed us to complete the worksheet and then start our homework assignments, barely anyone complied. The sub didn't seem to mind though since he never looked up from the book he was reading at Mr. Harris's desk. Most of the students were on their phones, so I seized this opportunity to use mine to text Harry.

Me: Hi :)

Harry: Hey ;)

I smiled at his use of the winking emoji and typed my reply.

Me: When can we see each other outside of school again?

Harry: Possibly sooner than you think. Are u in physics btw?

I furrowed my eyebrows at his question. What did being in Physics class have to do with us seeing each other outside of school?

Me: Yeah, why?

Harry: Apparently Mrs. Garrett is planning a trip for all of her sections during Veterans Day weekend

Me: Are you in one of those sections?

Harry: Baby, I'm the TA for one of her sections

Me: That's actually kind of hot ;)

Harry: Perhaps I could teach you a few things about black holes and shooting stars

Me: Like what? That stars have faults? Lol

Harry: You did not just reference The Fault in Our Stars

Me: Oooh, but I did. I can't help my love for John Green

Harry: -.-

Me: Awww. Are you jealous Harry?

I smirked to myself as I waited for his reply. My eyes lifted up from my device, and I caught Harry staring at me before he rolled his eyes.

Harry: No, I just don't see what's so amazing about the guy. He's not British like I am.

I had to slap my hand over my mouth so that I wouldn't literally laugh out loud at Harry's text.

Me: True. I am quite fond of your British accent :)

Harry: Thanks. I've been told that it's deep and low ;)

I felt my cheeks get hot as I thought about the truth in his statement. Harry's voice was deep and heavenly, and he sounded so sexy whenever he moaned. God, I needed to change the topic before I became all hot and bothered.

Me: So...if Mrs. Garrett is planning a field trip, how are we going to see each other? She'll probably have u busy doin stuff

Harry: Don't worry. We'll figure something out.

Harry: Now get to working on those problem sets. I don't wanna see u slackin off.

Deciding to mess with him a little bit, I thought carefully before sending him my next reply.

Me: Okay daddy.

I heard a phone drop, and everyone's attention shifted to the front of the room. Harry scooted out of his seat to pick his phone up from the floor, his cheeks flushing with embarrassment. He dared to turn around and glance at me from over his shoulder as he slid back into his seat, biting his lip in that sexy way he does.

The hormonal teenaged part of me wanted to walk right up to him and kiss him like it was nobody's business. However, I exercised what little self control I had and refrained from doing so. I spent the rest of the period trying to work through the Calculus problem set, but even doing so, my thoughts would always wander back to Harry.

§

On the drive home from school, Sia finally told me what happened between her and Ethan. I had been secretly dying to know all throughout lunch, but I didn't want to pressure her into telling me.

"He was upset, of course," Malaysia started off before pausing to take a deep breath, "but we're going to try the long distance relationship thing and see how it goes. We promised that we'd FaceTime each other at least once a week and text each other as often as possible. Right now, though, we're just focused on the time we have left together," She concluded.

"See, I told you things would work out between you two. Ethan would have been stupid to just let you go," I told Sia, making her laugh.

When we reached my house, I hugged her goodbye and watched her drive off into the distance. As soon as I entered my house, I ran upstairs and swapped out my flannel shirt and lace crop top for my black shirt that spelled out Adrian's in cursive. My father told me Lester called in sick today, so it was just me and Giovanni holding down things at the pizzeria.

I did what I could to help him, but for the most part I dealt with the deliveries. I made a mental note to tell my father to hire more people to work the Monday night shift on my way back to pizzeria. The bell at the entrance jingled when I pulled the door open, carrying the empty thermal bag in my hand.

My father was entertaining a female customer in one of the booths, and I raised my eyebrows questioningly at the pair. Who is this woman, and what is she doing with my dad?

Author's Note:

Hey everyone. I hope you had a great weekend. On Friday I found out I got into one of my top colleges, so I'm super excited. It's going to be so hard to choose one by May 1st. I don't have school tomorrow because we're supposed to get a lot of snow, so I figured why not update.

Feel free to vote, comment, share this story with a friend, or follow me. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter.

Question for my readers: What is/was your favorite subject in school?

Mine is History, but I do have a love for writing in English.

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Kaylandia