Untitled Story Rough Draft

Untitled Story Rough Draft

Chapter 1

Chloe Montgomery sat down at the computer in her room and logged onto the internet. She drummed her long slender fingers on the oak desk. It had been a long day at school and she had no intention of beginning the massive amount of homework the teachers had piled on her. Maybe she'd consider doing it while she waiting for responses, maybe. Chloe impatiently tapped the keyboard waiting for the computer to load. She considered getting a MySpace one of the best things she's ever done. Chloe hated talking on the phone; all the awkward silences and not knowing what to say was nerve racking. Her parents refused to let her text, so she was left with the computer.

Chloe typed her e-mail and password into the computer and waited for the machine to process it. Her MySpace homepage popped up onto the screen. She scrolled down to find messages waiting for her. She opened her inbox and began reading the messages. One was from her friend Leah, another was from Brandon. She was surprised to see a picture comment. She opened the document, curious to see which picture it was.

It was a picture that she had taken in her bathroom. In the picture, her long, curly strawberry blonde hair was straightened and fell down her back and over her shoulders. Her head was tilted to the side and her deep blue eyes stared directly at the camera, almost staring right through it. Her lips were slightly parted, but were set in a straight line. Her left hand was pulling at the pendant that she wore on her slender neck. Personally, this was Chloe's favorite picture. The comment that was left was a compliment to how pretty she looked.

Chloe clicked back into her inbox. Suddenly, she froze. The last message in her inbox was from him. Chloe hadn't heard from him in weeks. Why was he trying to talk to her now? Didn't he think she'd be angry with him that he hadn't responded to the last million messages she'd left him, wondering where the hell he was? What was wrong with him? What did he want? There was only one way to find out. Chloe took a deep breath and positioned the curser on the mouse on the open button, closed her eyes, and pressed the left side of the mouse…

Chapter 2

Chloe heard nothing except the music that was blasting in her ears on the way home from school. She had the volume turned up on her iPod to the point where the surrounding noise became a buzz in the background. She didn't want to hear anything, no conversations, no gossip, not even her own thoughts. Every single one of those things would remind her how lonely she was. She had friends of course, Leah, Sammy, and Becca, but none of them knew the things that were eating at her from the inside. Her first year of high school had been one wild ride, and it wasn't even done yet. She had walked into Essex High with high expectations and wonderful thoughts about the year ahead of her. But those thoughts shattered when, who she thought was her best friend, Katie stopped talking to her for no reason and she found herself alone in every class she was in. She was shunned from everything. Nobody talked to her, invited her to work with them on an assignment, or asked her to eat lunch with them. Everyone completely ignored her. She was nothing, a speck of dust, a ghost.

When she'd try to talk to Katie about all the cute boys she'd seen that day or what her classes were like, Katie just pretended to listen, then immediately went back her conversation with her new best friend, Morgan. Sometimes, Katie didn't even let Chloe finish what she was saying. Once Morgan walked into the Cafeteria, Katie turned all of her attention to Morgan, leaving Chloe to sit for the entire period staring off into space or at the other tables. Katie pretended to care, Katie pretended to be interested in what she had to say. But in reality, Katie didn't care. Chloe would say something about a boy and how she thought he was cute. And she'd tell Morgan and Katie how she found out his name but catching the print on his ID tag. Katie would laugh at her and say : "Oh my God, Chloe!" Chloe soon learned to keep her happy thoughts and events out of the conversation. She learned that it wasn't worth getting laughed at for the way she felt.

It wasn't long before Chloe feel into a deep depression. She dressed dark and lined her blue eyes with black charcoal. She rarely smiled and decided to not talk to Katie. She decided it wasn't worth her time or effort. Chloe isolated herself from the world and trusted no one. She was so caught up in her misery that she didn't pay attention to boys. Fortunately for her, the depression only swept over her during school. She was fortunate to have a wonderful, supportive family. She was close to both her mom and her younger sister Kelly. Her dad was always working, so she rarely saw him. Coming home to her mom and sister helped her not fall even deeper into the desolation.

All of her gloom seemed to blind her from someone that would lift her spirits a little more. Chloe had told Kelly that there was a beautiful senior at school. Kelly asked Chloe to watch him for her and tell her what he did that day. Of course, Chloe kept her promise and looked at him for Kelly. Everyday after school, Kelly would ask what the guy did today or if Chloe had found out his name yet. One day, Chloe had finally caught his name. His name was Giovanni.

Everyday, Chloe would look up at the six-foot senior and take in his features for Kelly. Chloe didn't care that Giovanni would catch her staring at him. Soon, when she'd pass him in the halls, she could feel his eyes on her. And every time she'd observe him, she began to like him. She noticed that he had similar problems. Giovanni was tall in an awkward way and his frame was long and lanky. He had midnight black hair that fell in front of his eyes. He was never with anybody or talking to anybody. He sat alone at lunch and tried to join conversations but seemed to have no luck. Chloe was attracted to Giovanni's awkward beauty. She feared what Kelly would say when she told her. But Kelly was more than fine with Chloe liking him. Kelly had told her that she didn't like him because she didn't know what he looked like. So Chloe was free to like him.

So now, Chloe looked at Giovanni for herself. She waited for the times during the day that she'd see him. Every time she saw him, her stomach lurched like she was on the biggest rollercoaster in Six Flags. Strangely, she liked the feeling of her stomach lurching at the sight of him. She enjoyed coming to school because she knew she'd see him. Giovanni had seemed to ease the depression in her. The only thing she feared was the days that he didn't show up to school. Those days were hell. She fell back into depression and kept her head down. She even went as far as scanning the crowd hopelessly for his face, only making her feel worse. She'd sit through the day, silently wishing for an escape from the pain. There were a few nights where she cried herself to sleep, praying to God to help her. She was suffering, slowly, painfully.

A few months pasted and she began to form a bond with a classmate. Becca was like Chloe, boy-crazy to the extreme and she listened to the same music as Chloe did. Becca was just the person Chloe wanted to talk to. Although Becca dressed in black and wore eyeliner, she was a happy, bubbly person. Becca loved life and was always full of energy. She and Chloe also shared another bond, they bother liked Giovanni. They always shared stories of their encounters with him and fawned over how gorgeous he was. Becca didn't know it, but she was saving Chloe from falling deeper into her personal hell.

Chloe wanted so badly to tell Giovanni how she felt, but she couldn't bring herself to do it. She tried talking to him on MySpace, but he never answered any of her messages. She decided to give up and she held a private grudge against him. She wanted to be from the spell he had sent upon her. After a week or so of ignoring him and not looking at him, her feelings began to die down. She began to see how silly she had acted towards this guy. He wasn't God, but she acted like he was.

One shocking day, Chloe was standing in the lunch line and Giovanni walked by. Chloe opened her mouth and said: "I like your shirt." Giovanni glanced down at her and grunted what she thought was a "thank you". Arrogant jerk. It was then that she realized that he wasn't worth her time, energy, or agony.

During the second semester of the year, Chloe had all of her core classes with Leah. Chloe was relieved to finally have a friend in her class. Someone she could partner up with for projects or assignments, or just someone she could talk to. Having Leah in class and not having lunch with Katie or Morgan had completely gotten rid of her depression. But every so often, small bouts of depression would come back and attack her just when she was happiest. These bouts usually came when her heart was broken. So she tried her hardest to not fall for a guy immediately from afar. She knew that in the end, all it did was leave her heart-broken, depressed, and even more alone. But the wall she'd fastened around her heart was meant to keep all of the hurt out, but, somehow, it always let the harm get to her. Hence the bouts of depression and misery. But it was never as bad as it had been in the beginning of the year when she'd been depressed for a few months.

Chloe was grateful for Leah and Becca. They pulled her out of the misery and the gloom. Unfortunately, Becca moved away to a different school and left Leah and Chloe behind at Essex High. But, Becca stayed in touch with everybody through MySpace. Thinking about Becca made Chloe sink deeper into the uncomfortable bus seat. Instead of letting the soon-to-be-lost memories get to her, she let the lyrics sink deep into her head as she watched the scenery pass by. The lyrics: the soundtrack of her life through the good and the bad. The lyrics: her cocaine. Music was her personal drug. It flushed out all of the days events for a few minutes.

The bus took a fast turn down her street. Chloe sat up and gathered her scattered belongings. As soon as the bus rolled to a stop, she jumped up and was down the stairs and out the door. Chloe made sure to keep her steps in time with the beat, so her head wouldn't fill wit thoughts. It was those thoughts that hurt her the most.

She walked up the drive-way of a red brick house. She climbed the steps and walked onto the porch of her house. She pulled out her house key, unlocked the door, and let herself into the house. Immediately at the sound of the door opening, her dog Max came bounding toward the door to greet whoever just entered the house.

"Hi sweetie!" Chloe picked up the little dog and gave him a big hug and a kiss. When she put him down, he ran out of sight and came back a moment later with a pink pig toy in his mouth. Chloe took the toy from Max's mouth and threw it across the foyer. Max scampered after it.

Chloe walked into the kitchen and set her bag onto the floor. On the island, Chloe found a pan of Rice-Krispie treats with a note attached to them:

Chloe,

Enjoy the Rice-Krispie treats! Dinner is pizza from Paparoni's, so don't eat a big snack. See you at 6.

Love,

Mom

Chloe's mom had taken up a job once Chloe entered high school. Mrs. Montgomery was a pediatrician at The Edward Anthony Health Center. She worked from around seven in the morning to five-thirty in the evening. Mrs. Montgomery didn't come home until around six o'clock. Chloe and Kelly were used to coming home to a quiet house. At first it was strange, but now, they enjoyed having the house to themselves.

Chloe grabbed a plate from the cabinet and helped herself to one of the treats. She walked into the family room and plopped herself down onto the couch. She flipped through channels, looking for something interesting to watch. When she found none, she turned the T.V. off and headed upstairs to her room.

Having both of her parents work had some advantages: like extra money. Both she and Kelly had computers in their rooms, fully equipped with internet access. With her mother a doctor and her father an indoor sales engineer, the Montgomery family had enough money to splurge on a few extra luxuries.

Chloe turned on her computer and logged onto the internet. She signed onto MySpace. After school and before bed was when most people she knew were online. So she took advantage of it and sent a message to Leah. Chloe then checked her YouTube account for messages. To her surprise, she had two messages awaiting her. One was from a guy in New Jersey, Brax and the other was from a girl in England, Lottie. Brax was a musician. He played drums and filmed his own drum covers and posted them on YouTube for other people to look at. Chloe had commented somebody else's cover and somehow Brax found her and started talking to her about drums. Chloe had gotten her drum set in May before she graduated from junior high. She and Brax would send messages back and forth talking about favorite bands and amazing drummers. It was quite thrilling to be talking with another drummer from a different state.

Lottie was an English girl who also played drums. Chloe had stumbled upon her drum cover for the Blink 182 song "Shut Up". Lottie was an amazing drummer and she mastered that song, hitting every note. So, they started talking. But unlike her conversations with Brax, Chloe and Lottie talked about more personal stuff like school, boys, friends, life. It wasn't all about drums. Lottie was a lot like Chloe. Lottie had a rock-and-roll edgy look to her and wasn't the least bit girly. They clicked and they got along well.

Chloe opened the message from Brax.

Yeah, I think I mentioned that I like Three Days Grace. But whatever. Another good band I like is Avenged Sevenfold. Listen to the song "Almost Easy". Reply back when you have.

Chloe typed "Avenged Sevenfold 'Almost Easy'" into the search engine. A few hits came up. She clicked on the first one she saw. The video began to play. The song was nothing like she'd ever heard before. The vocalist sang the lyrics with so much emotion that Chloe could feel what he was feeling when he wrote the song. Chloe listened to the song as she replied to Brax.

You didn't say anything about Three Days Grace, but it doesn't matter. I loved the song…Avenged Sevenfold is amazing! Now I have to find a way to download it or free! Ok, now it's my turn to recommend something: try the band Cobra Starship. I really like them. Tell me what you think.

The next message was from Lottie. Chloe dragged the mouse over to open the message.

'ello! Sorry I haven't replied for awhile…I've been studying for A-levels and stuff. Anyway, yeah I love McFly! They're the best! I love Harry…he's so fit! And he's a brilliant drummer! Oh my God! I'm gonna stop now. Any who, I'm going to go, I still have a lot to study for. Don't get worried when I don't reply, I'm just studying my arse off!

Love you lots…Cheerio!

Lottie xxx

Chloe smiled to herself. How she wished she could meet Lottie in person. She seemed so bubbly and fun. Chloe believed that if they ever did meet, that they would get along so well, because they were so alike: boy-crazy, drummers, that edgy look, etc.

Chloe began a reply:

Alright, just tell me when the A-levels are over. I love Dougie! He's sooooo sexy! squeals Harry's nice looking too, very muscular and talented! He's my role-model. Good luck with the studying…I hope you survive!

Chloe

Chloe sent the message and decided to watch other drum covers. She typed in "Good Charlotte drum covers" into the search engine and hit enter. She scrolled down until she found a descent looking cover. The song was "Misery". She clicked into the video and it began to play. The drummer played the song as if it were him who created the drums in the song. He hit everything perfectly and had so much energy in his playing. Chloe scrolled down the page and began to read other people's comments. All of them were praises to his playing. But one comment caught her attention. Someone had written a comment in French, a language she was learning in school. Out of curiosity, she clicked on the name. The guy's YouTube channel came up. It turned out that the guy was fourteen years old, a drummer, and he lived in Quebec, a French speaking part of Canada. She scrolled farther down his page and found a video he did to a Linkin Park song. She clicked on it and to her surprise, the guy was playing shirtless! She watched the video and half-way through it; she decided to send him a comment, in French.

Chloe scrolled to the bottom of the screen. She clicked into the comment box and began to type a short message:

Très bien! Very good!

She submitted the comment and hoped that he'd find it.

Chloe glanced at the clock. It read four o'clock. That meant she only had two hours before her mom would get home and she had a lot of homework to do. She signed off of YouTube, but stayed connected to MySpace. She spread herself out on the floor of her room and began to work