Live Your Life

One~

"I can't get my driver's license, at least not yet."

"But—"

"Kevin. We talked about this," Her mother said softly. "Don't pressurize her, okay?" Her voice was almost a whisper. He sighed and went back to his newspaper and coffee.
Emily flashed her mother a small smile as if to say thank you before heading to the kitchen for breakfast.

                                ~~~~
 
Mornings in the Lorenzo household were always quiet. Mostly because Mr Lorenzo was always out of the house by 6 am, and Mrs Lorenzo was always travelling for work. Their son, Noah was never really the loud type. He barely liked his presence to be noticed but it was hard to do that when your parents were the stars of the town. Sometimes, Noah wished he lived in a big rowdy city like New York or something. A place where no one knew the person next to them, unlike the town where he resided. It was hard and nearly impossible to not know the person next to you on the bus, or the family directly opposite you in a restaurant, or the person in front of you in a checkout line, and he hated it.

All his life he wished people would leave him alone. Would not wave at him in the cinema, or ask him what's up at the mall, and sometimes it was like that for him, he had learnt to perfectly blend in with society. Avoid being noticed at all costs because he hated the reason he was being noticed, it was mostly "Hey, aren't you Lorenzo's kid? Your dad's a great man. Must be nice having a role model like him,", "Your parents are so rich, you're so lucky,", "Isn't it cool having a mom who gets to travel around the world?" The last one pissed him off the most. He hated it. He wished he had a mom who was always around so he could talk to her, so he could explain what was going on in his life, and how he always felt, but all he got was voicemail recordings and 'sorry I can't come home tonight, hun. Love you,' texts.

He took in a deep breath.

Today was not the day to feel worried for himself.

It was the first day of school and he needed to focus. After a year of perfect attendance and A+ tests, he needed to mentally prepare for extra curriculum and college applications. It was the first day of senior year and he needed to be on his A game. He remembered the words his father said to him the night before, "It's the year to shape your dreams, Noah. Everything you've done falls down to this moment, don't mess it up."
He tried not to yell at those words, "... don't mess it up.", as if he always messed things up, as if he never did his best. But his father was right. This was it. The big year, where all his hard work fell into place.
The year he gets accepted into Yale. Hopefully.

                                 ~~~~

"Hey, girl!" Emily grinned at her best friend, Gina and jumped into her arms.

"Hey, G. How was your summer?" Gina groaned.

"Don't get me started on the worst months of my entire life!" Emily tried to hide her grin, Gina was always a tad bit dramatic and over-complicated everything. "Everything okay at your grandmother's house?"

"No! Can you believe that my Uncle Jim brought his kids? His little demons! And I am not joking. I had to deal with an obnoxious fourteen-year-old who treated me like I was her slave and a twelve-year-old who pranked me every chance he got, I'm still removing peanut butter from my hair! twin five-year-olds who enjoy running around in their underwear, and his four months old baby, Lily. Granted, she was cute but she cries at 3 am! Three in the freaking morning! Who does that?" She narrated, "Um, a baby?" She groaned running her hands over her face dramatically. "I didn't get sleep for days, Em. I'm serious. This is the last time I'm ever going  to visit my grandmother for the summer."

Emily pouted, "But you love Grandma GG,"

"I know, I know... it's just terrifying spending another two months with those terror kids." Emily laughed.

"Hey, babe," Emily internally groaned but from the look, Gina gave her it was possible she groaned out loud. "Hey, Adam!" Gina leaned in and gave her boyfriend of eleven months a quick kiss.

Eleven months of pure bliss for Gina.

Eleven months of extreme torture for Emily.

"Oh, hey Emily. Didn't see you there,"

"Yeah, and I wish I didn't see you there either," Gina hit her arm lightly as if to say "Behave!" That was very hard to do seeing as she hated Adam with every bone in her body.

"Don't you think it's weird to wish you were blind?" Adam asked, a lazy smirk on his face as Gina leaned into him.

"As long as I don't have to look at the horror you call a face, I may consider it,"

His smirk dropped and he looked away, annoyed. Point one for Emily! She thought.

"So I'll pick you up after school?" Adam asked looking at a dreamy-eyed Gina. Emily rolled her eyes, what was there to like about the 6ft pile of garbage standing in front of her? "Yeah. Can't wait." Adam kissed Gina one more time, shot Emily an annoyed look and left.

"Can't you just be nice to him for one second?"

"Hey! I told you I didn't like him from the beginning! This is your fault y'know?" Emily looked away from her best friend and focused on removing her books from her locker.

"Oh really, and how is that?"

"You know, your bad taste," she looked away before Gina could process what she said and started sprinting down the hall.

"Yeah, you better run, Chimkasiuto!"

Emily stopped abruptly, as everyone in the hallway stared at her, yeah, weird middle name, move on people! She thought before turning to a smug-looking Gina and flipping her off. Gina smirked and blew her a kiss.

"Ew! Keep those deadly things for Adam!"
She turned back around only to bump into someone's chest and fly onto the cold tile.