Hello and welcome to the show!
In case you were wondering and didn't get the summary, this is a OCxPaul fan fiction. So for that reason alone, it's slightly AU.
Aaaand in case you were interested, this was going to be an original piece of fiction by moi, but it just screamed TWILIGHT and so, here I am. :)
This will be a slow moving fiction and for that I apologise. I've posted fiction on here before but due to life in general and several cases of severe writers block - I had to put them on hiatus and eventually I deleted them. Fiction that I wrote when I was fourteen is obviously not going to be the same as what I write now.
That being said, I'm treating this as my first fiction purely because I need to see this through to the end.
Disclaimer; I wish Jasper owned ME. Sadly, he doesn't and Stephanie Meyer owns all.
Currently listening to: Uprising by Muse.
The play park was almost pitch black, with only the street lights to illuminate the swings, slide and seesaw that stood upon chipped bark, casting eerie shadows on the concrete that surrounded it.
I sat on the top of the slide, watching my make believe concrete kingdom below. My friend Ralph was slowly ascending the slide, gripping onto the blue plastic sides to keep himself from sliding backwards.
"Elise," he panted playfully. "Help me!"
I rolled my eyes at his game, but I couldn't be surprised at his antics as this happened quite a lot. This 'watching' of my make believe kingdom might be just that, make believe, but Ralph was much better at this game than I was.
"No, peasant. Make your own way in life."
He grumbled under his breath, dramatically wiping his brow as if it was covered in sweat, his light brown hair now in disarray.
"Jesus, Elise. Please help, I'm gonna fall, for sure!"
I struck my pale hand out, which he nimbly grabbed onto although he didn't put any pressure onto it in the slightest. He ran up the remaining space of the shining blue slide, collapsing in a heap on top of me.
"Shit, get off, you're heavy."
"Only certain parts," he said with a wink.
I punched him hard; he seemed to get my point and scooted over. We sat on the platform, crushed between plastic and metal but strangely comfortable none the less.
"Last day of school tomorrow Jelly Elly."
Another punch, this time in his ribs. I couldn't stand that nickname. "Uh huh, what's your point?"
Ralph scoffed at me, green eyes wide in disbelief. I was quite jealous of his eyes. "Well we have to do something, last day of school. Next year, we're seniors. Exciting right?"
"How is it?" I said, picking some grass off my already dirty jeans. "We still get one year of school to not look forward to."
He punched me this time. "Yeah, but we have to leave our mark. It gives a good impression to the kids who will be juniors next year."
I shut my eyes, digging my hands around in my coat pocket, rattling the keys to my house as I did. I pulled out a packet of cigarettes and offered Ralph one, as usual.
"I don't know where or how you get these. Every time I ask someone to buy me some they always turn me down. Sucks balls."
Ralph wasn't that eloquent, but then neither was I.
"It's 'cause you have a baby face, Ralph. They think you're like, thirteen or something."
I lit my cigarette and inhaled the glorious cancer stick. Upon hearing my insult thrown at him, Ralph tried pushing me down the slide, but I pushed my legs against the metal barrier to keep myself steady.
"Fuck off, Elise. I look way older than seventeen as it is."
It was true, although I wouldn't admit it to him. He had a big enough head as it is. Ralph had shaggy light brown hair that fell into his green eyes, with purple shadows underneath indicating his lack of sleep. He also had stubble on his face that had littered there for the past four days, but there was no sign of baby-faced roundness found on an innocent child. He was sharp angles and intense eyes, undoubtedly beautiful.
"Whatever, old man."
Ralph nodded, looking smug. "That's what I'm talking about, bitch."
"Ralph, we both know for a fucking fact," I said, wriggling and moving closer to the slide, ready for my quick get away should he try to hold me back.
"That you are, in actual fact, my bitch. Woof."
"Bitch!" He exclaimed, chortling behind me. The slide rocked under the pressure of two fully-grown kids sliding down the flimsy plastic, the metal rusted.
I laughed at him scrambling after me, as I dropped my cigarette on the concrete floor, I didn't feel guilty. Lots of little dirty cigarette ends littered this desolate play park. Hardly anyone used it anymore.
He wrapped his arms around me tightly, squeezing hard and nuzzling his stubble into the crook of my neck. "Yeah, I'm your bitch. Woof."
Quickly, I grabbed my digital camera out of my bag. I took a no doubt hazy looking picture of us, Ralph probably pulling a face. I aimed the camera at the playground and took another.
We left then, lighting another cigarette and waving goodbye to the concrete kingdom, where the kids ruled nothing but swings, a seesaw and a very flimsy slide.
- - - - - -
My alarm glittered menacingly at me, flashing it's red light before wailing. Time to get up, child, go to school and don't forget to brush your teeth.
I almost snarled at the beeping, but I pushed my legs out of the duvet regardless. There wasn't much room to move around in my bedroom. A shoebox room for the middle child, a tiny closet, a single bed, a bedside table (that was far from safe and tipped on to the scale of rickety) and my shining feature.
Stacked up at the end of the bed and glued together with industrial super-glue, six wooden wine crates, holding all of my books (a small collection, at the moment) and C.D's. They still smelled of red wine.
As soon as my feet collided with the floor, they hit something soft. The soft thing groaned.
"Ralph. You stayed here?"
"Humph. Coffee."
Grumbling, I got out of the mass of blankets and duvet and tried to dodge my way around the mass of limbs that belonged to my friend.
"Two sugars," he mumbled again.
Like hell we would have sugar in the house. Let alone coffee. Mother wasn't exactly proactive when it came to grocery shopping. That's why I alone had a car.
I turned on the shower, ridding myself of the massive t-shirt that I wore for the night. When I stepped in it was freezing, I shivered underneath the white showerhead that eventually started to warm up. Thank baby Jesus for small mercies.
Mornings always started this way, since I started high school anyway. I'd wake up too early, a habit since middle school since the school itself was quite far away. Normally Ralph would be on the floor, sprawled out on some blankets he would thieve off my own bed so he could create his own nest.
Shower, get dressed. Push Ralph into the bathroom. Forage for some food.
The cupboards were empty again, the bread already past its sell-by-date. I threw it out, but couldn't be bothered searching for anything else. I made a mental note of what needed to be restocked and grabbed some money out of the blue glass jar that sat nestled between plates and pans in the cupboard above my head.
"Elise," Ralph grumbled. He had shaved and I didn't really want to know who's razor he used for that. Another mental note; buy some razors.
"I'm hungry."
"I know, Ralph, let's go get coffee yeah?"
He nodded sleepily, grabbing his rucksack that he had left by the door. "I'm going to buy a muffin too."
"Great," I said jumping into my beaten up car. It didn't have long left in this life time, I guessed.
"Where's your mom this morning?"
I shrugged, fiddling with the air conditioner. I liked it cool in the car. "Probably fucking some guy for some loose change? Jesus, I don't know Ralph."
He wisely didn't bite, choosing to steal one of my cigarettes instead. "We should stop smoking."
"Yeah, we'll sleep when we're dead, old man."
He sighed, searching around the glove compartment for a useable lighter. "I'm serious. My lungs hurt."
I left the car running outside the coffee house whilst Ralph jogged in to get two black coffees and a muffin. There weren't many people around this time of the morning, mainly people out running or school kids taking a leisurely walk to school. I found myself watching them to pass the time anyway.
"Here we go!"
I frowned at his cheerful expression before he explained. "Extra shot of espresso."
School was already thriving with students, a living throbbing heart. Everyone was cheerful, friendly but mostly whispering behind each others backs. I hated school.
"Last day, woof!"
I rolled my eyes at Ralph, who had thrown his arms around me making it decidedly hard to walk.
"Quit it, ass pirate."
He scoffed. "Ass pirate? What, you want me to discover your booty?"
A few kids heard what he said and laughed, or some chuckled behind their hands. Ralph and I weren't exactly popular. All we had was each other. Social outcasts by choice.
"I'll discover your booty, any time Elise." I turned to find Victor Mills staring at the lower half of my body. I glared.
"Fuck you, Victor."
He leant casually against the lockers. His tall gangly build made him look awkward. Victor Mills was a stock-standard teenage bullshit artist. He was all talk.
"Well those are the words I wanted to hear. There is a party at my house tonight, come if you want to fuck me, like you said."
I shuddered, turning around to shove books away angrily in my locker. Ralph was chortling.
"Kiss me darlin'!" He said pouting, blocking my locker. Another game. Every day, since the age of ten Ralph had been asking me to kiss him. I think if I eventually relented, he'd be shocked.
"No gracias."
"Si!"
"No, perro."
He glared, downing the rest of his coffee. Mine already lay crumpled in a bin outside of school. I didn't litter take-away coffee cups, only cigarette ends.
School passed by in a blur, finals had been completed so there was a lot of photo taking and inane chatter going on. Ralph and I took one photo of ourselves in biology, pulling zombie like expressions, our chattering classmates as a background.
Ralph left his "mark" in school. Condoms inflated with helium and left everywhere. Library, cafeteria, random classes and hallways, all floating towards the impossibly high school ceilings. I believe some were even flavoured.
"Classic!" He was proud, his chest puffing out. If he was a peacock I'd imagine his tails would be up at this point, ruffling them around to get the females attention.
"Condoms, really?"
He shrugged, taking my camera off me. "You stole more books?"
I nodded, frowning. I couldn't help it. It seemed fine to steal books out of the library on the last day of school. Little kleptomaniac.
"Hemingway."
"Never read them. I like-"
"Comics and porn," I finished for him, ruffling his hair slightly.
We drove back from the grocery store in silence, listening to the local radio station even though we didn't enjoy the music. Ralph tapped his fingers along to the beat regardless.
The thing about Ralph is that he actually comes from a good home, out in the suburbs with white picket fences and large back yards. He even has a tree house, we spent years in that particular kingdom, when we were too young to roam the streets alone. We played soccer in the back yard. His mom cooks and cleans and although she is quite scatter brained, she's still lovely.
His dad is a doctor. They also happen to be rolling in dough, Ralph mentioned it was 'old money' with such a tired voice I never brought it up again.
But it's just the way he grew up I suppose, goofing around with me. Sometimes I wonder if I have ruined him in the slightest way. Hanging around in urban jungles until the early hours, smoking and cussing. An addiction to coffee.
It could be worse; it could be heroin, I mused to myself inwardly.
The house was eerily silent as we entered. He frowned at me, shrugging slightly as if to say 'what the fuck?'
"Mom?" I called out loudly. There was no answer so I carried on through the tiny hallway and dumped the grocery bags onto the counter.
"Don't you think it's weird she hasn't come back yet?"
I put away the bread, coffee and sugar. "I don't know. Kind of."
"Want me to go look upstairs, see if she's asleep?"
I shrugged noncommittally. "Can if you want to."
Thundering footsteps, because Ralph is anything but quiet. I chuckled, shoving the canned fruit to the top shelf. Our diet wasn't that healthy in this house, we didn't have the cash for it and if we bought fresh fruit no one would eat it until it was too late anyway.
A door slammed up above me. "Shit!"
"What is it?" I called from below.
"Call the fucking police, that's what!" He came rushing into view, pale and ashen.
My blood ran cold at the sight of his usually jovial face. "What is it?"
He grabbed me around the waist, keeping me tight against him. "I swear, Elise. Do not go up there. Call the fucking police, you don't want to see that."
My panic showed, my breathing coming out in erratic gasps. I punched him in the stomach until he let me go, wincing. "What is it, Ralph?"
He looked down at the ground, light brown hair falling into his eyes.
"It's your mom, Elise. I think she's dead."
A/N: Well? Tell me what you think. :)
CC welcomed, but please if you're just going to say "it sucks," give a reason and your thoughts behind it. :)
endoftheday