clocks // michael c

one

If I could only use one word to describe how I was feeling in that moment it would be annoyed.

I was annoyed at many things. One being how my Mother yelled at me this morning for dying the tips of my hair pink the previous night. Another being how I had to wake up at seven o' clock in the morning. I'm an eighteen year old girl, I'm not supposed to be awake until there's double digits on the clock.

There was one thing though that I was annoyed the most at.

It was the fact that I had to board a flight from San Francisco, California to Orlando, Florida in an hour. Against my will.

As I sat in my Mother's car that morning, glaring stonily out the window trying to avoid all eye contact with her, I realised all of this annoyance that was brewing inside of me was because of her.

I'm eighteen, an adult in society's eyes. I could shave half of my head off and dye the remainder neon orange and my Mom still would not have the right to scream at me as if I committed mass murder.

Besides, it was only the tips of my hair. If I got bored of it I could've cut it off.

In her mind though I absolutely ruined my beautiful, long, sandy blonde hair. I rolled my eyes at that so hard. Even just thinking about it made me want to roll then again, but right then I had to act as if I had no emotions and just glare at the window.

As for waking up at seven am to catch this goddamn flight, I was not happy about this at all. My flight was at twelve pm, so I would've had plenty of time if I just got up at ten, but no. I had to be super early for the plane I didn't even want to go on.

That was when she saw my hair and all hell broke loose.

"Paige," my Mom sighed, putting her hand on my shoulder. "You know why I'm doing this."

I scoffed loudly, that being the first sound I made since entering the car. I looked over to her and said "I don't, actually. Explain to me, why exactly are you sending your daughter across the goddamn country to live with her aunt whom she barely knows for the summer? Because I sure would love to know."

She sighed again and ran her hands through her blonde hair. People always told me I looked a lot like my Mother. We had the same sandy blonde hair, the same icy blue eyes and the same round face. We may have looked alike, but personality-wise we were polar opposites.

"You need to get away from the city, Paige. Away from all of the cars, all of the lights, all of the people. Aunt Lorraine lives in a very quiet town next to the sea. It'll do you some good to have a breath of the fresh sea air."

Aunt Lorraine was my Mom's older sister. She never married and still lived in the same house she grew up in with her two dogs. The last time I saw her I was eleven and obsessed with High School Musical.

"If I wanted to breathe in the sea air I could just go to the beach that's twenty minutes away from where we live."

She sighed again. I swear to God, all my Mom did these days was sigh. We stayed silent for the next few minutes then she pulled over and pushed down the brake. We arrived at the airport.

The airport was a massive building to say the least. I had only ever been there once prior to then and it was to go to Orlando to visit Aunt Lorraine and go to Disneyland. It was a nice trip.

I unbuckled my seatbelt, got out of the car and made my way to the trunk to get my two suitcases out and put them on a trolley. My mom followed behind.

When I entered the airport the first thing that came to mind was how many people were there. So many people coming to California and so many people like me who were leaving. In the distance I could hear a baby screaming and its Mother trying to calm him/her down. When I reached the check-in desk I turned around to face my Mother. "So, I guess this is goodbye?"