Violet Parks
August 19th
"First day of College! Are you excited?" My best friend, Emily Jones asks.
"No. Definitely not. I hate school," I groan.
"Come on. It's not that bad. I mean, yes, it is stressful, but don't you want to see your friends?"
No. "Whatever. I would still much rather stay in bed and sleep until late noon."
"Of course you would. What time did you sleep last night?" She asks, knowing it's going to be bad.
"Now, before you yell at me, I would like you to know that my brain didn't know I had to get up early in the morning, and that I tried to sleep."
"Just tell me what time you went to bed, Vi. I already know it's going to be bad." She's right. I always stay up really late reading my romance novels and used to wake up late during the summer, but now I sadly can't do that anymore.
"5 AM," I say quickly, bracing myself for her daily lecture about how sleeping at those times, or not at all, is extremely bad for your body and mental health. I guess that explains it.
"5 AM?" She nearly shrieks, looking away from the road to look at me in the passenger seat. "Violet! I thought you said you'd try."
"I did. I got into bed around 9 PM and stayed there doing absolutely nothing for around an hour before grabbing my Kindle and reading."
"Well, at least you gave it your best. I'll excuse you this time, but if you sleep in class, I won't wake you up."
"Please don't," I say, as I turn on my phone to put on some music.
Wildflower by Billie Eilish, my favorite artist, blares out from my airpods that I'm sharing with Emily. I connected them to my phone, and we passionately sing at the top of our lungs until we get to school.
We both walk into one of the big buildings together and I take in everyone walking in different directions to the place they're supposed to be.
I turn around to look at Emily, who is tapping my shoulder and pointing around everywhere. She shows me some of the people from our classes that we share, which is sadly not many, and some new kids walking around the building with wide eyes, frantically trying to locate their classes.
I don't wanna be here. I don't wanna be here. I don't wanna be here.
Everyone is crowding around me, and it's like I can see everyone's eyes staring at me, silently judging me for everything starting from my messy hair and too-short top down too my thick thighs suffocated by my black leggings and dirty Converse.
I don't wanna be here. I don't wanna be here. I don't wanna be here.
I look around frantically for a bathroom until I spot a pair of dark green eyes looking into my blue ones.
Alexander Green.
Why is he looking at me?
I hold his stare, not backing down. He breaks eye contact to answer something his friend asks him.
Shaking my head, I notice that I'm feeling a little better. Well, I'm not feeling a pit in my stomach anymore and I can breathe easily again, so that's good.
"Hello?" Emily asks, waving a hand in front of my face, bringing my attention back to her. "Were you paying attention to anything I was just saying?"
"Sorry, what was that?"
"I was asking you why you were looking at Alexander Green. Oh my god!" She says, coming to a realization. "Do you have a crush on Alexander?" She says his name like poison on her tongue.
"What? No. No!" That sure brings me out of my funk.
"Okay..." she says, suspiciously. "You know nothing good could happen if you date someone like him. People like him will just end up breaking your heart."
"I know," I attempt to convince her.
"Sure. Oh hey!" Em says, running over to her girlfriend, Samantha. "Sammy!" She says, hugging her.
They're amazing together. They have the type of love known in books. The siblings-best-friend trope. Emily's twin sister, Jackie, is best friends with Sam since forever, so Emily has known Sam since they were babies.
Their love was as simple as it could get, yet perfect in it's own way.
They both had a crush on each other, and kept their love a secret from both each other and Jackie because of their fear of rejection.
One day, Emily blurted it out, and locked herself in her room. Samantha burst into there, nearly ripping the door off its hinges in the process, and kissed her like there was no tomorrow.
The next morning, Emily called me and spilled everything. The excited look on her face was contagious and before I knew it, we were both giggling and kicking our feet like little girls.
I live for romance, and since I've never experienced my own story before, I live through others. That could be in books or real life. Preferably books, though, because most of the time, the relationship is close to flawless, helping me distance myself from the shit-filled reality.
"Hey, Sam," I say. She's dressed in a short blue top and high-rise denim shorts. Her long brown hair falling down her shoulders in perfect curls. I turn to Jackie. I always admired the way she dressed in all black: black makeup, hair, and outfits. She looked like a goth beauty.
Sometimes, Emily jokes and says that I'm the gayest straight person she's ever seen. The reality is that I'm just extremely weird and crazy and think women are beautiful and respect them. It doesn't mean I'm attracted to them, though.
"Hey, Jackie," I say, and she gives me a grunt in acknowledgement, never taking her eyes off from her phone.
We all walk to our different classes. I have math first period with Mrs. McLaughlin.
I enter the classroom to see all of the seats taken except for two. I sit down at a random one. The seat in front of me is the only empty one. I'm all the way in the back corner, meaning that it's hard to see the board, not that I will listen. On my right and behind me, there's a big whiteboard filled with weird math jokes, that I don't even bother reading.
An extremely attractive guy sits next to me, probably new, since I don't recognize him from last year or the years before. He has soft brown eyes and blonde hair that covers some of his eyes.
"Hey. My name's Knox. What's yours?" Knox says.
"Oh, my name's Violet."
"Violet," he says the name, trying it out. "That's a pretty name."
"Thank you. My mom named me after her favorite flower. She always says that I'm one of her favorite things in the world, so why not name me another one of her favorites," I don't know why I'm rambling, but I decide that I need to stop talking.
He chuckles and says, "That's great. Violet's are very beautiful. Just like you."
My cheeks heat up and I look away to try to hide it.
Just then the last person walks in right as the bell rings and Mrs. McLaughlin starts talking, "Welcome, everyone, to my class. I hope you enjoy it. We are going to be learning a lot this year, so you all better keep up," she says then lets out a laugh like it was the funniest thing in the world. "Since this is a very important math class, you all will have to get a B or higher to be able to pass this class."
"Can she even do that," Knox whispers to me.
"I have no clue," I reply back, dumfounded.
Knox chuckles at the expression on my face and I look away once again while his eyes still stare at my face.
I look in front of me, trying to get a glimpse at the teacher, but find those same pair of green eyes staring at me again.
He's in my class. And he's looking at me again.
"What?" I ask him, keeping my face and tone calm.
"Just looking at the board," he says. I keep my mouth shut in case I might be wrong about the face that he wasn't actually looking there.
Groaning, I grab my pencil from my backpack to take a pop quiz, on the first day of school. Mrs. McLaughlin states that it's to see how much we know already.
"Ugh. I hate school," I say to nobody in particular.
Knox laughs and looks at me, "Who doesn't?" he asks.
"Sarah, can I borrow a pencil?" Xander asks Sarah Richards, one of the most popular girls in school. I don't like to spread rumors, but she's known for being kinda a slut, fucking any man in sight.
"Sure, babe," she replies, handing him a pencil and making sure to brush his fingers with her own in the action. Makes sense, that Xander would be into a girl like that.
I roll my eyes and focus back on the test.
This is going to be a long year.