Please remember that this is only the first chapter. Don't let this opener turn you off just yet. Okay? I hope you enjoy it, and if you feel like I may be falling into some cliche's please let me know so I can see if there's anything to do about it.
~Mikki~
"So?"
"So…"
"What did you think?" Teri's dark eyes glistened with anticipation of her friends answer. A thin blue and shiny book lay a few feet away on the kitchen counter awaiting its judgment. "Be honest." Teri urged.
Tarry plucked at her eyebrows for a few silent moments. "I loved it." She said slowly.
Teri narrowed her eyes. "But…"
'She knows me too well.' Tarry sighed mentally. "But…I feel like it lacks something."
Teri nodded and took a generous bit of her pizza. "Care to elaborate?"
"It lacks proper character development. Think about Dallas and Steve. You would think that after one of your friends kills a Social and starves in a church for a week it would soften them up a little. But there's no mention of anything like that in the book. The only thing that changes is the two deaths. I feel like the only purpose of the book is to make readers feel sorry for poor kids. You can't have a story like that with a happy ending." She ended her rant with a loud HUFF. And because of the force of the breath, a small bit of soggy crust flew out from between her teeth.
Teri choked on the sip of soda that she had just attempted to swallow. She laughed heartily at her red faced friend.
"I don't know about that. I never noticed anything." Teri said after she had calmed down.
The two best friends had recently decided to read the book, "The Outsiders". For some reason it had come back in season. Everyone they knew was reading it. So Tarry and Teri joined the bandwagon. They just finished watching the movie about an ago.
"You know, there's only one thing we agree on." Tarry commented as they did the dishes.
"Ralph Macchio is one sexy son of a bitch!" They squealed in unison before fallings into an uncontrollable fit of laughter.
"Girls, I'm trying to work. Quiet down please." Teri's mom shouted from her office. She was an author and currently in the middle of her fourth novel. The first three paid for the house they lived in and other important bills.
"I wanna make a pie, or something. How does Cheesecake sound?"
Tarry nodded 'Yes' happily and hopped up on a clear counter. She always liked to watch Teri bake. There was something magical about the way she used her hands to knead dough.
Teri rolled her sleeves all the way up past her elbows to wash her hands. It was until after and had turned on the faucet and suzzed up her fingers that she realized her cut was still bleeding a little. It had even turned purple in the center of the mass of red. She immediately put it under the water. "Shit."
Tarry looked down at her arm. "My, Gosh."
"Will you get me the First Aid Kit from under the sink?"
Tarry was off of the counter in a second. She moved quickly and had the kit open and ready to go in a flash. She snatched up a piece of cotton and went to dap the open wound but was stopped instantly. "Don't touch me!" Teri protested.
All she do was watch as the cut was dressed without her help. It all made her feel so weak. 'Why can't I be like Dally and just not care? I want to be tough to.' She thought.
Teri, having forgotten about the Cheesecake simply turned to her friend. The expression on her face, or lack thereof, was unreadable. "Nothing heals the way it used to." She said shutting the faucet off roughly.
Tarry swallowed the lump in her throat and nodded in understanding. "I know."
"Nothing heals at all anymore." Teri added with a stiff chuckle. On that same arm there was at least four other unhealed injuries. Each one on the verge of infection. "My mom says that if I get hurt one more time, she's gonna take the puppy to a shelter."
One of Teri's faults. She always had this need to fill the silence. She's been kicked out of class on several occasions for playing her Ipod out loud during tests.
"Let's head out to the lot." Teri suggested, pulling her sleeve back down. Tarry squeaked and followed with her head hung low.
The pair ventured outside to the backyard and turned a corner to the side of the house. There, resting against the wall, was the backseat of the first car Teri's mother had ever owned. It had been there since the day Teri, her Mother and Step Father had moved in. After reading the book, both girls decided to call it "The Lot." Just for giggles
Tarry broke the silence this time. "The sky is really pretty tonight." She said. And it was. Every little star seemed to be as bright as the moon.
Teri grasped Tarry's hand in a gently embrace. Two hands so different, yet so perfect for each other. Teri was African American, Tarry was Caucasian. Teri's hands were thin and frail looking, Tarry's were a bit on the chubby side but healthy none the less. But the most significant different of them all, Teri was HIV/AIDS positive and Tarry wasn't.
A little over ten years ago Teri and her father been in a bad car accident. The blood that the hospital administered to replace what Teri had lost was contaminated. Her father died a few days after the crash due to severe brain damage.
"I gotta tell you something, T." Teri said after a few more moments. Her grasp tightened in scary and subtle way.
"What happened?" Tarry mumbled cautiously. 'Is it another bad doctors report? Why does everything have to be so unfair?
'I broke a promise that I made to someone who means a lot to me. And I feel crappy about it."
The promise. The Promise. Tarry knew exactly what that promise was.
'I'll never leave you if I can help it. I promise.'
Both sets of eyes began to fill with tears. Neither of them wanted nor expected this.
"I'm so sorry, T."
Tarry snatched her hand away and stood. Her anger, compliments of her very quick temper, had flared in record time. "Why!" She screamed. "How could you! You swore!"
Teri stayed frozen on the seat. "Because I don't want you to see me die." Was her barely heard answer.
"That's bullshit! Everyone dies!"
Teri shook her head. The sobs began to shaker her shoulders. "Not everyone dies because of AIDS and you know that. I don't have a choice."
"You always have a choice Teri."
"The medication isn't working anymore. My condition is only getting worse. A lot worse actually."
Tarry's breath came out in rapid puffs. She had steamed herself into silence.
"I'm going to die a lot sooner than the doctors expected. And I can't let you be a witness to that. I care about you too much, Tarry. There's this facility up in Utah. The word is that they're really good with AIDS patients."
Tarry dropped down to her knees weeping.
It took a few more moments before Teri was able to finally move again. she crawled over to her distressed friend and wrapped her arms around her trembling form. "I didn't mean to hurt you. I swear. It's just…It isn't fair to you to have to watch me deteriorate."
"I'm not. I'm not watching you die. I'm watching you fight."
Something in her gut told Teri to look into the sky and when she did she saw the most magnificent thing, a shooting star. She pulled both Tarry and herself onto their backs gently.
"Make a wish."
Tarry knew exactly what she wanted. "I wish that you were cured and healthy."
Teri was disappointed. "You shouldn't waste your wish on-"
"And I wish Teri would meet her prince charming and that they would be happy and have lots of beautiful children."
"Tarry…"
"Shut up and make yours before it goes away."
Teri sighed loudly but obeyed. "I wish I could have my own story with my own happy ending. I wish I could stay gold."
They both fell asleep.
Come on back for Chapter 2 if you'd like to.
Teri and I'll be waiting. ; )