These Lights Are Much Too Bright

It’s been days since the incident now, in fact probably a week and half. It’s been kind of awkward when Taylor and I passed each other on the street, but nothing could have prepared me for the awkwardness thatwas going to come.

“How are you doing?” my mother asked as she placed a salad bowl in front of me next to the other plates of food that were on the table for lunch.

“Mom, just stop asking already,” I said while rolling my eyes. The food looked delicious and it would have been such a shame to ruin the meal with conversations about Taylor and his Taylor. Oh God their names sound so annoying together!

“I’m just checking!” It had been not long ago when my mother had found out what went down. Jill kind of spilled, it must be her authoritative issues when it came to parensts. The moment someone had a serious parental tone she would break down, and my mother was an expert at the tone.

I pursed my lips to the side and just went over my plans tonight in my head while I chewed on some food. “So what are you doing today?” Jesus Christ this lady reads my mind and she is just playing it dumb in order for the rest of the world not to know her special power. Sometimes I swear parents know how to read minds, but no one wants to reveal the truth. I mean how else can you can you get caught when you lie so easily by them.

“Canon balling off of a cliff?” I smiled. My mother’s lips twitched upward slightly at the thought.

“I was thinking that maybe you’d want to go sky divind,” she challenged, so I decided to play alon.

“Oh that sounds perfect! But of course I’d want to take it to more of an extreme and not use a parachute while I was at it; you know it might just set up a world record. Can you not just see the headlines now?”

“Oh yes, they would be some great headlines, ‘Teenage Girl Finds Way To Fly.”

“Think I’d get in a lot of trouble at first?”

“Yeah, but then they would worship it like they always end up doing. Plus, look at the fun part, more than likely you’ll end up on Saturday Night Live.”

“Always been my dream.” We chuckled lightly at the thought before everything went silent again. I was trying to decide whether the ambiance was discomfited or comfortable, before I finally spoke up again. “I think I might be going to a sleepover with Jill and some of the girls tonight.”

“That’s good, you should really start hanging out with more people, sometimes I feel that you are a leper.” If I had been drinking water I might have just spit it right back at my mother calling me a weird-o loner basically.

“Thanks Mom … I think I’m going to go throw the stuff I need in a bag and just go there and hang out early.”

“Whatever.”

“Love you, too.”

“Love you, sweetie.”

“Okay the sweetie was just way too much,” I joked.

After throwing a swimsuit, a change of clothes, and some Pjs in a bag I left to grab my surf board from the garage and was on my way to Jills. I could’ve driven there, but the day was just to nice pass: there was a slight breeze coming from the wind as the sun shone brightly. Also I preferred not drive to Jill’s house because finding parking there was like trying to find a camel in the middle of my room.

“Woah there,” some girl screeched as I almost hit her with the board as I adjusted it.

“Sorry,” I said turning around slowly only to see the curly, blonde hair that I dreaded seeing the most right now.

“It’s cool,” Taylor quickly jumped in, plausibly fearing that I might just turn ninja and kick her ass in a second. That, or just let it look like it was an accident with my surf board. “No one got hurt, Nat.”

“You know her?” Taylor asked.

“She’s my neighbor, well she lives across the street from me if we want to get technical about it.”

This was the moment where death could not come fast enough in life. In my mind I was hoping that some meteor would just fall out of the sky from somewhere and crash right on the spot I was standing on, but then I thought about how painful that would be on my behalf.

“Oh hi, Nat? I’m Taylor.”

“Uh, yeah girl I think most people are pretty clear as to whom you are across the world, no need for introduction.” I gave her my best grin before turning around and going on my way without another word.

“That idiot thinks it’s just that easy!” I mumbled to myself when I was pretty far in distance from them.