Cindy

"CINDY WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" Jimmy burst into the girls' bathroom, shouting at me as I pushed the cold needle into my arm. I jumped at the sound of his voice and dropped the container watching the glass shatter across the floor. What have I done? I can't believe I just dropped it! I'll never be able to hide the marks now! Thoughts raced through my mind as I stared at the puddle of now useless medicine spread across the tile. I dropped to the ground in tears just staring at it, screaming angrily.

"What is going on?" Jimmy questioned. You could hear the fear in his voice and see it in his eyes. Jimmy was worried. Worried about me. Never in my life have I ever seen Jimmy so scared. I didn't care though. My savior was now destroyed and lying in a puddle on the floor!

"Just go away!" I cried, cupping my hands around my face as tears rolled down my cheeks, "You won't understand!"

"Won't understand what?" He shouted, now angrily, "Won't understand the reason you're shooting drugs into your arm?"

"It's not drugs!" I fired back.

"Then what is it?" I didn't respond. I continued to sob uncontrollably. I couldn't let him see my face. In fact I couldn't let him see any part of me. The marks were everywhere, I couldn't let him know. He started to walk towards me but I shot up and ran towards the door as fast as I could, but I wasn't fast enough. Jimmy grabbed my wrist and spun me around so that I was facing him and with my other hand I covered my eyes.

"Don't look at me!" I begged, "Just please let me go." He didn't listen, he grabbed my other wrist trying to pull it away from my face but I just swung my hair over it instead. Out of the corner of my eye I could see his face getting red with anger.

"No! I won't let you go Cindy! Not until you tell me what's going on!" He yelled, desperately trying to see my face.

"You won't understand!"

"Try me!" I struggled to try and break free of his grasp but he was too strong. Unfortunately I jerked my body a little too hard causing my hair to toss backwards exposing my face. I tried to flip it back but it was too late. He'd seen it. I knew he had, I could see it in his face, a mixture of fear, confusion and sympathy. There was nothing I could do now. The only thing that could save me was to lie my ass off and hope he would believe me. He tried to say something but the words were caught in his throat. I quickly came up with an explanation before he had a chance to ask about the bruises on my eye.

"I swung my arm back too fast and hit myself in the eye," I said as smoothly as I could. He knew I was lying, I could feel it. His expression immediately went from afraid to angry just as mine did the exact opposite.

"How can you expect me to believe you?" he stared hard into my eyes, "That wasn't there before!"

"It just happened a minute ago," I tried to explain.

"Bullshit! Bruises take longer than a few minutes to appear and besides, why would you automatically point that out like you knew that's what I was looking at?" He's good. I opened my mouth to try and come up with an explanation but I couldn't. It was no use. My eyes started filling up with tears but I tried holding them back. I turned around so he couldn't see them fall from my face but he grabbed my shoulders and gently pulled me back. I stared into his deep blue eyes and I couldn't help but cry. "Cindy…what's going on?" He looked hurt as the words spilled from his mouth.

"Jimmy I… forget it, you won't understand" He jerked me and pulled my body next to his. I couldn't deal with it, being that close to him. I was already upset and feeling his body next to mine and smelling his cologne that he always wears just made me feel even more emotional. I tried backing away from him but he refused to let me go. He just stared into my eyes like a parent does when their kid gets into trouble.

"Out of all the people that I know, you were the one that I could trust with anything," He gritted through his teeth trying to hold back his own emotions, "I always thought you felt the same about me… but apparently I was wrong."

"Jimmy I do trust you I just-

"Then tell me what's going on!" He raised his voice. I just stared at him with my eyes full of tears. I couldn't handle all this drama it was more than I'm used to dealing with which is a lot. His eyes slowly softened and he lifted his hand up and pushed my hair back, placing his palm on my face. I closed my eyes, blinking away the tears, and slowly looked up into his. They were so deep and full of emotion. He spoke softly, "Please Cindy…I care about you, a lot more than you think, and I can't stand seeing you this way... I promise I won't let anyone know about any of this, trust me."

It wasn't what he said or even how he said it that made me crack. It was what I saw in his eye's, a trust I knew couldn't be broken and a love that I hadn't felt in years. But I knew that if I told him things were going to change. And for the first time in my life, I wasn't afraid of that.

I was just about to tell him the truth when his eyes suddenly widened with fear. He placed his hand on my arm. Oh no! I thought, the marks are reappearing!

Wait a minute, I'm getting too far ahead of myself. Let me start at the beginning…

Monday: March 26, 1 week earlier

It was exactly one week before spring break and I couldn't be more depressed. While all of my friends got to go hang out and have fun I was going to be stuck in the house doing nothing but cleaning and fixing appliances for an ungrateful father who's too lazy to do it himself. I hated that man more than I hated Hell. He was no longer the same caring, warm-hearted, loving father that he used to be. Ever since I was 12 and my mom walked out on us he's changed dramatically, I don't even know him anymore. It's the damn alcohol that did it. He was so insanely depressed because of my mom that he turned to alcohol as his only cure. What used to be the idol dad was now leading one of the top child abuse cases. That's right, he hits me. Not little punches or slaps across the face I mean really hit's me. He's obsessed with causing me to bleed. He says that he won't stop until he see's some blood and that's exactly what he gets, blood, and a lot of it. For a while I pretended that I was on a football team and that I would get hurt at every practice so no one would question my marks and to my surprise everyone bought it. After months and months of excruciating beatings I finally developed a medicine that would hide the marks. You inject it into your bloodstream and any bruises, cuts or even zits that you had would disappear temporarily. I've tried to develop a medicine that would eliminate the marks permanently but haven't had any luck so far. But for now I inject it into my arm three times everyday (before I go to school, when I get home from school, before I go to bed) and no one has ever known and I thought no one ever would.

Jimmy

Beep! Beep! Beep!

"Damn alarm clock! It's too early," I slammed my fist on the snooze button and tried to fall back asleep. Lately my alarm had been going off an hour earlier than it was supposed to and I would always try to fall back asleep but it was no use. I'd just end up laying there for the next hour staring at the ceiling until it was time to get ready for school. Today was no different. My eyes were shut but my brain was fully awake and refused to let me sleep. Thoughts just kept running through my mind like a videotape that would rewind and replay itself over and over again. Thoughts about school, about my inventions, about my parents and especially about Cindy. I don't know why but I couldn't get her out of my mind. Sure me and her were friends now, well ok more like acquaintances, but we weren't all that close so why was the image of her face constantly in my brain? She had definitely grown from a cute little girl to a ridiculously hot woman. She had amazing curves especially on her upper body if you know what I mean, and she finally let her down which was definitely a plus for her image and she always wore this sexy white halter-top that was low cut and tight enough to show off her curves without making it look like she couldn't breathe. Then she wore her skintight low-rider blue jeans, which is one of the reasons I usually hold a book in front of me when I'm walking. Everything about her was beautiful.

Damn I always do that! I start thinking about one thing and it'll remind me of Cindy and then all I can do is think about Cindy. It's not like I'm in love with her or anything she's just…

Beep! Beep! Beep!

Once again I slammed my fist on my alarm clock shutting it up for good this time. Has it really been an hour? I thought, rubbing the tiredness out of my eyes. I just spent an entire hour thinking about her. That has to be a record.

I got out of bed and went to the bathroom. I was too tired to take a shower.

"VOX! Eliminate odor," I ordered my computer. A glass frame dropped around me and filled with deodorizing gases.

"Odor eliminated," VOX confirmed, and the frame lifted back up into the ceiling. That's the one good thing about robots is they allow you to be as lazy as you want.

After I was finished in the bathroom I got dressed and fixed my hair. Don't worry it's not in the shape of an acorn anymore. I gel it down and let it cover the right side of my face. A lot of my friends think I'm Emo because of it but I don't give a shit. Sheen and Carl are my only true friends, in fact Sheen is more of a true friend than Carl is. He may be the stupidest person in this universe but he never sells out a friend. Carl's sold me out plenty of times but I can't always blame him. He doesn't have a lot of self-confidence and is usually threatened for information. Sheen's not afraid of threats, even though usually he ends up risking his life, he never betrays me. Lately though since him and Libby finally became boyfriend and girlfriend, AFTER 7 YEARS OF ARGUING ABOUT IT, he's been ditching me a lot for her which I can understand to a certain extent but now it's just getting annoying. Anyways, they are my only real friends and I could care less about anyone else.

After I put my Chucks on I grabbed my stuff and ran downstairs to get some food. Unfortunately my parents had spent the whole morning fighting with each other and my mom forgot to make breakfast so I just grabbed an energy drink and split. Ever since I was 13 and almost got the entire Earth destroyed my mom has been a nervous wreck. Yeah I know I've almost destroyed the world before but it was different because this time the aliens set everything on fire and I had to make it rain all over the entire world before anyone was severely harmed which caused floods in a lot of areas. No one that I know of was killed but a lot of them experienced 2nd and 3rd degree burns. So my mom has been driving me and my dad insane ever since then with her constant questioning and having to know everything I'm doing and everywhere I'm going and everyone I'm going with. My dad is the biggest daredevil, I guess you could say, that I've ever known so when my mom gets into her over protective mode it drives him crazy. So now they fight all the time and it's all my fault. I've even heard them talk about divorce before and I've punched so many holes in my walls and broken so much stuff because of how bad I feel. If it weren't for me they'd still be happy. Everything is always my fault, sometimes I think the world would be better off if I was just dead.

I waited outside for the bus even though it wasn't supposed to come for another 20 minutes. Across the street I could see Cindy walking out of her house. She was limping. I wonder what happened? She went to the edge of the street and lied down using her backpack as a pillow and her gray hoodie as a blanket. She was so beautiful even when she slept. Stop thinking about her Jimmy, you don't like her remember! I had to get her out of my mind. I was concerned though so I got up and started walking towards her. Oh yeah great way to get her out of your mind.

She opened her eyes and noticed me walking over and she shot straight up and started fixing her hair.

"You don't have to get all pretty for me," I joked. She just glared at me angrily so I rolled my eyes. I couldn't stand people who took everything seriously. Then I reached out my hand to help her up, "You need some help?"

She continued to stare at me with her angry green eyes. Then she let out a sight and grabbed my hand.

"What do you want Neutron? You never come over to see me in the morning," She spat like a venomous snake. I don't get it, how can someone that beautiful be so evil.

"It was weird I thought I saw Lucifer standing in your yard then when I got closer it turned out to be you. Sorry I don't know how I could've mistaken that. Lucifer's a lot nicer." She gave me the evilest look I've ever seen. Then she laughed with an evil grin and narrowed her eyebrows. "What?" I asked confused.

"Turn around," She said pointing towards my house. I was so stunned by embarrassment I lost my breath. My mom had thrown my dad out with nothing but his underwear on and he was shouting and banging on the door. I turned around as fast as I could and shut my eyes trying to get the image out of my head. Cindy just continued laughing. I laughed mockingly.

"Yeah that's so funny Vortex. I bet you wouldn't be laughing if your dad was out here doing the same thing." Cindy shut up and stared at me wide-eyed, and I could see flames of anger in her eyes. That's when I started to get a little frightened. I was about to say something but the bus showed up. "Why are you so mad all I said was…"

She completely ignored me and walked passed me making sure to shove me with her shoulder as she did. I rolled my eyes and turned around and started walking towards the bus. "Starting off yet another day with Cindy bitching at me. Gee how surprising."