Unconditional Validation

Chapter 3

Justin.

"BRRRRRIIINNNGGG!"

"Ughhhhh! I don't want to get up!" I groaned out loud to myself while trying to look for my phone.

I kept scrambling through my bed sheets and fluffy blankets for the blaring sound coming from my phone. The alarm's persistence kept provoking me into being more and more annoyed.

"Come on! Come on! Where is it?" I grunted in frustration while still looking for my phone.

After minutes of looking for this goddamn phone, I finally found it at the end of my bed. I quickly turned it off and got out of the bed. I really didn't want to go to the first day of school at all. There was a whole lot of drama within our friend group at the beginning of the summer and I was glad most of us were taking a break from each other. To be honest, it was a lot to handle. Well, some of it was because Sophia kept trying to make Ryder jealous to win him over. She literally flirted with either Killian or Aaron in front of Ryder every single time our group hung out together. Of course the two kept making up after the hangouts. The other stuff kinda hit home to a handful of us. Killian was caught by us making out with Cameron Peterson, one of the out-of-the-closet gay kids at our school. We were fine with it, but then, overtime they became reckless with their fling-, or situationship, whatever you want to call it. Killian's overzealous religious parents found him and Cameron cuddling in his bed watching a movie. They became so furious that they sent him to a camp for the rest of the summer. Our popular friend group hasn't heard or seen Killian or Cameron ever since. I heard my bedroom door open suddenly, knocking me out of my thoughts.

"Good morning, son," my dad smiled.

"Good morning dad," I replied with a slightly tired grin.

"Are you ready for this school year and this football season?" my dad asked really excitedly.

"Yeah!" I replied with a little bit more excitement.

"Good. Well, I have to head out for work," my dad stated and left to leave for his job.

Being a person of mixed race could potentially make things harder for me, but luckily I got off easy. My mom was one of the top nurses at the local hospital, while my dad was one of the best lawyers in New York. We lived in a wealthy neighborhood on the outskirts of the town. It was closer to New York City so my parents could commute there easier to be at their jobs on time. Some of the people in my friend group lived by me too. Sophia, Ryder, Brianna, Aaron, and Cameron live in this neighborhood with me. The other three guys, Killian, Emmanuel, and Demetrius, lived in the middle class neighborhoods across town. I guess their parents wanted to live modestly. There were also the other so-called popular people at our school like America, Meghan, and Myles. I didn't understand those three, they didn't really like being with our popular friend group. I guess it was for the best because America and Meghan didn't really like Sophia, Brianna and the other cheerleaders. The guys, excluding Cameron, only used Myles for their homework until he had enough and left.

Oh, this is all stupid high school drama!, I thought to myself with irritation while heavily sighing.

I got into the shower and afterwards quickly got dressed for the school day. It was decided that I would be wearing a simple outfit for today because I didn't want to get hot from wearing my letterman jacket. Coach Jenson really wanted the juniors and seniors to wear their letterman jackets on the first day for "school spirit". I had a plain white Ralph Lauren polo on, a pair of simple black jeans, and of course my jacket. I also had my silver chain on and my silver Rolex watch on my left hand. I rushed downstairs with my backpack to grab my shoes and breakfast.