[𝐖𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐩𝐚𝐝 𝐅𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞𝐝]
They tripped on the urge to feel alive.
•
Ariya Davis is a dangerous mess of beauty and brains bottled together. Snarky, rebellious and armed with an air of entitlement, she struggles to make friends.
Nathaniel Mirs...
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I stare quietly at my hands as I sit outside the headmaster's chambers. Mum has been inside for nearly forty minutes and I can already tell that she's going to be livid.
I'd chosen to keep her in the dark about the several detentions I'd got over the span of the last year. I told her that I had to stay back for extra language learning classes.
She has enough on her plate already, without me burdening her with my stupid high school problems.
The door opens and Mum walks out, her expression eerily calm. Far from the furious, red face I expected. She was still in her light gray-blue hospital scrubs that meant that she had rushed to the school straight after a surgery.
"You've been let off for the day, Ariya. Let's go home." She says stiffly, before making her way towards the exit.
I follow silently, my lips curving downwards into a frown.
The ride home is quick and no words are exchanged except when she asks me to check my seatbelt.
When we reach the foyer of our house, I'm surprised when Mum still does not start a cumbersome lecture about trust, honesty, diligence and the like.
She simply makes her way to the kitchen, washes her hands and pours herself a glass of water before sitting down at the dining table and pinching her temple between her thumb and index finger.
I stand near the door, utterly perplexed. Is there a simple guide to approaching your parent when they're fucking pissed at you?
I'm probably daft because I'm actually waiting patiently for my mother to lecture me, a predicament that teenagers normally choose to avoid like the plague.
And it's not like I'm enjoying the dead silence either.
Our house is moderately large for just the two of us. We have three spare rooms for guests who we rarely have and Mum and I stay on separate floors to give each other space. She stays on the ground floor and I stay on the first. But despite the size, I feel trapped in the kitchen. Suddenly, it feels like the tension in the air will swallow me and I'd disappear.
I simply want to make sure that Mum is okay.
"Mum," I whisper quietly, standing a safe distance away from her, "I'm sorry?"
"Are you?" she asks simply.
I let out a quiet sigh. Honestly I wasn't sorry about the detentions I got, at least I had company. Staying home alone absolutely sucked.
I did feel sorry about the fact that I'd broken Mum's trust, though. But I don't need to elaborate.
"Ariya, I understand that you had a hard time readjusting when Izzy moved out of your school, but such behaviour is unacceptable." She looks at me calmly, her eyes swirling with sadness and fatigue, "It hurts me to think that you didn't feel I could understand your problems."
