"I only loved him for his money wanyway." My petite friend sighed, twirling her long red hair in her tiny hand, sipping her black coffee. The school's cafe line being longer than usual, and her patience seemed to be as false as her make-up clad face.

"I'm sure you did." I nodded, pulling out my wallet from my back pocket. We were next in line, the girls in front of us to busy giggiling instead of moving over to the pick up window like you were suppoused too. "'Cause he was so rich." I rolled my eyes, slipping five dollars out of my wallet, our cafe always being rather expencive. Luckily I had a way of chatting up the girl behind the counter. Guess she couldn't tell I was female. Who could blame her, with what I wear.

"Enough." My friend spat, black coffee drooling out of her lips, instantly wiping it off with her baggy jacket sleeve. "I don't need sass from you Lucia." She said looking down, that being easy for her, considering her height.

"I feel like you do." I muttered, brushing a hand through my bedhead-styled pixie-cut hair. Ordering my usual, peppermint latte with almond milk instead of skim. To which, like clockwork, the girl behind the counter offered me a discount on my order. Instead of $6.25 she cut it down nearly half, to $3.15, making my five just enough. My shorter friend glared up at me, always telling me how bad it was to take advantage of my boyish look like that.

And like clockwork;

"You shouldn't do that Lucia, you're taking advantage of people." She accused.

"Oh, like how you used Blake for his money, Gina." I shot back, meaning to hide the smirk plastered on my face. Though, when I looked at her, her eyes were wattering though she said nothing.

We walked in silence back downstairs to the cafeteria to meet the rest of our friends. The table was unusually silent, despite the room around us being typically loud. No one talked, we didn't even dare look at each other. I had already said everything, and they all knew it. They were just waiting for the reaction. For the final drop of the ball,  whenever she'll blow her top.

Maybe I was too cold, to tell her that she was becoming like me. Beginning to use people for reasons of self-gain. Not that it was bad to do that, everyone does. It's the reason people even put up with each other.

"I'm going to class." Gina stated suddenly, grabbing her thin binder.

"Really? We have half-an-hour till school starts." I noted, looking at my watch. She only glared at me - stalking off to class.

No one went after her. It was sort of our thing to avoid her once something we needed, or wanted to say had been said. Usually by me, that's just the best pat about being blunt. The worst part, you're usually observent, and things crumble because of you. People want the truth, but as soon as a person like me comes along, it seems they can't handle it. It happens all the time, like clockwork.

"I'm going to class too." I declared standing up, taking my things in my arms.

"Have fun." Someone from the table called. I was too busy in the milky peppermint taste of my drink dancing on my tongue to know who though.

Science was first period. Something that was real whether you believed in it or not. That kind of stability, and reality I need early in the morning. Considering how off my friends seem to be. Drifting along with the crowds, doing things for pure pleasure instead of both pleasure and gain. Or maybe I'm just as messed up as my friends claim me to be.

I always tell them I'll leave them after graduation, which is only realistic. Seeing how many paths there are to chose in life. Like I said, people just can't handle the truth, so they stay in their world of fantasy. Fantasies of flying broomsticks, animals that can talk, and wardrobes that take you to another land. Preposterous.

"Lucia, first at our table, as always." My male friend Joseph said. I only nodded at him, not bothering to look from my book of Grimm's Fairy Tales. Keeping my coffee parched on my flat chest. One of the bonuses of working out. "I was thinking, we should hang out this weekend, since it's a break. Me, you, and the guys." He suggested.

"No, it's Christmas break." I declined. "Plus, I have studying and work to do, I don't have time for childish things." I added, sitting up in the plastic gray chair.

Joseph looked at me bewildered. Even though everytime he asked to hang out, for the past three years we've known each other, that was always my response. "You need to relax, we're sophmores in high school. Not sophmores in college." He said with a huff, scooting his chair in closer to the pitch black desk.

"Do you want to get into a good college? To be successful?" I asked, putting a bookmark in my thick book of horrible fairy tales. The closest things to fantasy I allow myself to have. "Good grades get inro a good college, which is equivalent to success."

Joseph looked at me and shook his head, "you don't need a good college to be successful." He said, adding; "We're childeren Lucia, teenagers. If you're constantly inside, working, working, working, then you won't experience life. Failure is a part of that."

He shook his head at me one last time, before he stood up from his chair. Checking the clock for the time, and like clockwork, he too left me behind in the dust. The tick prison like door slamming behind him. It seemed I always said something to offend him enough for him to risk being late. Which, was a usual between as. A clockwork uinteraction. It never changes.

I rolled my eyes at my eyes at my fellow classmates, all dragging their feet as they walked in the room. Some looking like they took time in their appearance, others like they just rolled out of bed and apeared here. Doesn' matter, we'll forget what they all looked like by tomorrow anyway.

Class started, and as I had predicted joseph was five minutes late. Once the eighty minute class ended, I grabbed Joseph by the sleeve. My coffee in the trash, leaving my bainder and books the only thing in my arm. It made me feel unsually vulnerable, I never finish my coffee this early. It felt weird, but good.

"I'll hand out with you guys." I said, letting his sleeve go.

"What made you change your mind?" He asked smugly, like he knew I was going to, sometime.

"Everything, life, it's been getting so repetitive." I nodded to myself, "I hate it."

Joseph laughed, rubbing my shoulder. "Well, this weekedn will definetly be different to you then." He said. "No more studying for the week of break." He made me promise, which was the hard part. But, the moment I shook his hand, it felt, simple. I wasn't going to bring my books along, just myself, my phone, and my wallet.

It'll be different.The clock has finally stopped ticking.