In And Out Of Love

"Gracie, honey! Let's get going or you'll be late for school!" Mom yelled from downstairs.

"In a minute, mom!" I yelled back and took one last glance from the mirror and changed my sweater again. Nothing I put on seemed to please me this morning.

Although it was just the beginning of April, it was a warm and sunny day in the city we lived in, Nottingham. I had lived there all my life and liked the city a lot. It wasn't too big or too small, just the right size. Since it was warm outside, I put on a lighter cream-coloured sweater and a thin tribal-patterned scarf.

I stuffed my keys, phone and wallet to my bag and hopped down the stairs. Mom wasn't looking too happy as I was taking her time as well. But it was almost the last day of school before Easter holiday and it was getting harder and harder for me to wake up this early. I hated school mornings, that started 8 am. I was more of a night-person anyways.

We went inside the car and mom was sipping her coffee with one hand and keeping the other one on the steering wheel. I applied lip gloss and cursed as we hit a small bump on the road and I got gloss on my cheek, where it obviously didn't belong.

"Watch your mouth young lady. I don't like the way you talk sometimes, it's not suitable for girls. Not for anyone for that matter." Mom told. She was kind of a fancy lady and her upper-class education totally showed from her and the way she carried herself.

"Sorry mom. Thanks for taking me this morning. Can I get a ride back too?" I apologised and asked trying to make truce. My friend Naomi usually drove us to school, since I didn't have my own car, but hers was being repaired at the moment.

"Sure thing honey. It's going to be a busy day at work today, but I promise I won't be late." Mom owned her very own clothing store and was away a lot because of it. I was used to it though and grew up to be quite independent from early on. My parents had divorced, when I was 7-years old and I didn't have a lot of contact with my dad anymore.

Sometimes I wished I had a brother or a sister, so I wouldn't be alone as much as I sometimes was, but being the only child had some positive sides to it as well. Although mom was busy with her own dreams and work, she always made sure I was alright and happy. At the end of the day, we had a pretty great relationship with her and somehow we made this whole thing work out just fine.

"Thanks mom, I'll see you later." I said, gave her a quick kiss and got out of the car.

Naomi was waiting for me in front of the school yard. She offered me a fresh cup of coffee as I greeted her with a hug. We hadn't seen each other for the past few days, because she was visiting her grandparents who lived out of town.

"Grace, I missed you babe! It was so boring there. Did you go to that house party at Theo's place?" Naomi asked. Theo was a good friend of ours.

"I did, sorry hun! I don't want to sound annoying, but it was pretty great. Everyone kept asking me where the hell you were, though. People missed you too!" I laughed and drank my delicious latte.

"Shoot, I wish I could've been there. Well, it's almost Easter holiday and there will be plenty more parties and I'm not about to miss any of them!" She laughed and I nodded.

We walked inside the school and greeted familiar faces along the way. We had a group of six girls, that we hung around with for most of the time. One could say, we were kind of the popular kids, although we didn't have a clear hierarchy between people in our school, which was nice. We came along with almost everybody.

Naomi opened her locker and put her jacket inside it. She was wearing a red blouse with black jeans and her thick dark hair was in a high ponytail. Her eyes were brown with some gold undertones to them and she had the cutest smile. Her mom being English and her dad being Nigerian made her have a very exotic look, which I sometimes envied. She was just so pretty. And super fun. She was my best friend.

We walked to our economics class and took our seats. Perrie and Claudia were already there and we greeted them happily and talked for a bit. I took my notes and book from my bag and placed them on the desk. Theo and Zayn came in shortly after us and sat beside us. The girls and I laughed at their tired faces. It was pretty clear, that we were all ready for the holiday to finally start. No one took the last week of school seriously.

Two hours went by fast as we realised early on, that our teacher wasn't exactly too serious about teaching us either. We did some fun group works and ended up talking about the holidays for most of the time. Perrie and Zayn seemed to be occupied with staring at each other intensely. I almost hated how cute they were together, not seriously though. But they were adorable and so in love. Perrie was blond and cute and Zayn was dark and extremely handsome.

Our rest of the day consisted of pretty laid-back classes and it was more than fine with us. The day was over before we noticed and we were ready to go home. I waited for mom to come and pick me up. She was already fifteen minutes late and it was kind of getting on my nerve. I waited ten more minutes before I finally decided to call her. The phone rang and rang but she didn't answer. Fucking brilliant. I was getting really pissed off and thought about taking the bus. Just then, my phone rang with mom's ringtone (Coldplay - Paradise).

"Gracie, I'm so sorry! I'm on my way! I could barely leave from there, it was such a chaos." Mom explained and sounded genuinely sorry.

"I was getting a little angry here, but good to hear you're coming. See you soon." I replied and decided it was best to let it be and avoid fighting.

Finally, mom arrived and drove us home. I went upstairs to my room and changed from my sweater and jeans to a top and loose sweats. I put my hair up and opened my computer to listen to some music. We didn't get any homework, so it was going to be a pretty free night. After a while, I went downstairs and helped mom with dinner by making salad for us. She had done lasagna, which was both of our favourite dish. We sat around the kitchen table and started eating.

"Are you excited about the holiday yet?" Mom started.

"Haha, can't you tell I am? Of course, mom!" I laughed and she joined me.

"Well, you deserve it honey. It's been a great year, I'm so proud of you. Your grades have been outstanding." Mom smiled. I was the type of a student who didn't really have to have that much work done in order to get good grades as I was great at memorising everything the teacher said in class. I had it easy, I thought.

I looked at mom across the table and realised how alike we actually looked. It had become more and more obvious as I had gotten older. We both had long dark brown hair with the exception of me having some golden highlights mixed in. I had big brown eyes like mom and high cheekbones. My face was a bit more heart-shaped than hers. Mom was still a bit taller than me, but we had similar body structure otherwise. I had definitely gotten my nicely sized boobs from mom and my gran and we sometimes laughed about it with mom. I wasn't complaining though.

"You know the summer clothes are just coming in this week, right?" Mom asked and I nodded while taking a bite from my bread. "Well, it looks like I still need to go to London and select another order. This means you would have to be alone the next weekend." Mom continued carefully, while studying my reaction.

"Sure, it's not a problem. You know I'm going to be alright, mom. Don't look at me like that." I laughed a little at her sad face. I knew she didn't like doing this to me. I was still her little kid.

"I know honey, I just feel somewhat guilty about it. I know you're not a little girl anymore, but still..."

"It's OK, trust me!" I laughed more.

"Thank you, Gracie. By the way, we need to celebrate your birthday this weekend together, since I won't be here the next. My little baby is turning 17! I have something planned for Saturday." She started to smile mysteriously.

"OK... Sounds interesting. Hope it's nothing embarrassing though!" I said and raised my eyebrows.

"Don't worry. I'm sure you will quite like it." She winked and I got a little excited. What on earth could it be?

We finished eating and I cleaned the table from the dishes and filled the dishwasher with them. Mom went to the living room to watch some TV and I went up to my room and organised it for a little bit. I had a bad habit of piling up my clothes to an armchair I had in the corner of my bedroom. My phone beeped as I got a message.

From Naomi: The car is finally fixed! I'll pick you up tomorrow morning. LAST DAY TOMORROW! :D

From me: Haha, I know! We're going to have fun this holiday! See you in the morning babe!

It was still only 8.30pm and I felt like doing something. It seemed to be a calm evening outside, so I decided to go for a run. I changed my clothes, put on my trainers and went out. I started jogging down the street and looked at the idyllic houses standing next to one another. I really liked our neighbourhood, it made me feel very cosy. As I took a turn to another street after ours, I was surprised to see lights coming from a house that was still on sale last month. I guess someone had bought it and I was kind of curious to see the new family living there.

I slowed my pace down for a bit and looked for people and saw two figures standing in the front yard. They were laughing about something and trying to carry an obviously heavy box together. It was a boy and a girl, probably a brother and a sister, I thought. It was kind of hard to see their faces and I didn't want to stare, so I just passed by like I wasn't looking in the first place. As I was going by, I looked at the boy straight to his eyes and he looked back. I turned my head quickly away and jogged a bit faster. I could swear I saw him smile! He seemed to have cute dimples, when he smiled, but it was a little too dark to tell. But he was tall for sure and probably older than me.

"Oh god, could I have been any more embarrassing?" I said to myself as I was safely away from the house.

I was not exactly shy with guys, since I had always had a lot of friends that were boys in my life. And yeah, I had been somewhat active in dating recently as well. Nothing too slutty of course, but normal teenage stuff. And I liked dating and the butterflies it brought to my stomach. I had only had one serious relationship for about a year. It ended last year as I realised he was more into himself than me. Couldn't really stand him anymore. Now, I was happier than ever and enjoyed being single and ready to mingle.

Who was that tall boy and why did I care so much?

Notes

Hey guys!

I started a new story and would REALLY appreciate comments, suggestions, votes and subscriptions!

Thanks for reading and stay tuned. If I can get a few votes and subscriptions soon, I will update with another chapter already tonight!

Love you! xx