Hansel and Gretel. Rapunzel. Cinderella. Beauty and the Beast. High School Musical. Penelope. Etc. This is a list of what people would call "fairytales". This story probably wouldn't run under this list.
I sat cross legged on the living room floor in the apartment I shared with my boyfriend Nate. The walls were brick with paint and abstract photos everywhere. Nate and I had been silly once and taped balloons to the couch filled with paint and threw darts at it. Now it was all the colors of the rainbow. All the furniture was black, and the floor was tiled black and white except for the bedrooms and living room. Nate and I met at art school, and fell in love quickly. But lately, I'd been reconsidering my feelings.
Nate sat behind me, sprawled out on the painted couch. We were watching Dateline, one of my favorite shows. I was in to the whole "Law and Order," mystery thing.
"C'mon. I want to watch cartoons." Nate argued and switched the channel to Spongebob. I rolled my head in exasperation. I groaned.
"Ugg." I didn't really feel like arguing, since my best friend Sarah was in the house. We met at a coffee shop down the block, where she had repeatedly asked me if she borrow my sketchbook for a backdrop. She was working for a website company that sold skateboards, and I'd been doodling a replica of my own. Her job was to design the background images and graphics. I was happy to help, and happy for cash. I learned we had a lot in common.
"You like skateboarding, too?" I'd asked her when she told me about her company. She shrugged.
"I guess you could say that. It kind of runs in my family." I asked her about her family before, but she didn't really liked to talk about them. Although she was always meddling with my life, complaining how perfect it was when she had a job and husband and I had zilch, she was yet to talk about her own. But, it was no big deal. I didn't need anymore drama. Not with my own to deal with.
I stood up from my spot on the floor and took off my hat, hanging on to it with my teeth as I pulled my hair back with a rubber band. My hair was super long, and looked longer since I was so short. I had never cut it before, refusing anything sharp to get next to my neck. I just had one rule: No sharp objects in a one inch radius.
"Move!" I turned around and saw that I had been standing right in front of Nate's view. I stuck my "Phrank"(in middle school, my friend Mickey and I started drawing these comic books with this fish called Frank. I told her it'd be a lot funnier changing ever F to Ph. I continued to write them on my own on a website I made. I got a lot of viewers, and got appearances in the New York Times. So I made some cash) hat back on my head, pulling the long pony tail through the loop. Nate had his arm wrapped around a steel bowl of popcorn. It made me hungry.
"Sor-ry."I said sarcastically. I went to walk into the kitchen for a snack when I suddenly got a face full of carpet.
"Jerk face." My cheeks reddened with anger, even though I refused to swear. Yeah, I know, I've done worse, but I just couldn't manage forming my mouth around the words. I didn't mind if others swore, I just couldn't bring myself to do it, not with that charm bracelet hanging on my wrist.
"Slut." he said glaring at me.
"What has been your problem lately?" I heard Sarah in the kitchen, pretending to not to notice us by making a lot of noise. But I could never keep anything from her for too long. I kind of liked it though that she just got it and I didn't have to go through the trouble of dishing out my troubles to her. That kind of stuff reminded me of therapy, not a past time.
"You." he said smirking.
"You have some issues."
"Just one." He said chuckling. I sneered at me, then sighed angrily.
"You know what, Nate? Forget you. I can't do this anymore." I walked out of the room quickly, not even bothering to get Sarah to grab my keys and board because I knew she was always one step ahead of me.
I went to my room. No, Nate and I didn't share a room. We were artists, and needed our space. My door was covered with band posters(Panic at the Disco, Three Days Grace, Korn, My Chemical Romance), skateboarding companies (DC and Element were my favorites), comic clips (F Minus, Garfield, Dilbert, Get Fuzzy, Overboard, etc), and little blurbs that made me laugh ("Fake friends will bail you out of jail and tell you how horrible your actions were. Real friends are sitting in the cell beside you muttering, "Dang that was awesome"). Inside my room, I had painted my room a midnight blue. Along the west wall was a silhouette scene of NYC. In-between the little spaces of the buildings were strips of wallpaper that were leftover scraps from a neighbor's trash can. Art saw no limits. Underneath was written: "K. Jenna Rockwell" in a cursive scroll the color black. My bed spread had a collage of pieces of Charlie Brown comics and in the middle was printed really big: "Baldies Rule." My only furniture was a desk, a bookshelf, and a nightstand. I had Mac Air on the desk loading up pictures of my idol: Brandon Cole Margera. Otherwise known as: Bam.
Bam was like the greatest skateboarder over. And his name was sooooo cool. I learned about him when I was in seventh grade, having seen him on the news. He was in ninth grade, and entered in a local championship. I had only just started to learn what a skateboard was myself, and then I just had a huge crush on him. He had this dark brown hair that almost looked black, and he had that "side-flip" all the guys seemed to have going on. He had really stunning blue eyes, and was over six feet tall with absolutely no body fat. When I finally got pro, and realized that ever meeting him was out of my imagination, I got back to reality and just thought of him as a role model. And became a closet obsesser. Like a Twilight fan in their denial of loving Edward.
I ripped open my closet doors and grabbed a bunch of graphic tees and hoodies. I threw in a few tank tops, a couple of jeans, some shoes, and my ipod. I threw in my sketchpad and some paints, then quickly unplugged my laptop and slipped it in my Harajuku Lovers' duffle front pocket. Sarah walked in.
"The car's ready when you are." She said. I didn't look at her. At looked around my room. I had feeling I wouldn't back for a while, and I was going to miss the place.
"Let's just get out of here." I said, pulling the duffle around my shoulder. I didn't look up because I didn't want Sarah to see I was crying. I ended up banging into her. She put her hands on my shoulders to halt me. She bent her head down to see my face. I turned away.
"Hey. C'mon Kori. It's okay. You could have told me about him. I would understood." I wiped my eyes.
"I'm not so sure." I muttered. Then I looked up at her and gave her smile, just because I didn't want her to feel guilty or anything like this was her fault. "It was just too personal to share."
"He didn't hit you anything, did he?" She asked me, looking scared, but I could see it was a little entertaining for her, like a criminal file. We both had SVU kind of minds. No one who knows us would be surprised if we started to have a pretend cop chase in an abandoned parking lot with Hot Wheels.
"No, nothing like that. It's just he's been messing with my mind lately, and I feel like crap. I just want to leave." Sarah nodded.
I swung open the door and found Nate still sitting on the couch, Spongebob crying because he lost his stupid snail. I walked hurriedly to the door and slipped my feet into my Adios'. I already had my DC sweater on, so I didn't worry about a coat. It wasn't snowing. Yet.
The sun was down, but New York still looked just as breath taking, maybe even more. I left a note for Nate at the front desk, then headed out the front doors, opened by a little old man in a uniform. I nodded to him and walked out of the Fairbanks Plaza, and into the New York night. The cold winter air stung my noise, but in a cleansing way.
"Kori!" Sarah huffed after me, coming to my side just seconds later. I didn't look at her, but kept my view up at the night sky. It looked so beautiful. "Where are you going, exactly?" Not to her house.
"Dunno; Cole and I don't get along very well, so probably not at your place." She stood there with me for a minute, thinking.
"Hold on." She pulled her cell out of her pocket, dialing a number. She started to walk toward to little blue PT Cruiser, parked just two spaces away from us. Her meter was low, so we only had like five more minutes to leaving time. She turned around and motioned me to follow her. I was kind of curious as to who she was talking to, but she never let me in on her little mysteries anyway.
She unlocked her car, and I jammed my stuff into her trunk. She walked around the front, muttering a few words here and there. It sounded like she was begging a little bit, and saying stuff like "I kept my word" and "You owe me one" but it meant nothing to me. I just didn't want to think about Nate right then.
Saying goodbye to the caller, Sarah joined me in the car in the driver's seat. She dropped the phone into one of the cup holders.
"You can stay with my brother." She said, starting her car and checking herself out in the review mirror. My jaw dropped in disbelief.
"Why didn't you ever tell me you had a brother?" I asked, my voice raising an octave. Like I said, Sarah didn't like to talk about her family. All I knew is that she was a year older than me, married to the perfect man named Cole, her mom and dad weren't rich, but they were that close with her. But she could have told me she had a brother..
"I promised." She said, grinning at me like she was finally able to tell me a super huge secret. I shrugged it off and contained my curiosity.
I looked out the window at the skyline of the city. All the lights looked so beautiful.
I'd lived in New York my whole life, going to a private school until ninth grade when the tuition started to be too much for my parents to pay. I started going to public school, where I ended up skipping to the twelfth grade because my private school was way ahead then the public ones. I started hanging out with the "out" crowd, the ones who didn't get caught up in the high school thing, but instead focused on where they'd go and who they'd be, not how awful their hair color clashed with their belt.
When I started skateboarding, my grades dropped, but I managed to graduate with a B- average, winning a scholarship to Dillard's Art School. I was young, having been only sixteen when I graduated. I served one year at the art school, meeting Nate at the Orientation. Dreaming of my Bachelor's degree, I hoped to be painting for museums. But so far I was doodling fish and serving coffee down the block.
"We're here." Sarah startled me out of my trance. I realized we were at another expensive apartment hotel called the Hamilton. I looked up at the sky high building, all of which the rooms were probably deluxe suites and the least.
"Okay, where's does your brother work and how can I get a job there?" Sarah laughed harder than I thought she would.
"You don't know the half of it." I looked at her quizzically. I opened my car door and popped the trunk. Swinging the duffel over my shoulder, I tucked my board under my left arm. Another little man opened the door for us and I bowed my head to him.
The clerk at the desk looked polished and snobby. There was a huge fireplace in the lobby, and everything seemed to be worth millions.
"Woe." Was all I could say.
"I know." Sarah whispered back.
"Hello Mrs. Avery. Good to have you back." The clerk said in her nasally tone. Sarah nodded to her.
"Thank you, Hannah. This is Kori, she'll be stay with Mr. Cole tonight." The clerk nodded, and tried to hold back a wince. Sarah led me along to the stairs, but I continued to stare over my shoulder.
"The clerk have it in for your brother?" Sarah rolled her eyes.
"Everyone seems to want a piece of him." I had feeling that had a double meaning. This was all a very strange situation.
Three flights of stairs later, she knocked on a door that was much bigger than how Nate and mine's was, so I knew his apartment was probably a mini mansion.
I leaned back against the wall and finally dropped my hood, taking off my hat and letting my hair fall loose. I closed my eyes and suddenly felt really tired. My mind drifted off to reasons why Sarah never told me about her brother.
"Ugg. Please, Kori. Wipe off that makeup." I looked at her and put my fist up, letting my eyes stare at her in a way that said: back off.
"Eat shorts."
"C'mon, this is my brother. Here let me fix it." I rolled my eyes and sighed, letting her rub a wipe under my eye lids and over my face. She pulled out eyeliner and put a light stroke under my eyes. Then she put a stencil colored shadow, making them smoke.
"Nice."
"What, you thought I was going to use pink?" She pretended as if it was the most horrible thing in the world, but I happened to know she had three closets full of clothes devoted to the colors magenta through salmon. I laughed and took her mirror, fixing my bangs and hair.
"Think I'm auditioning for America's Next Top Model?" I asked, posing and turning in a circle. Sarah put her shoulders back and rubbed her chin in deep thought.
"I don't know darling. You really want to be on Top?" We laughed and then I heard the door open.
"Look Sarah. I'm not interested in babysitting some kid." I didn't scream. I didn't freak. I just stood up straight and stared at the man in the doorway, I guessed about six feet tall and twenty-two. He seemed just as surprised as I was, except I had a very good reason and he didn't.
Her brother was Bam Margera