June

A cool breeze flowed in through the cracked window of the apartment bathroom. Footsteps could be heard slowly approaching the door before light knocking echoed through the small bathroom and cramped hallway. A voice called out her name.“June? Are you awake in there?”It was her dad. She really wanted to just tell him to go away so she could get some extra sleep but she already knew that wasn’t going to happen. June picked her head up off her knees and put on her best ‘I’m awake and don’t wanna lie in bed all day’ voice. “Yup! Just using the bathroom, I’ll be out in a few minutes.” She sighed and pushed herself up off the closed toilet seat and flushed the toilet to make it seem like she was coming out soon. “Alright, well I’m going to be heading out soon….did you want a ride to school before I left?” June brushed her long purple hair out of her face as she stumbled over to the sink and stared herself in the mirror. Not really though, her eyes started to glaze over for a few moments as she started to think about her mom. How long did she have before she found them? Did the charges stick? Would she even bother coming back in the first place?

Before she got too deep in her thoughts another knock brought her back to her senses. “Hellooo? Personal chauffeur, going once, twice-” “No!” She interrupted. “I-I mean, no thanks…I’ll take the train.” A light sigh could be heard from the other side of the door. “Alright, well I’m off then. I might be home late tonight so I’ll leave you some money on the kitchen table to order a pizza or something.” “Thanks Roy, I’ll see you later.” There were a few moments of silence before she could hear Roy walk away from the bathroom door, open, and then close the front door. She let out a long sigh and opened the bathroom door to go and get dressed for school.

✭ ✭ ✭

June spent another 10 minutes trying to do something, anything with her hair but just ended up defaulting to her natural hairstyle. Her hair came down to about waist length which in theory gave her plenty of options to work with, and yet she was never comfortable with anything other than how it flowed naturally. So that’s why June was now running late for her first day of school. She was speed walking towards the train station, squeezing through crowds of people trying to catch the next train. A couple of flights of stairs and one subway token later, she finally made it to the subway platform. Luckily for June, she had a few minutes to spare before the train was supposed to come around. Unfortunately to get those spare extra minutes, she had completely worn herself out getting there. She practically collapsed on a nearby bench from exhaustion, had she walked then she would’ve managed better but given the time constraint she did end up running the last block or two. June laid her head down on the metal bench and pulled her phone out of her pocket. It was about 6:45am. She had no clue how long it would take to get to her new school from here but hopefully it would be before 7am. She put her phone away and sat up once she regained some breath. June was starting to regret wearing her hoodie to school today since she was burning up in it from all the running. Regardless, she would keep it on and tough out the heat until the train came by and gave a gust of wind to cool her down.

About 4 minutes go by before June cocked her head to her right, scanning the subway platform for someone. There weren’t many people down there with her but she could tell that someone was staring at her. Either that or they kept glancing in her direction, which didn’t make it any better for her anxiety. She could never explain it but she had some sort of extra sense, whenever someone was staring at her she could tell almost immediately. The only reason she endured the person’s gaze for so long is because sometimes it can be a false alarm so she had to be sure. No one stood out to her in particular, besides this one person staring at a vending machine at the very end of the platform. She couldn’t make them out yet but she was about 80% sure it was them. June turned away once again to try and bait them out. She pretended to check her phone and the moment she felt them stare again she whipped her head around to face them, but to her surprise when she turned around they were standing right next to her.

June let out a muted gasp and quickly scooted backwards in her seat. The person let out a chuckle at her reaction to them. “I’m sorry but your reaction was just too funny” It was a boy, he looked to be around her age too. Possibly a year older at most. He had red curly hair, pale skin, and was wearing a t-shirt with some dumb pun she didn’t care enough to read. Her face turned a bright red as she started to compose herself but gave him no response. He smirked and took a seat next to her, extending a hand he introduced himself. “My name’s Connor, aaand you are?” She didn’t answer nor take his hand. Eventually they put their hand away. “Not much of a talker huh? That’s cool, I understand. Not everyone’s a people person.” June kept her eyes lowered but glanced over at him every once in a while to make sure he wasn’t taking advantage of the fact she wasn’t paying him any attention. “I’d ask you where you were headed but I don’t think you’d give me an answer, am I right?” He was but she wasn’t going to tell him that, in all honesty she really wished that she could just somehow teleport to the other side of the tracks and sit on the opposite train platform. Maybe then she’d get some peace and quiet. Connor smirked at her and then looked up at the fluorescent lights on the subway ceiling. “Well considering you’re a teen up at 6am, much like myself. I can only assume you’re heading to school, because why else would any kid be up this early am I right?” Again, he was right on the money, but anyone could’ve come to that same conclusion so June wasn’t going to give him any brownie points for that.

“Hey, what’s with the face? I just made a basic observation, there’s no need to pout over it.” He teased. June hadn’t noticed it at first but she was making a face, she had gotten so deep into her thoughts again to where she couldn’t tell she was making faces. She unfurrowed her brows and blinked a few times to try and give herself more of a neutral expression. “Hehe, don’t worry. I’m heading to school too, but you probably already knew that.” June rolled her eyes and even smirked a little bit. Connor’s eyes lit up but contained all his energy into a simple smile to not ruin the moment. Unfortunately for Connor, the train would do that for him. They both jumped slightly as it’s horn echoed through the dark tunnel, signaling it’s approach. “Sounds like our ride” Before he could even finish his sentence June was already on her feet and walked towards the edge of the platform. Connor grabbed his things and walked up beside June. “Someone’s eager to get the day started. Makes sense. The quicker you get in, the quicker you can get home.” June actually hadn’t planned on going home after school, she wanted to go and check out the area around the school to scout out any mom and pop shops nearby. They usually had the best sandwich meat for hoagies.

She didn’t go any further into that thought though, for anymore pondering on it would make her think about her mother again. That wasn’t something she wanted to think about right now. “Hey, you alright?” June looked over at him and sniffled. She was crying. She was crying and hadn’t even noticed it yet. June nodded and wiped her face with her hoodie sleeve. Crying in front of a complete stranger in the subway, this had to be a new low for her. The train screeched to a halt and slowly opened it’s doors in front of her and Connor. He stepped onto the train and went to take his seat. June stepped onto the train right behind him but accidentally bumped into someone who was rushing to get off the train. She managed to keep her balance but the person she ran into wasn’t so lucky. They tumbled onto the floor and ended up rolling out of the train and onto the platform, luckily the doors didn’t start to close until after they had fallen out. June wanted to make sure they were ok but once she had recovered, the doors were closed and the train started to move. She shifted back a bit as the train sped up and looked down when she felt something hit her shoe. June looked down at what had appeared to be some kind of pointed charm in the shape of an arrowhead with a beetle carved into the top of it. It also had a silver chain going through the bottom of it. She figured it must’ve been knocked loose when she bumped into that guy. June squatted down and examined the back of it to see if it had a name inscribed into it. But she found nothing of the sort, the back was completely blank. Sighing, June stuck it into her hoodie pocket as the train sped along the tracks towards their destination.