1 A Teenage Nobody

Beginnings

A shadow falls upon the land

Overpowering goodness with night

A soul sucked clean of compassion

Devouring all unwary within sight

Crimson drops spatter from ruby lips

Teeth bared in a feral smile

Try to run and hide from that face

But the truth will be known, no denial

Beauty unparalleled in the faces around

An uncontrollable hunger rages, a desperate need

Gazes locked on their unsuspecting prey

Mirrored in their eyes an image of: ME

A Teenage Nobody

The eyes open upon the world

Yet another day that must be faced

Another sack of bones walking

Existing, breathing, just taking up space

    I opened my eyes to sun shining in through my window. I knew for certain that I had closed the curtains the night before, before going to bed. Groaning, I buried my head under my pillows, doing my best to escape anything happy and joyous.

    What was there to be joyous about when your life was a living hell?

    Burying my head under the pillows only worked so long. Yeah- I couldn't see the sun shining, but I could feel it warming my back. As of that weren't bad enough birds were now starting to sing outside. A regular chorus of good cheer!

    Sighing in frustration, I pushed the pillow from my head and sat up. As I blinked to get used to the bright light I stretched too. Why waste movement? I pushed myself up from the bed and walked to the window. I grabbed the sash of the window and started to pull it down when a glint of gold caught my eye. Outside basking in the sun was someone I wasn't quite ready to see yet.

    My step-hellion….Oh I mean my step-brother.

    As I started to pull the window down he turned and looked up; almost as though he felt my gaze on him. He gave me a wide winning smile as he looked up at me. That smile might work on everyone else, but I knew what lay behind that smile. He didn't fool me for one moment.

    "So sleeping…uh…well anyway, good morning." he called up.

    "Yeah, whatever." I mumbled.

    "Oh come on now. Is that any way to treat your darling brother?" he questioned.

    "You're not my brother." I replied.

    He gave me a mock-hurt look and placed his hand over his heart. "You wound me to the core."

    I rolled my eyes at his melodrama. "Go to…" I got out before I saw my mother step out to join him. "Morning, mother." I called down.

    "And quite a lovely one it is. Why don't you come out and join us? It really would be lovely…"

    That is all I heard before I finished closing the window. I know that seems rude to do to your own mother, but until you've walked a mile in my shoes maybe you should reserve judgment. I pulled the curtains closed, harder than I had intended and wound up banging my knuckles together. Fuming a little I stalked away from the window and went to my closet. I opened the door and stood there looking at my clothing choices. An almost defeated sounding sigh escaped me.

    Frumpy, baggy, frumpy, baggy.

    Everything in my closet was either something that looked like your grandmother would wear it or baggy to the point of being shapeless. You would think the grandmotherly-type clothes would get me noticed, but that was way off the mark. In fact they were so non-descript that I tended to blend into the background, which suited me just fine.

    I reached into the closet and grabbed an article of clothing from both categories and threw them on the bed. After grabbing my robe I headed to the bathroom to take a shower. Once I was done and had brushed my hair and teeth I then grabbed my purse and slipped some shoes on and headed downstairs.

    As I passed my vanity I spared it a quick glance.  I didn't catch much of my reflection, but I caught enough to know that I passed for human. I didn't need to look too closely to know that I'd never pass for a supermodel.

    When I reached the bottom of the stairs I heard voices coming from the back deck. Taking a deep breath I headed toward the voices and pasted a fake smile on my face. Two sets of eyes looked at me as I joined my mother and step-brother on the deck.

    "Welcome to the land of the living." my step-brother said.

    My mother chuckled before giving him a chastising look. "Now, now." She then turned to look at me. "If my opening your curtains and window hadn't worked to wake you I was going to have to resort to drastic actions soon." she said, smiling.

    "Ohhhh! Wet willies!" my step-brother nearly squealed.

    "How old are you?" I asked, glaring at him. He stuck his tongue out at me. I raised my eyebrows in a pointed look. He then proceeded to give me raspberries. So I in turn kicked him under the table.

    Being the drama-king that he was he made big production out of it. "Ow! What did you do that for? You didn't have to kick me, let alone so hard." he moaned.

    My mother looked at him in concern, and then turned to me with a disappointed look on her face. "There was no call for that you know." she admonished me.

    I couldn't believe my own mother was sticking up for the punk. "You're kidding right?" When she just looked at me I pushed away from the table and stood up. "I didn't even kick him that hard. If I did I'd have probably been hurt more than he was. He can be rude to me and I'm the one who gets in trouble? That's not fair and I'm not going to stay where I'm not wanted." I finished as I stomped away from the table.

    I reached the front door and walked out of the house. The front door slammed behind me and stayed closed. I headed to the car sitting at the curb in front of the house. Once I reached the driver-side door I put the key in the key-slot and unlocked the door. I don't know why I even bothered to lock the car up to begin with. I didn't keep anything worth stealing inside.

    And to be honest, if someone wanted to steal the car they'd actually be doing me a favor.

    I got inside and started the engine, letting it idle for a little. Once I figured it had idled long enough I put it in gear then started to pull away from the curb. As I did the car backfired anyway. I felt my cheeks flush in embarrassment even though nobody was out to actually witness me pulling away in disgrace.

    As I headed into town I kept the car at an even thirty miles an hour. If I pushed it any higher than that my car would sound like a machine gun going off. For then my wonderful means of transportation would backfire like it was going out of style.

    As I got closer to town the traffic became a little heavier. Cars started to pass me and when I glanced over most people just shook their heads sadly. I could totally relate. I had almost reached the town limits when a hopped up car sped past me. When I glanced over to watch it pass by I saw a bunch of grinning faces. One young man gave me a thumbs up, then just as quickly started laughing as he turned his thumb down. Once they had passed me the driver beeped his horn while one of the passengers gave me a rude gesture. I sighed in resignation.

    It was so wonderful living the life of a teenage nobody.