The Wasted Days.

"Jared!" I yelled down the stairs. The door had just opened and I assumed it was my lug of a best friend. "Is that you?" I closed my bedroom door behind me and skipped down the stairs, slinging my backpack over my shoulder on my way down. When there was no reply I slunk cautiously around the corners making my way to the kitchen, where the door had opened and slammed shut. "Jared?" I whispered.

"SALEM!" The tall boy screamed, lunging at me and tackling me down.

“Jesus, Jared. What the fuck?" I asked, trying to slide away from him, but he was too heavy and too strong and he wasn't letting me get away.

"I scared you." He drug out the word, taking pride in the fact that he could make my heart beat a million times a minute in fear.

"You're such a jackass." I muttered as he finally jumped to his feet to let me get up. He offered his hand but I avoided it.

"But you love me!" He whined coming up behind me and placing his hands on my shoulders as I opened the fridge to grab a mini bottle of apple juice.

"So you keep telling me." I mumbled, trying to keep the smile off of my lips. He reached over and grabbed the last bottle of juice off of the shelf before I could protest. He opened it quickly and took a big gulp out of it before walking back to the door.

"Lexa is waiting in the car. She refused to come in... something about your monster of a dog attacking her." He shrugged before grabbing my hand and dragging me behind him. "By the way, where is that demon dog?" He asked over his shoulder as we basically ran down the sidewalk to his beat up, old Chevy. It had been a birthday present, a nice hand-me-down car for a nice sixteen year old boy.

"Riley? The rents took him with them, for God knows what reason." I smiled before jumping into the trash ridden backseat. "Dude, you really need to clean this thing out." I mumbled, not sure if he'd even hear me.

"Don't talk about her like that!" Jared yelled angrily at me through the rearview mirror. "She's sensitive." He adverted his gaze to the dashboard, which he pet lovingly.

"Creep." I rolled my eyes.

"Hey! That's my boyfriend you're talking about." Alexa said defensively, turning around to face me. Her dark brown hair flew into her face and her bright green eyes stared into mine with mock anger.

"That's my girl." Jared sighed staring at Alexa's lower back, which was exposed due to the way she was twisting herself to look at me. I laughed as he licked his lips slightly.

"Creep." I repeated, nodding my head towards him this time. Alexa looked towards her boyfriend and gasped angrily.

"Creep!" Jared rolled his eyes and pulled onto the road.

"What?" He asked, making his voice sound higher than it was. "I thought that came with the whole boyfriend/girlfriend package.” He muttered almost under his breath before glancing at Lexa and then back to me in the mirror. I barely caught his bright cerulean blue eyes wink at me.

~~~

“If you would just be quiet and listen to what she’s saying then maybe you’d understand it.” I mumbled under my breath. I was referring to the blonde bimbo behind me who kept running her mouth and then complaining when she didn’t understand what the assignment was about. Math wasn’t that hard, at least not to me. It’s numbers and all you have to do is know how, when, and where to put them into a formula or calculator. English was so much harder because there are so many rules that are supposed to be broken half the time and how am I supposed to know when?

The bell rang and I looked to the ceiling, silently reveling in the fact that this was sixth period. The last of the school day. I gathered all of my books quickly and got out of there as fast as possible. My locker was on the floor above this one so I took to the stairs and filled my backpack with the few books I needed.

I flew back down the stairs and into the parking lot, where I silently searched for Jared’s car. It either wasn’t there, or I was blind. Hands found themselves on my upper arms and I spun around to face Lexa who looked completely out of breath. “Are you going out for track this year?”

I looked at her, completely puzzled. “No? Why?”

“Geez.” She took a big breath, leaning on me for support. She must have been chasing me. “I was trying to tell you that Jared had to leave early and that we’d have to walk, but you just kind of ignored me and ran away.” She looked at me disapprovingly.

“Sorry.” I half smiled at her.

“It’s fine. You just have to tell me what’s wrong.” Lexa said, always making deals.

I hated the prying side of my best friend. She always had to know everything, from every angle. I shrugged. “It’s just been a long day, I guess.”

“Sure, sure.” She nodded and we both made our way to the other side of the school and walked a few blocks in silence before she spoke up again. “So, what’s wrong? For real.”

“I already told you.” I moaned as we neared my house.

“‘Long day’ doesn’t count, hun.” She sighed and shook her head before pointing at my door. “Rover isn’t in there is he?” She asked.

I laughed at one of the many nicknames she had for Riley. I shook my head no. “But Mini is.” For some reason Lexa couldn’t stand Riley but absolutely loved Mini.

“Good.” She smiled completely forgetting about her ritual questionings. At least for a while.

Lexa sat at her normal spot on the only stool that spins at the island in my kitchen. I smiled as I watched her absent-mindedly spin side to side. I told her that one day it was just going to break apart because they weren’t supposed to move anyway. “Do you have any juice?” She asked me as I bent over to search through my fridge.

“Nope. Dickface took the last one this morning.” I mumbled opening the bottom drawer and pulled out two cans of off-brand coke. I hopped onto my own stool across from her and watched as she wrinkled her nose at my choice of drink. “Sorry, no Pepsi either.”

“Mountain Dew?” She asked hopefully, moving to the edge of the stool, ready to jump off.

“Nope.” I said solemnly. “Sorry.”

She sighed. “I’ll live.” She opened the can and took a sip. “I guess.” She smiled up at me.

“You better, ‘cause I don’t know what I’d do if you didn’t.” I smiled.

“Oh! Oh! I do!” I raised an eyebrow at her as she bounced slightly. It looked like she was literally about to fly out of her seat. “You’d hide the body.” She said and nodded matter-of-factly.