Breath of Fresh Air #1 [Complete]

Prologue

A/N: Welcome to the first chapter of My NaNoWriMo novel. I might not update on here as frequent. This the first draft, probably going to ridden with horrible errors, but I wanted someone else to read this along with me. If you see any errors, plot holes, or anything like that, let me know please.

Prologue

Smoke breaks. They were the only times I had just to myself. The feeling of the smoke as it filled my lungs when I inhaled centered me like nothing else could. They were also very good ways of escaping when I desperately needed to get away. Just like any other day during lunch I would escape from the table out the side door for just a reprieve. Sneak away from my friends who just didn't understand the peace that came with inhaling a bunch of smoke. That's where I found myself the day my life changed, but I just didn't know it at the time.

My legs screamed at me from the squatted position I held as I inhaled from the white stick. My boots crunched against the concrete as I turned to sit with my back against the red brick building. Closing my eyes, a grin spread across my lips. Despite how much both my mother and Alisha, my current girlfriend, hated my smoking, it was the only thing that I had that even remotely calmed me. I hated when that moment was interrupted. Just as that thought ran through my head, the other side door burst open, banging against the side of the building.

I huffed, swearing under my breath. I pinched the cigarette in my hand trying to hide it. If I had to guess, it was probably Mr. Shaw who taught who taught one of the AP math classes. After having detention with him last week, he was covering for Mrs. Weathers, I happened to find a pack of marlboro under his stack of papers. I could already feel the heat of the smoke against my palm as I lifted my head and glanced around the corner.

It wasn't a teacher. Instead it was another student. She was covered up by a parka, but her blonde hair poured out over the back. Her back was turned toward me as she scraped her light blue converse against the concrete. I heard her huff as she swiftly turned around. The moment she turned around, I knew I had never seen her before. Trust me when I say I would have recognized those dark brown eyes. She hadn't noticed me yet as she used the wall to sit down on the concrete. I pulled my gaze away once she was fully seated and I continued to listen to her huff. I knew in that moment that she was a freshman. Kids at this forsaken school were enough to drive absolutely anyone insane and they were even worst to the newbies. Higher grades were supposed to be smarter, more grown up, but in reality, we were the ones at the top, making it bad for the newbies.

Since she wasn't a teacher, I placed the cancer stick at my lips once again. We sat in silence mostly as the smoke gathered around us, filling wind. My eyes had drifted closed again, thinking how I was going to get out of the date with Alisa tonight, to check on my mother, when I heard heard the mystery girl cough. It reminded me of my mother's coughing. She had smoked since she was sixteen, my mother, and stopped a month before she had me. Of course before the accident, she started back up again and my father's bad habits made her smoke twice as much. Combined with injuries from the accident, mom hacked almost every night, but it still didn't steer me away from my bad habit. Yet when she coughed, for the first time, I felt a sting of guilt in my gut. The only person that ever received any feeling of guilt from me was my mother. She didn't deserve half the shit my father had put us both through.