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Reality
Author's note:
I hope people will see that you can't judge a book by it's cover. Book meaning people.
7:00 A.M.
I wake up to the sound of honking and yelling from cab drivers. I lift my head up and feel the weight of my headche hit. I was either hungover, sleep deprived, or both. I look around me, I was on a dirty red couch and there were two guys slouched on the chairs around me. The smell of sweat stunk in the air.
I search for my phone, finding it in between the cushions. I open it: *7:48 A.M.* *17 missed calls* All from my mom of course. I stand up, wobblying to the front door. I don't even bother looking for my shoes. I find the nearest staircase and start down. Im on the 10th floor. Great. At the bottom, I exit the building. "Where the hell am I?" I ask no one. The street sign says 5th street, I need to get to 2nd. My phone's on 10%, I hope my battery last long enough for me to find directions. I type my address in and start walking. My head is pounding. A 18 minute walk isn't horrible I guess.
Finally home, I walk up the steps and reach in my pocket. I don't feel my key. "Crap"! I have no idea where I left it. Perhaps at the apartment I woke up in. Oh, I hope I didn't tell those guys where I live. I click the button hoping my mom will buzz me in. The speaker crackles: "Yes?" I roll my eyes. "It's me." I reply. I hear her breathe in, like she is starting to say something. Then the speaker shuts off and I hear the door lock click. I open the door and head up. I don't even have to knock. My door is wide open with my mom standing in the way.
"Can you move?" I ask. Without saying a word, she steps to the side, leaving the doorway open. I walk through and head to the shower. Once out, I head to my room. She's sitting on my bed. Of course.
"Can I help you?"
"Where were you this time?" She ask.
I'm short with my answer. "Out. With friends."
"I am so sick and tired of this. I'm done. No more babysitting. If you don't come home by curfew tonight, don't bother ever coming back." She replies.
"Oh finally, an invite to leave this sh**hole." I say.
My mother stands up and walks towards me. She gets so close to my face I can smell the cigarette on her breath. She ponts her finger in my face. " I mean it." She stands there in my face, her finger still pointed, then slowly walks out. I slam my door and faceplant my pillow. I need to sleep, but first, I need to plug my phone in. I drift off to sleep.
4:00 P.M.
When I wake up its 4:10 P.M. I check my phone and I have three messeges from Lexi. She's my best friend. *Last night was awesome! Where did you end up going??* *Hello?* *Girl if you're dead, I swear!;)* I reply: *Sorry hun, I've been sleeping all day. I have no idea where I was this morning. wtm tonight?* I stand up, I need to eat. While eating Lexi calls.
"Heyyyyy!" She yells into my ear.
"What's up?" I say.
"Epic party tonight okay?? It's a college party." She sounds so excited.
"Big whoop, we always go to college parties." I reply unenthused.
"NO! This isn't like every other college party we've been to, this is a frat party. We're not just going to be sitting around with 10 guys smoking blunts." She is actually excited.
"Erm, a frat party? Isn't that a little too preppy for us?" I ask. Frat parties weren't really our thing. We hang out with grungy guys, not sororities.
"OMG girl shut up! We will be fine. Pick you up at 8." She says.
"Ight." Click.
8:00 P.M.
Lexi picks me up and we head out. 8 P.M. is way too early to show up to a party, but she knows I hate being home. In other words, the earlier she can get me, the better. We go to the abonded parking lot that we always hang out at. We sit there a smoke a blunt. I'm hesitant about this party. Frats are just not our thing. But you can't tell Lexi anything. It's almost 10:30 so we head to the party. When we pull up, I can spot out the house. It's lit up with blue and green lights. There's people outside the house: drinking, puking, socialzing, making out. Lexi parks the car and we head up.
A guy in a white polo greets us "WELCOME to the greatest party you'll EVER be to." I roll my eyes, totally unimpressed. We head in and get drinks. Lexi darts off when she sees a cute blonde. Blondes are her type. I sit down on the nearest couch. Within 10 minutes, a guy plops down besdie me. "You go here?" He ask. "Excuse me?" I reply. "To this college." He says. “Oh, no. I’m still in high school.” I don’t know why, but I felt embarrassed saying that. “Hm, starting off young.” He says. I raise my eyebrow at him. “With the parties.” He declares. “ I guess so.” I’m totally ready to go. He can sense it, because next thing that comes out of his mouth is: “ You seem done with this thing. Wanna go outside and walk?” He ask. I hesitate then nod. Anything to get me out of here. We stand up and start to walk out. I’m following close behind him until he halts and I nearly run into him. He whips around, “By the way, I’m Trysten. Sounds like Tristen but spelled with a y.” I nod. “Unique, I’m Laney.” He nods and continues walking.
Before I know it, it’s 4:07 A.M. We had been walking around all night just talking. It was so different than what I’m used to. Usually the guys I leave with only want me for one thing. Once I give it to them, they ignore me the rest of the night. Lexi hasn’t even text me which means she probably went home with the blonde guy. I realize I’m getting tired. I yawn. Trysten stops talking. “Oh, I'm sorry, you ready to go home.” I nod, then it hit me. I can’t go home. It’s way past my curfew. Trysten must have seen the look of realization on my face.
“What?” He ask.
“You’re right, I am tired. Very, actually. It’s just…” I trail off.
“Yeah?” He ask.
“I sorta have nowhere to go.” I answer.
“Wow, seriously? Well, if it’s not too weird, you can crash in my dorm.” He says awkwardly.
“You don’t think I do this much do you?” I laugh.
“No, I mean… I didn’t mean you’re not worth taking back home.. or was iplying it would be werid, it’s just..” He sighs heavily.
I laugh. “Dude chill, it’s fine. Yeah let’s go crash at your place.”
“Alright, this way.” He leads us down the sidewalk.
As we walk into his room, I'm laughing. He shushes me, pointing to his roommate. I nod and quiet down. He points to his bed telling me I can sleep there. I question where he will sleep. He starts making a bed of blankets on the floor. When he is done he pats it and lays down. I’m in shock. This is not what I’m used to. Why is he so different so.. nice.
10:00 A.M.
I wake up with sensation to puke. I lean over and hurl everywhere. Then I remember where I am when I open my eyes. I just puked on Trysten’s floor. Oh no. I look around and no one's in the room. Maybe I can make a run for it. I start to get up and he walks in. Sh*t. He sniffs the air then his eyes look directly at the source.
“I am so sorry, I can explain. Even clean it up.” I plead. I start push the cover off of me.
“No, it’s fine. You’re obviously not feeling good, I got it.” He reaches for something behind his door. It’s then that I realize what he has on. Just a towel. His hair is dripping. He obviously just got out of the shower. I didn’t realize how good he looked last night. He is something else. He laughs. “You don’t have to gawk.” I blush. I never blush!
I clear my throat. “I really am sorry about this.”
“No worries, you’ll understand once you get to college, this stuff happens all the time.” He replies. He bends down and starts to mop up my mess.
College. A word only containing 7 letters but had such an impact. I never thought about college. As a senior I should’ve already been accepted. I hadn’t even thought of applying. I never saw myself as "college material".
“Yeah.. when I get to college.” I hesitate.
Once Trysten gets done cleaning my mess up, he grabs boxers from his dresser and slips them on under his towel. He then grabs a shirt and khaki shorts. He turns to me.
"Hungry?" He ask.
"Starving." I reply.
There is a mini fridge in the room. I figure he would hand me some juice and fruit to eat. Instead, he reaches in his dresser one more time and pulls out a t-shirt. He then walks towards me and hands it to me. I look at him, puzzled.
"My sister's shirt, she left it here last time she visited." He declares.
A sister huh? Must be around my age. Maybe younger considering how tiny I am for my age. I pull my current shirt off, letting my bra show. Trysten is staring. I laugh. He doesn't realize who I am, what I've done. I am not shy with my body anymore. After I put his sister's shirt on, he takes my hand and leads me to a tiny cafe. It's on campus and it's super cute. I order eggs and coffee. I'm surprised I even want to eat. Usually when I'm hungover it takes me all day to get an appetite again. Wait. I am hungover, right? I only drank two drinks. I wasn't even drunk last night. Unless, I forgot and I blacked out.
"Question." I say while stirring my coffee.
"Shoot." Trysten replies.
"Was..did I... did we drink more after the party last night." I ask.
"Ha, um no?" He seems puzzled.
"I just, I know I wasn't drunk when I left the party. But, I puked this morning." I say.
"I just firgured you were not feeling well, like sick." Trysten says.
"I feel fine." I'm so confused.
"Maybe you were just dehydrated or something. Look, if you're super worried, I can drive you to the 24 hour clinic." He suggest.
"No, it's okay. It's whatever, I'm sure I'm fine." Again, so confused.
3:00 P.M.
Trysten and I have spent the whole day together. I've learned a bunch about him. He's 5'9, has two sisters, (7 and 15 years old) and grew up in a military family. His mom was 23 when she had him. He was in the top five in his graduating class, number four to be exact. His best friend was number one. He was on the lacross team and had to quit because he messed up his knee in one of the final games of the season. His family lives here in New York but he lives on campus for two reasons. First one being he needed to get out on his own, and second, if he didn't live on campus, he'd have to drive 45 minutes to class everyday. I actually loved hearing him talk about himself. When he asked about me however, I wasn't as eager to share.
"Not much to tell." I said shortly.
"Oh come on. Give me something!" He pleaded.
"I'm just a 18 year old in highschool. I'm an average senior who doesn't care about anything. I go to my classes (sometimes) and then I hang with friends." I said.
"What about your family, tell me about them." He declared.
"I don't really want to get into that. I'm not close to them." I responded.
"At least tell me about your sibilings." He asked.
"None. I have none. OKay? So can we just stop." I demanded. I was getting annoyed.
He obviously could tell. "Oh, alright." He stopped asking questions after that.
I like Trysten. Who he is as a person. He doesn't need to know about me. I have a gut feeling he would wish he'd never met me if he knew all about my life. There's too much wrong in it. Too many sap stories.
Lexi hasn't texted me all day. I guess she could be sleeping. I better text her. *Lex, what's up? U good??* Maybe Trysten knows the guy. He coould tell me where they might be. Then again, all I know is the guy was wearing a blue sweatshirt and black jeans. Oh, and his blonde hair. Yeah, real helpful Laney. He'll totally know who you're talking about. I'll just hope she's good. We always are.
10:00 P.M.
It's getting late. Trysten has class tomorrow and I need to find a place to stay. I still haven't heard from Lex. I'm a tiny bit worried. I have no idea where to go. Trysten offered his dorm room again, but I feel like a burden.
"Let me get your number at least." He said.
"And tell me, why should I do that?" I flirt.
"Hm. So I can text you, maybe call. You know, so we can meet up again." He said. I smile and hold my hand out for his phone.
"By the way, I don't text guys first." I say. He nods and I walk off.
1:00 A.M.
My phones on 8%. I managed to get someone from my building to let me in the front doors. I head up to my floor. I need a plan. I need to sneak in. I spot the janitor.
"Hey!" I enthusiastically yell. He looks up.
"Hey, I'm sorry to bother but I seem to have forgotten my key at my friends house. My mom has work tomorrow and if I knock, I'll wake her up. Do you mind taking me to the manager's place so I can get in?" I'm trying my hardest to not break character.
"Humph. I don't know." Who does he think he is?
"Please... I swear this is the last time you'll hear from me." I plead.
He hesitates then nods, leading me downstairs. He knocks on the managers place. "WHAT?" Oh boy, he's mad. "Sir, it's a resident." I hear stomping then the click of three locks. He swings the door open forcefully. His huge head directs attention towards me. He just stares. I deliver the same speech to him as I did the janitor. The manager ask for my mothers name and mailbox number to confirm I live there. He leads me upstairs and unlocks the door.
"Thank you so much! Question. If I were to not find my key at my friends house how would I go about getting a new one?" I ask.
He replies, "See me in the morning."
I smile and nod. I thank him again. I quietly head to my room and shut my door back. I plug my phone in which is now dead. Still no messege from Lexi. I turn over, falling asleep.
3:00 P.M.
Still no text. I call and the line is dead. Her phone is off. I call her parents. No answer. My mom is long gone. Her shift must have started early. I have two text from Trysten. *Make it home okay last night?* *Oh come on! I totally texted U first... reply!(;* I smile at my phone and reply. *LOL dude chill, again. I was sleeping. Ye shome totally fine. Thx.*
I look in the fridge. Leftover chicken, score! I warm it up and start eating. Halfway through chewing, it hits me. I run to the bathroom as fast as I can. The disgusting mess comes up just in time. It burns my throat. What. Is. Wrong. With. Me. I flush the toilet and plop on the bathroom floor, my head in my hands. I sniff and look up. My mom is in the doorway. She shakes her head and walks out. I can hear her door open then shut. A few moments pass and I hear the same. She's back in the bathroom. A stick in her hand. A pregnancy stick.
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