‘I don’t want to go to school.’

  Laying on my bed, I felt no motivation to get up from my position.

  The bed felt like heaven, and I knew trying to get up would just make me groggy.

  But that wasn’t the only reason I didn’t want to get up.

  Truthfully, I just really didn’t want to go to school.

  I didn’t want to have to sit in class and be forced to learn about things I didn’t care about.

  I didn’t want to have to talk to other people about topics I had no interest in.

  I just wanted to do nothing.

  ‘Can’t I just stay here? Even if my grades drop, I still can’t be kicked out of the house until I turn 18. And when that happens, I’m sure I could figure something out.’

  I tried to come up with reasons why I didn’t have to go, reasons why I could’ve just stayed home and done nothing.

  However, my consciousness, the anxious and cautious part of my brain, wouldn’t let me.

  So I forced myself out of bed, back to the place I didn’t belong.

  **

  At school, I had art first period with Soriel, since it was Wednesday.

  That was actually something I looked forward to.

  “Elliot?” Soriel whispered as she drew something into her sketchbook.

  We were an art unit where we had to attempt to draw emotions. Our art pieces were graded based on effort and how well we could explain them.

  We had been in this mini unit for a few days now and we were now on our final emotion.

  For this period, we were assigned to draw loneliness.

  “Yeah?” I responded, beginning to draw in my sketchbook as well.

  ‘This is a pain.’

  I had never truly experienced loneliness. I always had someone by my side. Whether it be Tristan or my parents, I was never truly alone.

  Even so, I still felt that loneliness was easier to draw than happiness for me.

  “Do you play video games?” She asked.

  I stopped drawing for a moment.

  “Yeah…wait, do you?” I asked with slight anticipation.

  Soriel nodded.

  “I love video games,” Soriel said with a smile.

  ‘Finally! Someone who plays video games!’

  You see, Aurora had no interest in games, Tristan didn’t care to play them on his own, and Nishimoya wasn’t allowed to play any, meaning that I was the only one in the group who played video games.

  Well, I wasn’t anymore of course.

  ‘Now that I think about it, considering how crazy she went playing uno, I shouldn’t be surprised that she’s into video games.’

  “Really? What types of games do you play?” I asked, letting my excitement slip into my voice slightly.

  “Well, I play a lot of shooters,” Soriel responded.

  ‘I really don't wanna know what her face looks like while gunning people down.’

  A bead of sweat formed on my forehead.

  “Buuut, I like story games too. What types of games are you into?” Soriel added.

  I thought for a moment, and then spoke.

  “Any game really, as long as it’s not too difficult,” I answered.

  Soriel nodded in understanding and then made a few edits to her art piece.

  “How’s your drawing going?” I asked as I erased a part of my own drawing.

  “Good. Do you wanna take a look?” Soriel replied.

  “Sure,” I answered.

  Soriel then picked up her sketchbook and showed it to me.

  On it, I saw an image of a vast ocean with a single, small dot in the middle.

  The drawing was a small improvement from her flower drawing, yet still not very skilled.

  It seemed to convey more emotion, almost as if it understood the feeling at its very core.

  I nodded and made a face of approval. Then, I picked up my sketchbook and showed it to her.

  My drawing was simple. It was a crowd full of geometric shapes resembling people. In the middle, was one individual drawn differently. Using dark shading and color, I tried to make it invoke a feeling of unease in whoever ever saw the artwork.

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  “It’s good!” Soriel exclaimed.

  “Thank you, yours is great,” I replied.

  For my next period I had Social studies with Nishimoya.

  Just like last week, I sat far away from Nishimoya.

  So I just kept quiet and paid attention to the lesson.

  For my next two periods, I had class with Aurora.

  “This book is so boring,” Aurora said sluggishly.

  “It’s not that bad. But, I’d definitely prefer to read something else,” I replied.

  At that moment, we were reading an excerpt from a 1980’s romance novel that was praised for its deep and rich story.

  ‘Is this really how couples are supposed to act? Am I doing something wrong? Maybe Aurora would prefer it if I acted like this…’

  Reading the content, I was kind of conflicted about the main couple.

  They were around my age, maybe a year older, and they were constantly making out in the excerpt. The book made it seem as if they couldn’t keep their hands off each other.

  It made it seem like that was how someone my age should be acting in a relationship.

  Looking towards Aurora, I felt kind of worried.

  I wasn’t prepared to do those kinds of things just yet.

  “Hm? What’s wrong? Why are you staring at me?”

  “Um, it's nothing,” I responded.

  Aurora raised her eyebrow.

  “Actually, I was just curious, how did you become so pretty?” I asked, in an attempt to change the topic.

  Even though my compliment was to avoid awkwardness it was still genuine.

  With silky brown hair with dyed tips and deep emerald green eyes, Aurora was one of the most attractive girls I had ever met.

  “I don’t really know? I guess I get it from my parents?” Aurora responded.

  I blinked twice.

  ‘That’s a fair response. I didn’t expect it though.’

  My lips slowly curved into a smile.

  ‘I like dating Aurora. Even if I can’t be the best boyfriend, maybe our relationship will last. Hopefully, it will.’

  For the rest of Ela, we silently whispered to each other our thoughts on the excerpt.

  Then, for math, we worked separately so we didn’t get to talk as much.

  After those two periods, we had lunch.

  “Elliot, look!” Nishimoya exclaimed, taking something outside her bag.

  I arrived at the lunch table and sat down, curious as to what Nishimoya wanted to show me.

  Bam!

  Nishimoya slammed 2 chicken sandwiches onto the table.

  “We’re going to have an eating competition,” Nishimoya announced.

  My eyebrows creased.

  “Nishimoya, that’s a terrible idea. We’ll both get the hiccups,” I refuted.

  “But it’ll be fun though,” Nishimoya responded.

  I sighed.

  “Fair enough,” I said.

  Aurora, who was sitting next to me, made a confused expression.

  “You didn’t even argue!” She blurted out.

  I shrugged in defeat.

  “It does sound fun though,” I said, taking a sandwich from Nishimoya.

  ‘When the hell did she even get these sandwiches anyway? She still got here earlier than Tristan and I, so when did she buy them?’

  “I’ll time you both,” Tristan said, taking out his phone.

  Soriel, who was sitting in between Nishimoya and I, made a thoughtful expression.

  “I wonder who’s gonna win,” She mumbled.

  I made a thumbs up and pointed my thumb towards myself.

  “I will. No doubt about it,” I declared

  “Just for saying that I hope Nishimoya wins,” Aurora retorted.

  “I second that,” Tristan added.

  “What the hell?!” I exclaimed.

  Soriel chuckled quietly.

  “Anyway, I have the timer pulled up,” Tristan said, ignoring me.

  Both Nishimoya and I readied our sandwiches.

  “Three, two, one, go,” Tristan announced.

  I began to rapidly munch down on my chicken sandwich while Nishimoya tried to keep up.

  It wasn’t long before my chicken sandwich was completely gone.

  “That’s it, Elliot wins with a time of 2 minutes and 13 seconds,” Tristan said.

  I puffed my arms up into the air.

  “Told ya I’d win!” I said with a smile.

  “Woww, I’m so proud of you baby,” Aurora said sarcastically.

  My eyebrow twitched.

  “You were rooting against me 3 minutes ago!” I roared.

  We ended up talking amongst ourselves for the rest of the lunch period. And I made sure to brag about my win every once in a while.

  After lunch, I had science, as usual.

  And as usual it was slightly boring without my friends.

  Spanish and Coding, which I had as my 6th and 7th periods respectively, were an enjoyable experience.

  I was making decent progress in my understanding of Spanish and I was starting to be able to make casual conversation in the language.

  In coding, I was still struggling, but I was starting to understand the fundamentals. And it felt a bit rewarding, even if I didn’t make that much progress.

  In the end, I finished my school day in a pretty good mood. A decent bit better than when I woke up that morning.

  Naturally, I was still drained though.

  Exiting the school, I was about to begin my journey home when I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket.

  Taking it out, I noticed I received a message notification.

  — Dumb Dumb Aurora: Can we meet up and hang out for a bit

  ‘Huh? What does she wanna talk about? Also, I really need to change her contact information on my phone. Having my girlfriend saved as Dumb Dumb Aurora will definitely look bad.’

  — Me: Sure

  — Me: Where?

  Aurora typed for a few moments before responding.

  — Aurora: The park near the school

  I thought back to what park she was referring to before responding with an “Ok”.

  Then, I put my phone in my pocket and made my way over to the park.

  **

  It only took me a few minutes to reach the park, and when I did, I saw Aurora walking towards me.

  It was the same park that my track and field team used to practice. This time however, we were on a different side of the park so there were benches we could sit on.

  I sat down on a bench nearby and Aurora sat down next to me.

  “Hey,” Aurora greeted.

  “Heya,” I greeted back.

  “So, was there anything in particular you wanted to talk about?” I asked, eagerly awaiting an answer.

  “Not really, I just thought that since we’re dating now, we should hang out more,” Aurora said.

  Hearing that, my body relaxed.

  ‘I guess that makes sense. Hanging out like this as a couple is what we’re supposed to do right?’

  From there, Aurora and I began to talk about sports. Well, I didn’t know nearly as much, so she definitely carried the conversation along, but it was fine.

  Sports seemed to be the one thing she was super focused on so it was natural for her to want to talk about it.

  But after a little bit, Aurora finished speaking and went quiet for a few moments.

  Then, a small scowl appeared on her face.

  “Y’know, my parents are pissing me off,” Aurora said.

  I tilted my head in curiosity.

  “How so?” I asked.

  Aurora quickly stretched before continuing.

  “They aren’t paying nearly as much attention to me as they used to. It’s starting to get on my nerves,” Aurora explained.

  I raised my eyebrow.

  “Are they like…ignoring you or something?” I questioned, trying to get more information.

  “No, but they aren’t giving me as much attention and focus and stuff,” Aurora answered.

  Listening to her answer, I began to think deeply.

  ‘Isn’t that just a normal part of growing up? It’s not unusual for parents to not be as attentive over time right? They have responsibilities and stuff. It seems to be more of an annoyance than something she’s worried about…’

  Looking at Aurora, a thought came to mind.

  ‘Oh yeah. Aurora was raised differently than me. She’s probably used to a lot more attention than I am. If that’s true, a sudden decrease in attention would be a lot more impactful to her than it would be for me. After all, she loves attention way more than I do.’

  Coming to that conclusion, I knew what I wanted to say.

  “Well, if they won’t give you enough attention, I’ll just give you so much attention that’ll make up for it,” I declared with a smile that was supposed to be reassuring.

  Aurora looked at me, with her eyes silently widened.

  Her scowl soon faded away, being replaced with a small smile.

  “Sounds great to me,” Aurora replied.

  With the warm evening sunlight shining down on her, I had a single thought.

  ‘She looks really nice.’