Friend Without Time

                                                               A secret that was so private to me,                                                              I never wanted anyone to know, especially my best friends.                                                              A dark, twisted, and crazy obsession that I couldn't help but agree,                                                              For it was my escape from a condition that never ends. "Alright, now let us go over our short term rules for this year." my mom said to me, as she parked the car in the school's parking lot and unfastened her seat belt. Oh no, here we go again. "To increase my overall cumulative GPA this year by 0.5, finish off my final AP classes with all 5s, and apply for early decisions to Harvard, MIT, and John Hopkins," I said to her. It wasn't hard to do because she legit told it to be this morning during breakfast, which was exactly 2 hours ago. "Excellent, glad you were listening to this morning because you almost never do. But anyway, now tell me our long term rules for this year," she said to me. I ignored her passive remarks and just said what I needed to say. "Graduate from high school as the valedictorian, get accepted into either Harvard, MIT, and John Hopkins, go to my first year of university and finally win the Loraine Winkel scholarship," I said to her. "Splendid! Now, let's take that attitude to class, shall we? So we actually get some work done properly for once. Anyways, have a great day." she said to me and smiled while waving at me as I got out of the car, and walked towards the school building. As I entered, I made my way towards the restroom at the other end of the ground floor that people rarely used or heard about. Then after I entered I crouched down to check if all of the stalls were vacant, after I saw that the coast was clear I made my to the sink and checked my face in the mirror for any irregularities such as if I looked tired or sleepy, or do I look sluggish and finally do I look like somebody that is hiding something. After that check was done, I took off my hoodie and rolled up the sleeves of my school shirt to check on my cuts. At first glance, they seemed fine, the foundation and the concealer did its job and the band-aids really help too. I peeled open a small section of one of the band-aids to see how much they have healed and saw that it has made progress but not the point that I expected it to. But the good thing was that they weren't so deep or that big anymore so I could just lie that they were from some cuts I got from gardening this weekend. So with that check, came with a sigh of relief and like that, I put my clothes back on and walked out of the restroom and towards my lockers. A couple of minutes of walking passed by and I finally made it to Hall D, where all of the senior's lockers were located at. When I got to my locker, I put in my combination and opened it and started organizing my books for the week for easy access. After that, I placed the books in my bag that I needed for the first half of the day and as soon as I closed the locker I was met with a very loud; "Good morning Benji!" and that voice was Pinky Nakamura, also my best friend since preschool. Sometimes I feel like she is my only friend, but anyways she greeted me with her usual loud voice than proceed to hug by asking me the question; "Permission to hug?" why give me a 'pretty please' look using her big brown almond eyes. I sighed and just looked at her and said; "Do I even have a say in this?" I asked and before I could even get an answer out of this girl, she full-blown wrapped her in her long arm and squeezed me very tightly. If I were somebody who likes hugs, this would have been nice but that wasn't the case. I hated any form of PDA that comes in contact with me but she was my exception due to how long I have known her for too long. Then after a few seconds, I pat her on the shoulder, and she let me go and linked arms with me and we started walking together to our first period. We entered the AP Biology classroom and we were greeted by our professor, Mr. Roger Horton. He said that our timing was perfect and that he was just about to leave to go down for some copies that he needs for this class. And so he asked us to watch the classroom while he does this and we agreed to it. When he left both me and Pinky decided to take our pick of which lab table we wanted for the rest of the year, and in the end, we chose the middle one because it was the best place to take notes and to perfect place for both sides of the whiteboard in class. So we sat there and I started to prepare myself for class, and while I was doing that I heard Pinky clear her throat and I turned over and she gave a look, a funny look. "What?" I asked her as I looked at her suspiciously. "Wanna have a little gossip session before class?" she asked me and I rolled my eyes at her response. "What tea can you have that is so juicy on the first day of school?" I asked her, and she just smirked and replied with a; "In times like this, summer tea is everywhere and to me, that is the juiciest," she said to me. I just laughed softly and replied  with a; "Tell me more...I guess?" I said because I knew what she was going to tell me this regardless of my answer, so might as well make her happy while I am at it right? "Alright, now we are going to start with something light before we get to the serious one ahead of us," she said to me, like some kind of television host. "So it is confirmed that Griffin and Danny broke up," she said to me and I just looked at her unimpressed. "Really? That's the pipping hot tea?" I asked her. "I told that we were going to start off with something light," she said to me. "Yea, but come on. By now those two aren't even news anymore. They have been on and off since freshman year." I said to her. "I know that, but apparently this time it was permanent. So that is why I am telling you right now," she said to me. "Give it a month or two and they are going to be back together in no time," I said to her, and she just nodded along because she knew I had a point. "Okay then, now for the big news," she said to me and I was all ears again. "But I am going to have to say that could u listen to the end of what I am going to say before you form your own opinion?" she asked. Okay, now this is weird. "Okay...but why does this have anything to do with me though," I asked him. "Because it is about Nick." she finally told me. And immediately when she said that me, I felt my heart dropped because Nick and trouble were an intertwining thing that I didn't want to happen at all, but now it did and when it did. It was nothing good at all; "What about Nick?" I finally asked her as I felt an uneasy feeling in my stomach start to rise by the minute. "He got kicked off the football team." she finally said and the only thought and feeling and I were feeling at that moment was a shock. "What happened?" I asked her, and she gave me a full explanation. "He got into a physical altercation with Taylor at football boot camp this summer over something that resulted in Nick beating up Tayler pretty badly. And now Nick is off the team." Wait for what? "What is Tayler's situation in all of this?" I asked her. "So Crystal told me it was about Madi, and that apparently she was double-timing them both but didn't know and that resulted in the altercation," she told me, and that was when my blood started boiling. "That b***h. But what about Tayler?" I asked her because I hadn't heard anything about him in this situation at all as of right now. "He got off with a warning. He is still on the team." Pinky told me, and that was when my anger started rising. "But that's not fair. Sure Nick can be hot-headed and everything but doesn't mean that Tayler isn't. I mean remember when he almost choked the other team's kicker to death because he-" and before I could even finish talking, Mr. Horton returned to class and that was my queue to stop.  I motioned to Pinky with my eyes that we would talk about it later at lunch with the others.