An Unwanted Love

It had been a week, and it’s the night before the first day of fucking hell school. Well, for Nate and I, at least. The other morons were already a month into it. Joy.

“Are you guys positive you have everything you‘ll need?” Alice asked for the umpteenth time.

“Yeah, mom, chill. We got this. Rave’s driving, we both have after school try outs, we both have all of our paperwork that is needed to get our schedules and we know to ask for help should we have difficulty. It’s okay.” Nathan reassured her easily, grinning with just as little difficulty. She returned the smile, finally accepting that we were fine.

“Yeah, well, I’m your parent. It’s my job to worry.” She teased him. I tensed at her words; she was not my mother. Just my guardian. And that was because my parents didn’t care enough to even show up at the custody hearing those few months before.

My parents didn’t worry. They didn’t care. They didn’t even pretend to. I was just a hassle for them, and now I’m just a hassle for Alice.

“Rave,” Nate started, turning to me and jerking me out of my thoughts, “you do have gas, right?” I just shrugged, which he assumed meant yes. In all reality I had at least enough gas to get to a gas station.

“Wait, car or bike?” I ask since I had a car from my aunt and a motorcycle I’ve had since before I moved in with them.

“Car, come on dude, you know I hate that damn bike.” Nathan mutters. Freak.

“And the car is much safer for you guys, too.” Alice adds in. Actually, that fact alone is why she got me the car, even though my bike is my favourite and I use it way more. I kept up with the insurance and gas for the motorcycle, not feeling comfortable just using Alice’s money for it when she didn’t like me driving it. I also paid for the car’s gas unless Alice insists. But now I’ll need a new job to continue doing so. It’ll be a bitch.

The thought of having to make time and effort to find a new job made me tighten my lips in annoyance.

Back in L.A. I had the most amazing job. It was a clerk in a nice quiet, family-owned bookstore. It had great wages, despite being so small, and the schedule worked perfectly for me. Plus, the owners let me take any books I wanted if we had extras of old things that needed to be replaced with new ones. Mr. Millar and his wife, Miss Betty, gave me double pay the month before I had to resign and leave, despite my profound arguments against it. I felt like I was robbing them, and if it had been anyone else I probably wouldn’t have cared, but they were the most honest, nice, hardworking people I have ever met and it felt wrong. But nevertheless they gave me the extra pay so I had a ton of extra money, but I wasn’t about to waste it all. Around here it would be hell to find a job, and all the places like that would probably be fully staffed leaving just commercial hell holes. Joy.

I tuned back into the conversation between my aunt and her son just in time to hear her say that the kid across the street, Macen or whoever the fuck, was going to be carpooling with us, too. Fuck that. The last thing we needed was someone else. Plus, carpooling implied he would be driving some of the time. Not happening. I drive or I don’t go. The end.
Sadly, Nate already said sure and I knew that even if I said no, it wouldn’t really matter. All the plans had been made. So, I shrugged, which they took as a yes. They are so observant.

I left soon after that, deciding to go up to my room and work on the new piece I’d been attempting to write for a while. I basically had writers block with it, though. Probably from the new scenery, like moving left my muse behind or something. No inspiration here. Whatever it was, it was annoying. I would get to a certain point, and nothing could get me past that point.

I fished out the keyboard and play and play until I get, what, another two chords down before giving up and calling it a night. Like I said, fucking annoying.

I eventually got up and went over to the last box I had left to unpack. In the process of opening it I saw a flash through one of the windows, one of the ones to the front of the house, and it caught my attention. What I saw was a shock; the neighbor kid sitting on his roof, smoking. He seemed too much a goody-goody to smoke.

After a moment of watching I turn around and unpack.

What that kid did was none of my business.