"Damien!" My sister called from downstairs. "Phone number five trillion has arrived!"

Yes! The new iPhone I ordered has finally arrived.

"Coming human!" I jump off my bed and run downstairs.

I run past her unbearably bright room and down the wooden, mahogany stairs. Running through the restaurant worthy kitchen, I finally reach my favorite person in the whole wide world; as cheesy as that sounds

"I would just love to know what the heck you do to your phones! And also how much do you get for your allowance? Just asking for a friend."

"Is that friend in question single?" I ask, wiggling my eyebrows.

"Oh my dear God! You are such a perv!" She said throwing a cushion at me. Of course I dodged it thanks to my ninja skills.

"When's mom coming back?" I ask, really really missing her. I don't care what anyone says I'm a certified mama's boy.

"Well, she said that the conference went really well and all the doctors and researchers loved her so they decided to extend it for a few more days. Then she's going to meet grandma and grandpa over at Staten Island. So all in all she's going to be gone for about three more weeks." She replied, continuing to read whatever book she has her nose stuffed in.

Oh. So....so she's going to be gone for a while. She's going to miss my high school graduation. She's never missed any of my performances or achievements. I was trying not to let it affect me or even show on my face. Of course, though, that doesn't fool Dr. Phil of our family.

"Why the long face little bro? Don't worry, I'll be at your graduation. Or am I not enough?" She asked, putting her book down and patting on the space next to her on the couch.

"Of course you are! It's not that."

I went to sit next to her and put my head on her shoulder.

"What's on your mind little dummy?" She giggled, wrapping her arms around me.

"It's just that....when.... when dad died, she took it upon herself to always attend my talent show performances, my baseball games, my plays and she'd even drive me to every single job interview I ever had; no matter how stupid it was. It's just weird and pretty depressing that she won't attend my high school graduation; supposedly the biggest night of my life. I'm giving the speech and it just would've meant the world if she was there."

"Aww it's okay. You know she would've loved to be there right? So don't you worry your pretty little mind, people throw rocks at things that shine and.....and I don't know where I'm going with this Taylor Swift song. But don't be upset, she'll either call or maybe even FaceTime. She'll find a way." She said in that sweet, comforting sisterly voice.

"Yeah. She always does. Kay thanks bye. Gotta go kickstart this new phone." I said, high-fiving her face and running towards the stairs.

"No seriously kid how much is your allowance? You're getting too much of it." She shouts back at me, but I'm already halfway to my room by now.

Some people always fight with their siblings and probably even hate them but Destiny and I are different. Our dad always taught us that this world and everyone in it are never a constant; only our relationship is. That no matter how hard it gets in life or how many friends we have, our relationship with each other is the only thing we can always depend on; the only thing we can fall back on. So ever since he died five years ago, we decided to live by those words; for him.

Destiny practically raised me when my dad was fighting overseas and when my mom had four overnight shifts back to back and was too tired to tend to us. She would make me breakfast, would wash my clothes, would help me with my homework and most importantly would keep me in check. It is because of her that I am graduating as valedictorian of my class, and because of her I became the captain of my baseball team. I owe her such a great deal for keeping me out of trouble and making me a decent human; or semi-decent.

I close the door to my room and just stand there; trying not to pass out from the smell. It vaguely reeks of dead fish and a fresh pile of wet leaves. I say vaguely because I think I've grown nose blind towards it. How exactly am I supposed to get to my bed? I remember creating a clear path from my bed to the door but it disappeared again under this new pile of clothes. I take one step forward and thankfully I don't step on a landmine. I keep taking small, calculated steps until I reach my bed safely. Mission Accomplished! Of course that only means that the hardest part is over and I still have to be careful not to sit on anything that'll take me to the emergency room where all my mom's colleagues know me by many, many different nicknames.

A story for another time.

It took me a while to set the phone, restore my stuff from my iCloud, and to sync my iTunes library to download my music and such. After I was done, I decided to text Juliette and tell her that I'll be picking her up tomorrow. Tomorrow happens to be our last day of official high school education and I couldn't be more excited to finish it off with my amazing girl. I scrolled through my phone but her number was nowhere to be found. Weird. I distinctly remember having it for the past four years. I mean, that's not something you forget.

Oh well.

I type it from memory and save her contact.

New contact saved: Juliette🥰😍

Juliette and I have been together since freshman year. She's this beautiful girl with gorgeous blonde hair and the sweetest smile. She is the president of the Model United Nations and always volunteers at the local family shelter. I met her in freshman year when her family moved here from France and we instantly clicked. We always studied together, volunteered at the family shelter and animal shelter together and did random things together; including going together to our upcoming prom two weeks from now.

A little 'ding' brought me out of my thoughts; a text message from my best friend Miles.

Miles🎉: Hey hey hey! Look who finally got a new phone!

Me: Hello there level 10 stalker :) how'd you even know?!

Miles🎉: bro, I know everything! So.... how's the new phone?? Is the camera poppin??

Me: I'm gonna get you for ruining my other phone Miles-per-hour. Just wait and see😡😡😡😡

Miles🎉: fam I said I was sorry jeez🙄🙄.... what does a guy have to do to get their apology accepted around here?

Me: whatever man.... I need to go finish studying please and thank you. I'll see ya later

Miles🎉: Sometimes I genuinely feel like you're Einstein's long forgotten grandchild👨🏻‍🦳👨🏻‍🦳👨🏻‍🦳 or something

Me: try studying sometime. Trust me. You'll go places ;)

Miles🎉: is one of those places McDonald's? Cuz you can COUNT ME IN!😬😬😬

Me: BYE!

Miles🎉: 😂✌🏼

Miles and I have been best friends since before kindergarten. Our mothers both work in the same hospital; his a nurse practitioner and mine a surgeon. We went to the same hospital day care and I guess we hit it off from then. We spend time together almost every single day. His house is even right next to mine. He has light brown hair, blue-ish eyes and an extremely punchable face. Like, I just feel like punching him for looking at me wrong. He drives me crazy literally all the time but I wouldn't trade him for the world.

I go sit on my study table and prepare my study "vibe". I open my laptop, open my study light, open a bottle of coke and a bag of Cheetos and finally turn up the volume on "In The End" by Linkin Park. My first test on exam week (the week after the next) will be economics, followed by Functions, physics, and finally English literature.

I decided to play games on my phone until the clock turns nine and then I can start studying in peace. As I was playing CSR Racing, it hit me that Juliette still hadn't answered me which - by our books - is so weird. She normally texts back within three seconds of me texting her. Maybe she's sick? Or sad? Maybe she's becoming depressed? Maybe studying is getting to her? Maybe she's out with another guy?? I tried calling her a few more times before I realized that the human thing to assume would be that she is most likely asleep.

Yeah.

That sounds a lot less possessive and paranoid. My beautiful princess is just sound asleep.

Ok.

Oh crap! It's 9.03! Damn it now I have to wait until 10 pm to start studying.

Ha. Ha. Ha.

I can't do that.

I start studying economics, writing notes and memorizing everything until I started drifting to sleep. I said three more minutes and I'll start again. Of course that never works. I closed my eyes and fell right to a deep sleep only to be awoken by the throbbing pain caused from my head slamming against the desk.

"Ow! Who hit me?" I yelled out before realizing that my dumb self just fell asleep on my desk. I took out my phone to see that the time is 1.23 am. With no message from Juliette, I decided to go to sleep in anticipation for my last day as student council president.

After brushing my teeth, I decided to open my window to let in some fresh air. Before I put my head back in, something caught my attention. Miles is standing outside on his phone. More like a madman on crack. He kept talking and animatedly moving his hands around. Too tired to think about it - and knowing he'll probably tell me tomorrow- I went to bed.

"Hey Siri? Set alarm to 6.30 am." With that, I fell into a dreamless sleep.