Stints | ✔

Nine: Lawrie Odin gives me a sign

"It's being here now that's important. There's no past and there's no future. Time is a very misleading thing. All there is ever, is the now. We can gain experience from the past, but we can't relive it; and we can hope for the future, but we don't know if there is one."

― George Harrison

   I hated waking up this morning to the smell of my mother's beautiful pancakes. It pissed me off.

   When could I see tomorrow?

   When would Zoey Graves realize that she shouldn't take the suicidal route she'd been going?

   She was wearing me out, and we hadn't even known each other that well.

   I decided to call Justice who probably was still sleeping, despite the fact school started in an hour.

   "Yeah, hi?" Justice said, answering the phone groggily and grumpily. "Who's this?"

   Didn't she have a caller ID on her phone?

   Oh, yeah. She was barely awake.

   "Yeah, Justice I can't pick you up this morning, nor after school. I have to take my brother to school, and pick him up after school, sorry."

   There was silence on the other line, but eventually she spoke. "Seriously? Why can't you just pick me up, and then take your brother to school?"

   Even when I was being direct and upfront with her she still wanted to act difficult.

   "Why can't you just drive yourself to school? Don't you have a Porsche?"

   "Ha ha, Isaac. Don't be such a smart ass, you know I keep failing my driver's test. I keep telling my mom to report the lady who keeps being stingy with my license." She continued to go on about how she hated relying on people, and that I was being such a jerk for not wanting to pick her up.

   I interjected when I couldn't take her whining anymore. "Just ask Gwen to pick you up, or Peyton. You act like you don't have any friends or connections." Now this time did I sound annoyed. "Fair?"

   Before she could even respond, and I knew she still wasn't convinced and wanted to complain, I hung up.

   Despite how nicely I tried to put things for Justice, or how selfless I tried to be for her, she never changed, she never tried to better herself.

   Once I got into my clothes for the school day, I didn't even answer my mom when she tried coddling me with pancakes. I just walked out the door and sped off with my car.

:: :: ::

   When I pulled into my usual parking space, I wasn't expecting to see Lawrie Odin, who seemed to appear out of nowhere. His arms were crossed, and his face screamed utter disappointment.

   I rolled down my window. "Wow, you finally decided to show up," I said, running my fingers through my hair. "I look like a big failure don't I?"

   He eyed me steadily. "You are trying Isaac, I can see that. But, surprisingly, your approach on some things are rather off."

   He approached the car window on the driver's side and presented to me a list; pulling it from under his jacket. "Here's a list of some things about Zoey."

   I took the list gratefully. Lawrie was now some help. I was beginning to think he was a fraud or something; wasting my damn time.

   "432 Gallagher Street."