Cell Mates

05|| Jailed and Jailer

05

I rolled over in my bed and woke up to the morning of March 21st, the first day of school after Spring Break, waiting for me to begin it once I rolled out of bed and got my ass to school. The thing was I didn't really want to begin today; I didn't really want to begin this semester at all if it meant seeing Connor Grayson for the first time in nearly a year. I could've definitely done without that.

But of course I couldn't shut the world out, it couldn't be helped by my strong will and resilience to quit my life and start over, nothing could. So I dragged myself out of bed, knowing I'd regret it because in reality I should have stayed home, skipped the first day assembly and saving myself a lot of headache in the process. But being completely stupid, I got out of bed anyways, nearly throwing my alarm clock half way across the room in an attempt to shut it up and went to get showered.

Mia had already been in bed last night when I'd gotten home. I think she'd given up the notion of reaching me with threats and didn't bother to stay up knowing I'd come back eventually. I swear if we weren't related by blood, and anyone else would take me I wouldn't be living here anymore.

A half hour later I emerged bleary-eyed, wrapped in a towel and started rifling through the clothes in my closet for something decent to wear when the door to my room burst open to reveal a smiling and bright-eyed Jody dragging a completely grumpy and disheveled Cleo behind her. They stood in the doorway for a half-second before Jody jumped onto my bed and Cleo took a seat at my desk chair.

"Excited for today, are we?" Jody asked, breathlessly, a slight chuckle escaping her lips. "I absolutely can't wait to see everyone, and by everyone I mean someone in particular, who holds a special interest –" Somewhere in the space of the twenty four hours after Jody revealed the news of Connor's return it transitioned from a taboo subject to the joke of the century. I must have missed the hilarity because I glared at her instead of playing along.

Before she could finish her thought, I picked up the nearest throw pillow and hurled it at her face, effectively cutting her off. A muffled noise followed as she put the pillow back on my bed and narrowed her eyes at me for giving her a mouthful of cotton. "Is that any way to greet your best friend on the first day back?" Cleo, who'd been silent, started giggling at Jody's grumbling. I smiled grimly and went back to scanning my stack of clothes.

"This day's going to be hell and I don't need your over-enthusiastic commentary," I said, not looking at her as I pulled out a plain black shirt with frayed shorts from my closet and slipped them on.

"I was just trying to lighten the mood," she complained, smoothing down her blond hair that stuck up in ends, giving her the aspect of a pale pixie-bobbed porcupine. Although I'd known Jody ever since I could talk (Cleo had stuck with us since the first grade) they knew they were pushing my buttons with the sensitive topic of the boy.

"Lighten up Sam, and take it like a man," Cleo piped up from her end. She gave me a reassuring smile, letting me know she was joking, and crossed the room to where I stood by the open closet. She picked out a red and black plaid shirt and handed it to me. "There that should do it."

After they'd gotten over their initial shock at Connor's entrance back into our lives they started taking it as a joke. It was superficial of course, and the references were few and far between since they knew perfectly well it was a pretty sore subject. If I wasn't so determined not to let his arrival get to me I wouldn't have allowed it. 

I snatched it from her roughly, managing to subdue the urge to punch her in the gut, and slipped past her into the en-suite to rake a brush through my auburn hair. It fell to my shoulders in soft waves, and brought out the bit of hazel in my mostly jade eyes, but had an annoying tendency to knot itself. I sighed at its unruliness and refusal to cooperate, getting most of the knots out, and returned to my room.