Family Ties

Wednesday

"JAMES! Get yourself up! You'll miss your bus!"

I grumbled as I sat up in my bed and looked at my alarm clock.

7:00. Ugh. School really does drive you to drink.

Rubbing the sleep out of my eyes, I reached to my bedside to pick up my charged phone. A couple minutes of scrolling through pointless notifications and checking my timetable for the 5 lessons of today (or as I like to call them: 5 of the Circles of Hell) passed before I struggled to my feet and began to get dressed.

Light spilled in through my curtain and illuminated my normally dark room, managing to make my eyes sting and ruin my mood even more. Seriously, people who say us teens have it easy need to take a long look at the sun.

Squeezing into my uniform and cursing the people who created clip-on ties, I put some music on my headphones and scrolled through my phone again. I had time because the bus never arrives when it should. As I turned it on, expecting multiple other notifications that gave me another reason to hate all human life, my eyes caught onto the date that popped up near the time.

18th November.

Huh...

Being honest, that sight alone caused a few memories to hit me like a truck. Even though I never met my Grandmother, I still treat her as if I talked to her last weekend. It's weird how you can have memories of someone that never gave you any. Emotions swung at me like it was the last round of boxing. Love, hate, regret, anger and others flew at me from me looking at a date of someone's birthday who I'd never even met.

Family ties really are weird sometimes...

However, I promised to myself that, someday, I'd write about her. I never knew when. It was always just a hope; something to put on the to-do list. I'd probably have loads of metaphors and cool descriptions to convey everything. Maybe not. I don't even really know.

Snapping out of the strange, immovable state I found myself in, I snatched my bag from under my desk and made my way towards my bedroom door. For some reason, I always felt it to be some form of protection, like a mate who had your back. Yes that sounds kind of exaggerated, and it probably is, but those thoughts were normal for me, I suppose. I'm known to be a sentimental guy.

Regardless, I swung open the door and was ready to fight whatever crap I needed to for today.

Rushing down the creaking wooden stairs to my living room to catch the bus, my adrenaline was at an all-time low, as if the figurative weight of school had just sat on my shoulders after my sleep. Comforting me somewhat, the view of the bus just pulling up outside seemed to be waiting and the familiar array of people still sat there appeared in the windows.

Thank God. I didn't miss it. I opened the door and greeted the world again.

No point running now...