The Third Wheel

Eight ~ On the Map

Dedicated to xo_ina_xo for being suh an avid reader!!! THANKS!!!!

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“Ariella, for God’s sake, how many times have I told you to get up?”

“One too many!” I shouted back to Aunt Kay who stood in my doorway, hands on hips.

I felt like such shit. She sighed in defeat and strode onto the bedroom, flinging open the blinds. I groaned and shielded my eyes.

“You have ten minutes before Sasha comes to drive you to school, now get up,”

Shit. I’d forgotten about Sasha. Why oh why could Kay not have had a night shift last night? Why oh why could she not have been dead to the world, like I was five minutes ago. Why did she suddenly have to go all ‘adult and responsible’ on me.

“I have a cold,” I grumbled, sneezing.

“And I have a short fuse,”

Kay fisted her hands in my duvet and, before I could protest, ripped it off me. I scowled in outrage, glaring at her through my tangled hair, shining red in the morning sunlight. She smirked, her lips a deep red colour. I frowned at her make up change.

“Move it,”

“Did you not hear the part where I have a cold and can’t possibly think or concentrate today?”

“Did you not hear the part where I told you to go to school?” she replied with a raised eyebrow, walking around the room and throwing random clothes at me that she found.

A bra hit me in the face and my scowl deepened. “I don’t want to go,” I said childishly, blowing my nose.

She ignored me, walking out the room and twisting her purple streaked hair into a messy bun. “You have seven minutes,”

Sighing, I had a quick shower, surprised there was hot water, before dressing in mismatched clothes and attempting to pull my hair back into a neat pony tail. Who am I kidding? The curls and waves fell down my back in a strange tangled array, some pieces framing my sickly pale features and blood shot eyes. Wow, looked like I was on the bottom end of ‘average’ today.

I shoved my diary, pens and textbooks into my backpack, walking past Kay in the kitchen where she was brewing some coffee.

“Here,” she said brusquely, shoving a cup into my hands and ushering me towards the door. “Go, go,”

“Yeah, I’m not hungry by the way,” I said sarcastically as she pushed me out the door.

“Have a good day,” she called before slamming the door in my face.

I rolled my eyes and plodded down the stairs, grumbling the entire time. At least maybe I would miss Sasha if I hurried. Then I wouldn’t have to face her until I saw her period one…or period two. Dammit, I had her every lesson until chemistry fifth period.

Then I brightened. But at least Tristan was in chemistry, a class I always looked forward to. Come to think of it, he was basically in all my classes, aside from English and French, the only two I shared with Sasha.

It’s ok, you can get through today, just put one foot in front of another.

What am I, crippled now?

I rolled my eyes to myself as I rounded a blind corner on the rickety stairs and slammed into a man. Stumbling backwards, I almost lost my coffee when the man’s strong hand wrapped around my arm and pulled me onto my feet.