Bates & Landon [Wattys2015]

BATES

When I successfully made my way to the kitchen after shutting her door, I did a little victory dance and made my way to my room to put on some pants instead of walking around in my boxers. I shoved the bottle of liquor under my bed when I saw the time on my phone.

We would be late if we didn't hurry. "Emmy!" I said, quickly stumbling out of my room. Her head shot up to look at me, pop tart crumbs outlining her lips and falling onto the table.

"Mhmm?" She mumbled through her mouthful of breakfast.

"You need to hurry and eat that," I rushed, "then we need to go." I stood behind her, brushing her hair as gently as I could with her pink brush before pulling it up into a pony tail.

I ran my fingers through my messy hair, trying to loosen the knots with my long fingers. "I'm ready!" Emmy exclaimed after she gulped down all her milk. She had a milk mustache and crumbles on her face. I wiped her face clean quickly before picking her up.

"Whoo!" She cheered after I locked the door and began sprinting. This was probably a funny sight. A teenage boy holding her little sister while she bounced wildly on his back with her giggles louder than the birds singing outside.

Luckily, Emmy arrived at school on time. Her school wasn't that far from mine. Surprisingly, I arrived at school on time, too.

Just as I headed towards the door, eyes cast downwards as I tried to figure out why there was a big red streak of red on my converse. I wondered if Emmy got into my paint again... If I could stop what was happening, I would. But it was impossible. As soon as I figured out I was about to knock into someone, it had already happened.

That is why you need to watch where you are walking, kids.

"Ow!" I looked to the source, seeing that Barbie (Alice) was sitting on the ground with her face twisted somewhat in pain from the impact on the ground when she fell on her bum.

"Sorry, Alice," I apologize as I helped her up, using her real name. She stared at me for a second before bending right back down to get the stuff that dropped from her bag. "I didn't see you there."

She made a noise at the back of her throat, "I noticed that,"

"Yeah," I looked away, taking a deep breath, "Are you okay?"

"Emotional or physical?" was her reply.

"Um.. both?"

"My ass hurts from when you bumped into me, but I'll be fine. That's physical," she said then pointed a finger at me, "Now here is the emotional: if it weren't for us both being on such a time crunch for class, I'd beat the shit out of you --"

"For what?"

"For ignoring my best friend, dodging her desperate attempts to talk to you when you just blow her off, or walk away before she gets close enough to you. That, Bates, is an asshole move."

"I've just been busy," I said with a slight shake in my voice.

She rolled her blue eyes at me, "That was almost convincing. But I can tell when someone is lying. And you are lying, Bates."

I stared at her, long and hard. "I need to get to class," I started to walk away.

"Y'know, I don't see how you can just ditch with Landon --"

"She decided to ditch with me," I interrupt.

"--and just expect her to be okay with barely talking to her afterwards --"

"We did talk,"

"--for the rest of the week and the week after that. I mean, did you really expect that she would be fine from your sudden chilly mood swings? Especially when they involve avoiding her --"