No Need For Introductions

I opened the front door with a loud ‘thud’, making my mom look up from her book.

“Hey Bailey.” Her glasses must have slid down her nose while she was reading, making her look older; like an old lady. My mom was only 32; she gave birth to me at 16, but she didn’t seem to regret it. Me and my mom were pretty close. Most parents say things like, ‘wait until you’re older to have kids, your life will go down the drain, blah blah blah…’ but my mom looks at it from a different perspective. If you’re meant to have a baby, you’ll have a baby. Whenever you get pregnant, that’s how it’s supposed to be. Now—she obviously doesn’t want me out having sex and getting all prego and whatnot, but she’s the kind of mom that doesn’t want me to be scared to be honest with her when I get into trouble. To me, that’s what makes a good mom.

“Hi.” I murmured, walking through the living room towards the kitchen. I dropped my backpack onto the floor by the staircase and waltzed through the kitchen doorway, stopping at the fridge and grabbing a bottle of apple juice. “Where’s dad?” I called into the living room. It was strangely quiet in the house, and that was really weird to me. My parents were usually laughing and joking around; or at least talking about something.

I heard some shuffling around from the living room, and then she cleared her throat. “Hospital.”

My dad’s a doctor. He’s not sick, or anything; that’s not why he’s at the hospital. He’s just a doctor.

I nodded my head, taking a drink of the apple juice. After drinking the rest of the juice, I tossed the bottle into the trash can and walked back to the stairs. “I’m going to start my homework.” I sighed, picking up my backpack and lugging it up the stairs with me. When I got in my room I threw it on my bed, letting the contents spill out of the open zipper. I pulled my notebook out and began writing the beginning of my reflective essay, pausing every few minutes to think or stretch my hand muscles.

I always prefer typing to writing, just because my hand cramps up like no fucking other when I write.

I started nodding off around 10:00, so I decided to put the homework away; the essay wasn’t due for another month, anyway. Sometimes I thought my English III teacher was so naïve. She let the class persuade her to extend due dates, when they didn’t really need extended. The essay only had to be seven paragraphs; five sentences to be qualified a ‘paragraph’. It wasn’t a hard project at all, but the class had whined and bugged her until they convinced her that they were too stupid to finish a 7-paragraph essay in the week that she’d originally planned for us. So, she extends it to a month. Nice.

I threw the notebook aside, scooting all of the books off of my bed and onto the floor. Once all the books were out of my way, I flung the empty backpack down on top of them in my floor.

I lay my head down on my pillow, not bothering to change into something more comfortable to sleep in. Jeans and a t-shirt suited me just fine. Almost immediately, my eyes fluttered closed and I drifted to sleep.

&&

“You’re gonna’ be late for school, hun. C’mon.” My mom said, shaking my shoulder lightly.

Shit, my fucking alarm didn’t go off…

I sat up slowly, yawning and stretching my arms. “Thanks.”

She smiled and left the room, closing the door lightly behind her. I stood up and walked out to the bathroom, taking the quickest shower I could; I had to leave my house at 7:30, and it was already 7:00.

I finished my shower with 20 minutes to spare, and I hurriedly pulled on a pair of jeans and a plain black t-shirt. I didn’t have time to straighten my hair and do my makeup, so I pulled my hair up into a messy ponytail, and quickly applied eyeliner and mascara to my eyes.

“Sidney’s waiting...” My mom called up the stairs.

I quickly grabbed my bag and shoved all of my books back into it, zipping it in a hurry and almost ripping the whole zipper off. I took my cell phone from the bedside table and shoved it into my pocket, and then hurried out of my room and down the stairs.

My mom was standing by the door, her long black coat making her look at least two inches taller than she actually was. She pulled her purse strap up onto her shoulder, and then checked over her hair in the mirror that was permanently placed beside the front door.

I stepped into the coat closet and pulled my jacket off of one of the hangers, throwing it over my shoulder and heading out the door. My mom followed behind me, the jingle of the keys in her hand making me want to plug my ears. For some reason, that noise made me feel like my ears were bleeding.

“See you after school?” She asked, unlocking her car door.

I nodded my head, joining Sidney at the end of my driveway to start our ten-minute walk to school.

“Yeh mum looks nice this mornin’.” Sidney complimented, looking over her shoulder at my mother, who was quickly getting into her car.

I shrugged my shoulders. “I guess that’s just the life of a lawyer. She always dresses up for work.”

“I suppose you’d ‘ave to… If I got paid that much, I’d go to work naked if they wanted meh to.” She laughed.

My face showed an odd expression, a smile coming onto my lips. She reminded me of Oliver more and more each day.

“Is it a’right if I stay at yeh ‘ouse tonight? Carol an’ Ian ‘ave some sort of gatherin’ they need to attend with me grandmother.” She asked, watching her feet as she kicked rocks along the pavement.

“Your grandmother? I thought she lived in England.” I wondered subconsciously, watching the rocks skid across the ground and land farther down the pavement.

She nodded. “She does. She arrived from the airport yesterday for a visit. Olleh and I aren’t very fond of ‘er, so when she comes for visits we normally make other plans.”

“Ah, I see.” I nodded. I glanced up, and we were surprisingly close to the school. I could see the buzz of people already forming on the front lawn. For some strange reason, my mind jumped to Oli, and I couldn’t help but to ask; “Is Oli coming to school today?”

She shrugged. “Depends on if ‘e wants to show up today or not.” She laughed.

I hid a small smile as we entered the front doors of the school, just in time for the bell to ring.

“W-“

RIIIIIIIIINNNNGGG!

Just as she started to speak, the bell rang loudly and I turned away from her. “I’ll see you in Algebra II!”

She nodded in my direction and turned and walked to the opposite end of the hallway. I sauntered off to first hour, hoping to get lost in the wonders of the English language.

&&

“Why?” Sidney asked, as soon as Mrs. Davis dismissed us from class. The bell for lunch hadn’t rang yet, so our class was basically the only one in the hallway.

Of course I knew what she was asking about; why do you want to know if Oli’s coming to school today? Too bad I was going to play dumb.

“Why what?” I asked, putting on my most convincing confused look. I shoved my Algebra book into my locker just as she was slamming hers shut.

“Why did yeh wanna’ know if Olleh was gonna’ be ‘ere today?” She asked, hoisting her shiny black purse up onto her shoulder.

I shrugged. “Just wondering…”

“A’right.” She nodded, following me into the cafeteria just as the bell rang for class to be dismissed. We were the only people in the cafeteria (other than the rest of our Algebra class), and I was a little surprised to see Oliver and his friends—as well as Tom—just waltzing into the building.

They immediately came over to our table, taking seats around us.

“And where ‘ave yeh youngsters been?” She asked, nodding her head towards the front door.

“We slept in late.” Tom said, a cheeky grin coming onto his face. His chubby cheeks were all too cute!

“So yeh came in at lunch time?” Sidney raised her eyebrow.

Oli shrugged along with Curtis, Matt, Vegan, Lee, and Tom. “Sure.”

She rolled her eyes. “Wha’ever.”

“ ‘Ey, yeh mind if I sit with these birds today?” Tom asked Oli.

Oli gave an uninterested look at Tom and shrugged. “Wha’ever.” He and Sidney sounded exactly the same when they said that word. Haha.

“We’re goin’ to leave yeh ladies to yeh lunch, now.” Curtis bowed as if we were royalty, before following everyone else away from us.

“Wha’ are yeh doin’ after school today, love?” Tom asked, scooting a little closer to me than necessary.

I elbowed him softly in the stomach. “Kicking your ass if you come near me. That’s what I’m doing after school, love. “ I mimicked his voice.

Sidney and I both started laughing, and Tom held his arms around his rib cage. “Yeh know, if yeh broke somethin’ yeh gonna’ ‘ave to ‘elp me heal? Wanna’ kiss it and make it better?”

“Thomas, yeh try way too ‘ard for attention.” Sidney snorted a small laugh. “Go away.”

“Fine.” He pouted. “I’ll go sit with me real mates, then.” He kissed me on the cheek quickly before getting up and running off.

I slung my arm in his direction, but he was already gone when my fist reached the spot where he was sitting.

Sidney kept laughing, pointing at me. “ ‘E’s such a idiot.”

“Tell me about it.” I scrunched my nose, wiping my cheek off where he kissed. Tom was always like this; he was quite the flirtatious little dude. He pretty much hit on every girl here, minus his cousin of course.

“Wha’ do yeh know abou’ that bloke that’s sittin’ by Vegan?” She asked, pointing to Matt.

I’d only known Matt Nicholls for a few months, and I was surprised that Sid didn’t already know him. He was one of Oli’s best friends, and his friends usually spent 95% of their time at Oli and Sid’s house. I only knew him because I had P.E. with him.

“Matt?” I confirmed, waiting until she nodded to continue. “He’s really funny; always cracking jokes. In P.E. he seems pretty outgoing… I’ve never really talked to him before. I only know what I’ve gathered from seeing him around school.”

She made a secretive face, and I immediately rolled my eyes. “You can’t have him.”

“Why?” She asked, looking taken aback.

I raised my eyebrow. “He’s one of your brother’s best friends. Won’t he get mad?” Sidney and I had gotten quite used to calling Oli and Tom her ‘brothers’. She’d lived with them since Tom was born, so they were always more like brothers to her anyway.

Oli was very protective when it came to Sidney. With Tom, eh; he didn’t really give a shit what Tom did. But Sidney already had a hard time finding boyfriends because of Oli. He literally would beat the shit out of boys for even looking at Sidney.

She shrugged. “ ‘E’ll get over it. ‘E’s got more mates.”

I shook my head. “Sid, do you remember Patrick?”

“Yeah, so?” She asked, grabbing her bottle of water out of her backpack that sat on the floor next to her. She opened it and took a small sip before replacing the lid and staring intently at me as I talked.

“Then you remember making out with him at one of Oli’s parties, Oli finding out about it, and then Oli beating the crap out of one of his friends for kissing you. And you were the one that kissed him.” I reminded her, wagging my finger in her direction.

She rolled her eyes. “Why do yeh always ‘ave to be right? Yeh’re bloody killin’ me ‘ere.”

I smiled in satisfaction, watching as Tom made his way back over to our table. He scratched the back of his head nervously, glancing back at the table that contained the other five rowdy boys before he finally reached where we were sitting. He slid into the chair next to me and smiled nervously. “ ‘Ow’s it goin’ over ‘ere?”

“Uh. Fine.” I said, raising an eyebrow. “What do you want?”

He smirked in my direction. “Yeh, of course.”

“Shut up.” I smiled sarcastically, scooting a little bit farther away from him. That was no use; he just scooted closer to me.

“What the ‘ell do yeh want, Tom. We’re talkin’ about somethin’ ‘ere.” Sidney snapped, making Tom instantly look over at her.

“They’re bein’ mean to meh over there!” He whined softly before wrapping his arm around my shoulder. “Thought I’d come sit with meh lovin’ sister for a bit, and maybe snuggle up to meh lover.”

“I’m not your lover, Thomas.” I protested, removing his arm from my shoulder.

He let his arm fall down to his side, hanging limply and softly brushing up against my leg as he smirked over at me. “A man can dream, can’t ‘e”

“Keep it in yeh pants, Tom.” Sidney said, swallowing another drink of her water. “If yeh don’ shut it, yeh goin’ back over there with Oliver.”

He shut his mouth and sat straight up in his seat. “Yes ma’am.”

“I think I’m gonna’ talk to Oliver abou’ this ‘Matt’ boy.” She continued, causing a snort to erupt from Tom’s general vicinity.

“Matt? Yeh like Matt?” Tom laughed, scooting to the edge of his seat to lean closer to Sidney across the table.

“Of course not.” She lied. She obviously didn’t want Tom to know, so she settled with confusing him. She knew that he’d run and open his mouth up to Oli if he knew that she liked Matt.

She’s one sneaky girl.