Yesterday You Threw Away Tomorrow

Gracie tried her best to focus on Jack London’s Call of the Wild, but focusing was difficult when she felt eyes burning a hole through her head. Looking up wasn’t required for Gracie to know who was glaring at her.

Two and a half weeks had passed since Gracie arrived in California. The very first day Zacky made it clear he wasn’t happy with her presence. The only problem was, things hadn’t gotten better at all.

He still emulated resentment anytime Gracie was close by. All of his friends seemed to like her as well, which didn’t help Zacky’s mood. Thanks to this, Gracie did her best to avoid spending any time around him.

However that didn’t always work when his friends kept dragging her to their spot for lunch. Three out of the past ten school days Gracie managed to slip away and eat lunch by herself.

Honestly, it was difficult for Gracie to keep focus on anything really. Between dealing with her cousins hostility towards her and coping with the fact that she felt so alone.

She had figured that making the time pass with her head down would be easy. Not the case so far. Gracie felt herself craving her best friend.

When her mother had gotten sick and Gracie was quickly homeschooled. It had always been just the two of them when Gracie was growing up. So it wasn’t like she had another person she turned to when things happened in her life. And now her best friend was gone.

“Hey is everything okay down there?” Matt asked while lightly tapping Gracie’s shoe with is own.

The tapping on her shoe caused Gracie to look up from her spot under the tree. If she hadn’t been so into her thoughts she would have noticed him intently watching her. Gracie always made sure to sit a little ways away from the group, but close enough to stop Rev from pulling her towards the group.

Gracie sighed as she plopped down on the bench, ready to enjoy her lunch. Day three of school was just as boring as usual. So far Gracie had her schedule down.

“Hey Gracie! Come on, come sit with us.” Brian spoke up while walking past.

Gracie just gave a shake of her head. Thankfully Brian didn’t push the issue any further. Gracie took the time to pull an apple and her book from her bag. It was an older book, but one of Gracie’s favorites that she had been reading since she was little.

“Nice try you. Come on! It’s not good to be alone.” A voice that was becoming familiar interrupted Gracie from her reading.

The rev was standing beside the table with a quirky grin on his face. Then again that’s how Gracie would describe his smile whenever.

Jimmy or the Rev was a very strange teenager. He hovered over basically everybody at the school. Including the teachers.

Every day he always seemed to be excised over one thing or another. Gracie had to admit, it was a bit inspiring. Somewhat anyways. He definitely made math and P.E more interesting. The teachers seemed to have a love hate relationship with him. It really depended on Jimmy’s mood honestly.

“I’m fine over here honestly and in this school it’s hard to be alone.” Gracie got somewhat whiney in her tone with Jimmy.

“Okay, you’ve asked for this.” Jimmy giggled before grabbing Gracie and throwing her over his shoulder.

After that Jimmy had dumped Gracie in the middle of their circle. Now anytime Jimmy asked her to join them for lunch she did it. Thankfully, no one else bothered to manhandle Gracie when she objected to sitting with them.

“Are you in there?” Matt tapped at Gracie’s shoe again.

Gracie glanced up at him and smiled, “Yes, sorry. I just got lost in thought.”

As much as she longed to confide in someone about her inner turmoil, but didn’t have it in her to actually take the steps. It didn’t help that although she didn’t mind Matt, she just didn’t know how much she could trust him.

Gracie glanced up when a shadow fell over her. Matt was working on sitting down beside her! What in the world was going on with him?! She kept her mouth shut though as he got situated.

“I was thinking maybe this weekend I could show you around town. From what I’ve gathered you haven’t left the house much.” Matt sounded genuine in his offer.

Gracie shrugged her shoulders, “It’s true I haven’t left the house much. As for this weekend, can I think about it?”

Matt gave a warm smile along with a nod of his head. It was strange to Gracie. Matt seemed interested in her somewhat, but there wasn’t a chance of that. He had a girlfriend that seemed to be a delight. Well, that was when Matt wasn’t around.

Despite the fact that the two were together the two seemed to squabble like an old angry couple that hated each other but didn’t believe in divorce. From what Gracie gathered Matt was a flirt and had previously cheated.

Val was a lovely woman in Gracie’s opinion. She was just too far in love with Matt to let herself leave him behind. They just weren’t the best for each other. It made Gracie happy that she hadn’t known her father. Couples fight a lot and if her father hadn’t run off who’s to say that he wouldn’t have been unfaithful to her mother.

Speaking of Val, Gracie caught the dark haired beauty making her way to the group. The only problem was she looked as though she was on a warpath.

“Matthew Sanders, you’ve gone too far this time!” Val screeched, gaining everyone's attention.

Gracie cringed to herself when she heard the anger in Val’s voice. After listening to them argue day after day Gracie had learned Val had different levels of anger and she could tell by the tone of Val’s voice.

It was going to be amazing if Matt survived this argument, whatever he did.