01

« UNHAND ME BEAST ! » I roared, stumbling around my room.

I shook my circulation-deprived arms in the air, struggling to escape, until finally my fingers became free of my tangled hair.

I sighed angrily. Yelling at my hair at eight in the morning on my winter break was definitely the opposite of what I had in mind. According to my very detailed schedule, I should have been in bed for at least another good five hours.

Deciding that I couldn’t tame my hair, and trust me it was a very difficult realization to accept after the entire seventeen years it had spent atop my head, I pulled out my hair tie, letting my brown wavy hair cascade down to my belly button.

I hastily grabbed my phone and shoved it into a small clutch, before running down the stairs as I heard Landon’s car honk five times in a row.

His patience only ran up to about fifteen seconds. I strongly believed it was due to the correlation of the wait time for his video games’ load screens.

I yelled a goodbye behind me at the quiet empty house as I closed the door and faced the icy air which instantly bit into my face.

Zipping up my hoodie, I made my way to Landon’s flashy red convertible that his parents had bought him for his sixteenth birthday. They were both brain surgeons, so it wasn’t a big deal for them to spend that much on their son.

But I guess you could say I was slightly jealous…

I jumped over the door and dropped down just in time as Landon sped down the road.

Like I said, no patience.

« You guys are inconsiderate sadists. » I grumbled to all my friends, looking out the window and pouting, not bothering with greetings.

« Lovely morning, baby blue. » Landon greeted at me with a smile that was way too wide. He chuckled at me, using the nick-name he had always used ever since we were children.

I glared at the guy that had been my best friend since we were in diapers. Literally. We were basically best-friend goals. Not to sound too cheesy, but he was practically my other half, as I was his. One time in third grade, Landon had thrown the biggest tantrum at the teachers for not putting us in the same class, and he had ended up switching into my class, don’t ask me how… Sure I had other friends, but none were as close to me as Landon. And just to add on, there were no romantic feelings or sexual tensions between us, quite the opposite actually, contrary to every girl’s middle-school fantasy.

« That should be our gang’s name, Inconsiderate Sadists, right Landy ? » Jess grinned at Landon and I from the backseat.

Jess was one of the few girls I actually liked in our school. I know I sound like a total grinch, but I guess it was the fact that I never really got along with anyone. Everyone already had their different groups or cliques I guess you could say, but I never really fit in to any of them. Sure I had Landon since day one as a friend, but I had been lucky to find Jess, someone who I could actually watch chick flicks with and be all girly.

I glanced in the rearview mirror and saw her shaking her head at me teasingly.

« Piss off. » I pouted, but not before giving her a knowing smile.

« That’s the opposite of what you want, attention-whore. » Katy muttered under her breath, sounding annoyed with my overall presence.

Katy, my lovely dear friend, was Landon’s current side dish. I may love that boy to death, but what I could never stand was how he always had a different girl clinging to his arm every week. Because of him and the proximity of our friendship, I had to constantly put up with crazy girls trying to run me over in the school parking lot, if not that then mean girls trying to bully me, if not that then heart-broken girls trying to steal Landon’s baby, and if not that then all of the above.

« Don’t start with me barbie. » I warned her, looking out the window. She was the mean girl type. Or actually all of the above.

I would love to be at home rather than being harassed by Godzilla the Barbie, but I loved my friends and I also knew that there was no way I was getting out of this plan. Especially since it was Landon’s idea.

One time Landon even dragged me with him to go buy toilet paper, even though it was in the middle of the night, and I had been sleeping in my house. You could say I was surprised when I woke up in a Walmart cart being pushed by him.

« Landon ! Tell your pet to shut up and leave me alone ! » She whined harder than my two year old cousin Bill. Poor little Bill.

I craned my neck to bare my teeth at her, causing her to shut up.

Before I could roar at the girl, Jess squealed « We’re here ! » and was the first to jump out of the car with far too much excitement.

I sighed warily, before stumbling out of the car.

As we all walked into the mall together, I was grateful for the heaters which embraced us as soon as we stepped in.

« Let’s start at Abercrombie ! » Jess squealed, pointing in the direction of the shop since it was only a few meters away.

« I’m gonna grab a smoothie from Orange Julius guys. » I called out, my stomach growling in hunger. I hadn’t had time to grab anything to eat this morning.

« Fat-ass. » Katy muttered, trying to pick a fight with me again. I think she truly hates me with a passion. Probably because of the fact that I had ‘accidentally’ poured a cup of fruit punch down her dress at the Winter Dance. I still blame her for provoking me by throwing a shoe at my head. It was a long story… Good thing we got over it and are now BFFs.

Landon opened his mouth to defend me, but I beat him to it.

« Flat-ass. » I retorted. I saw Jess trying to hold back a snicker while Landon full on laughed at my smart comeback.

Katy just shot me a dirty look, not having a good enough comeback, before turning to Jess. « Are we going to shop or are we just gonna stand here ? »

« You girls head on. I’m just gonna tag along with Sky. » Landon declared quickly before he could get dragged into the store with the two girls.