Grey Street // H.S.

Chapter 3: "So what did you steal for me?"

It feels like every morning I wake up in sweat, this morning not resulting in anything different. So I push the large, constricting comforter off my body and turn to the side, stretching my arms above my head only to make a noise that sounds slightly like a dying animal. 

Even with my air conditioned house I still wake up every morning in an uncomfortable warmth. I'm sure part of it has to do with the fact that my bed is in the perfect position when the sun rises in the morning to shine through my window, right at my body but I haven't bothered to change anything about that. 

I rarely ever sleep with clothes on, especially during the summer. So I stand up from my bed walking to my bathroom in my sports bra and underwear that's riding up slightly in an uncomfortable way. I brush my teeth and attempt to comb out the knots in my hair. It can't decide if it's curly or straight and my hair normally just settles in this knotted, wavy state.

My mom has perfect hair. It's blonde, naturally, and has all these soft curls in it. I think it works well with suburban dream mother look she tries to pull off. My dad, on the other hand, has dark hair with streaks of gray in it. He wears it pretty long for a man his age and it falls from his head with a slight wave. I guess I got somewhere in between. Long knotty hair that's a color similar to if you mixed the two of theirs.

I walk back to my room and slip on a pair of shorts and a tank top before walking out into the hallway, down the stairs and to the kitchen. My house is big, way too big if you ask me. Since my parents make decent money I guess this is their way of proving it. I think it's stupid because it's built to house at least ten people and there are only four people living here, three really, considering how little my mom is here.

I grab and apple from the counter once I reach the kitchen. Then I lean across the cool granite, noticing a note on the other side.

Elle,

Please watch Ethan today. I have a double shift at the hospital and your father is starting his new research project. This should only be a one time thing because Bailey from down the street will be watching Ethan for the rest of the summer. Please don't leave him on his own and make sure he eats the broccoli I made him in the fridge.

Love you,

Mom

Pushing the note to the side, I walk to the fridge and pull out the broccoli that's sealed in a glass container. Observing the green vegetable, scowling slightly, I walk back to where I was standing and dump the contents in the sink. The broccoli doesn't survive long, seconds later the garbage disposal crushes it into a mush.

There you go mother dearest, Ethan ate his broccoli.

Ethan's last day of school is today and he should be getting home fairly soon since they only go for the morning. I graduated high school a little over a week ago but it feels like it's been years. The whole ceremony thing sucked, as I expected. They tried to get me to do a speech since I was at the top of the class but I told them to fuck off. Well, I didn't say those exact words but I pretty much implied it.

My high school was the type of American high school that you see in the movies. It was all about what group you were in and I thought the whole thing was trivial and frankly a little fucked up.

I ran track in high school, hurdles were my specialty, so in that way I should have associated with the jocks. They were all idiots though. I know this isn't true of every athlete but at my school it was. So I could only handle being around them for about five minutes.

I got exceptional grades in high school, so in that way I should hang out with the nerds, except they were all into Star Wars and Dungeons and Dragons like it was the eighties. That stuff is actually awesome but I couldn't stand to be around their nasally voices 24/7.