Mina

Survival of the Fittest

"I can't believe she'd do that." Chelsea said as I recounted my weekend at the library. Or more specifically Penny.

"Why not? She does it all the time." Max had his head buried in his locker. "You should have just let her starve."

I laughed through my nose. "Penny would never let that happened. She yelled at me for the longest time when I got home that night."

"Just come live with me." Max said, tossing his books at Chelsea who scrambled to catch them while balancing her own. "You know my parents love you and would totally be up for it."

"You know I can't." I said.

"Who else would take care of Penny?" Chelsea added for my defense.

"That's the point." Max went to close his locker before catching his reflection in the mirror. He bent down a little, making sure his hair was still perfectly in place. "If you leave she'll have to change or she'll definitely die."

"Hey guys." Chelsea mumbled.

"She's going to die anyway. It's just a matter of time." I told Max.

It was a fact that I'd come to terms with a while ago. Sometimes I even welcomed the idea. That probably made me a terrible person. It wasn't that I didn't care for Penny. But I wasn't supposed to be her caregiver, I was her daughter.

"Guys.." Chelsea said again.

"I'm just saying, you should think about it." Max said, both of us ignoring Chelsea. "Think how much fun we'd have."

"My idea of fun and yours are entirely different Max, you know that."

"Guys.." Chelsea repeated, her eyes watching something down the hallway.

"Please, you're secretly a wild child and you know it. Penny has just stifled you." Max winked. "Just think of the endless possibilities. We could sneak out and..."

"Guys!" Chelsea demanded, elbowing the both of us.

"What?" We said in unison, as Owen stopped in front of us.

"Am I interrupting?" He asked, looking at Max and Chelsea before his eyes stopped on me.

"Not at all." Max told him.

Chelsea leaned over to me, her voice so quiet I had to lean in too.

"Is he here for you or Max?" Chelsea whispered.

I shrugged, not listening as Max and Owen started talking about something. I had tried to warn Max, I told him not to befriend Owen just because he thought he was hot. But Max never listened and now I was stuck dealing with Owen at therapy and at school. He'd even started to infiltrate Chelsea's life.

He was annoying.

But even more annoying than him were his group of friends. We all already knew their names, Alec had been virtually stalking me every time Owen wasn't at school. He hadn't actually introduced himself, but I guess he knew it didn't matter.

I narrowed my eyes as the man himself and his life like Barbie of a girlfriend walked up.

"I'm Alec." He stuck his hand out to Chelsea and then me. "And this is Bre."

I raised my eyebrow in question, not accepting his hand. Did he actually think now was the time to introduce himself?

"I didn't know you guys new Max." He said.

I stumbled to the side, righting myself as fast as I could as Max appeared beside me where Chelsea once was. He draped his arms across our shoulders, pulling us closer to him.

"Yeah, I don't know what my life would be like without these two."

And if the situation couldn't get any better, Owen's equally obnoxious and self centered girlfriend appeared.

"Owen! There you are!" I looked away as she kissed him on the cheek.

"You found me." I tried not to listen when Owen talked but I couldn't stop myself from hearing the resignation in his voice.

I didn't care, I swear.

But I glared at Jaelyn anyway.

"Are you going to introduce me to your friends?" Jaelyn asked, leaning against his chair.

I had noticed that he hated it. Owen hated being pushed, he hated when girls asked for rides, like they were being cute and flirtatious. He'd clench his jaw, the muscles in his neck taught, eyes burning when they went ahead and did it anyway. I wasn't sure why he didn't say anything.

Jaelyn's hand appeared in my line of sight, I stared at it for a moment. There was no way I was shaking her hand.

"I'll see you later." I said as I made eye contact with Chelsea.

She understood how much I couldn't stand Jaelyn. Unlike Max she was not blinded by all things shiny and new.

                               ————————

"I'll send you my essay by the end of the week." Grace said as we both packed up our laptops and notebooks.

I let out a yawn, checking the time on the clock that hung above the white board in the auditorium where my college class was.

"Me too." I agreed.

"And I'll make sure I'll have it proofread before next class." She added.

I liked Grace. She was all business. She didn't ask questions, she was always on top of things and as far as I knew school and getting ahead of the game were her life. Like me.

"Ditto." I swung my book bag over my shoulder the weight of it forcing me to step back to maintain my balance.

"Gees, how many books do you have in there?" She asked.

"Oh just a few." I said with a smile as we headed for the doors.

"You're going to kill yourself I swear."

I let out a chuckle, the goal was to survive long enough so that I could get out of this place. That required money and money required a good job. So until then I was going to do whatever it took.

"I'm tougher than I look." I told her, flexing my arm.

She bumped our shoulders together, laughing at my skinny arms. When we reached the parking lot, we parted ways. The cold air sending a shiver down my back as I pulled my coat closer. I knew I still had several hours worth of things to do but I was already looking forward to the few short hours of sleep I'd get.

                                ———————

Well I definite missed out on all the fireworks last night 🤣. I can't party. Hope everyone else had a safe and fun fourth!