So, I'm really disappointed I got ONE review...I mean, my story can't be that bad?
So...yeah. More than one review would really be appreciated.
Maybe over five would be nice...?
Well...here's your story. I hope you like it.
Dear Journal,
Last night, I finally slept for once. Full on, sleep. I dreamed, too. It wasn't the usual nightmare, the usual story that I knew by heart. The dream I woke up crying every night. No, this one was memory of green eyes, tan face, black hair. So handsome…
Beep! Beep!
Groggily, I slipped my hand from beneath the comfort of my bed sheets and slammed it onto my clock, silencing the annoying sound. A loud yawn erupted from my mouth as I turned over, staring through blurry eyes to see the time.
6:30.
Oh no! I'm going to be late! With a sudden surge of energy, I flung myself from my bed and towards my bathroom. I cranked to hot water on in the shower, stripped and jumped in, the water still freezing. A good wake-up call, but my teeth started to chatter until the water warmed.
I grabbed my shampoo, squirted some in my hand and lathered my damp curls. After rinsing it, I squirted conditioner and repeated the process. I cursed myself for not grabbing a cloth, so I just ran the soap across my body and rinsed quickly.
I turned the water off, shook my hair and got out of the shower, squinting through the heavy steam in the room. I grabbed the small white towel above the toilet and wrapped it around my hair, then the larger fuzzy white towel and dried the rest of my body.
I decided to skip breakfast and brushed my teeth right there, then hurriedly did my make-up in the foggy mirror. The towel in my hair kept slouching on my head so I removed it, the finished putting on the small amount of eyeliner I usually use.
After that I moussed my hair, and went to my room, rummaging for a pair of matching panties and bra. I looked out my balcony doors and saw the sun was already shining, so I decided on a black floral skirt and a bright pink tank top under a black cardigan.
"Clare!" Yelled my mother, I heard her footsteps approach my door.
"I know!" I yelled back, slipping my black flats the same moment.
"Do you want me to drive you?" She asked sincerely, her voice hoarse.
"I'll walk. Good for my health and stuff." I said back, not wanting to spend time alone with her, at all.
"Alright, sweetie. Lunch is on the table for you."
I didn't answer. Instead, I grabbed my large purse and hurried out the door, down the hall, and to the kitchen. I grabbed the lunch, stuck it in my bag, and ran out the door.
On the walk to school, I thought about the previous night. I stayed out until eleven, just talking to Eli. Now, it all seemed like a wonderful dream. We spent hours arguing about books, authors, and life in general.
He was seventeen, a year older than I was. His favorite author was Palahniuk, who was also my own, but he preferred Fight Club, but mine was Damned. Eli ranted on how amazing Fight Club was for almost an hour, I smiled the whole time.
I also learned that he just moved here, from Vancouver, and was enrolling into Degrassi. Immediately I warned him about the drama there, and he just gave me a smirk, stating without words that he didn't give a damn.
The obvious things about him were his sense in music - another topic we argued vigorously about - which was hardcore metal, his favorite band was the Dead Hands, but he secretly liked to listen to tamer rock.
The flaw, if you would call it any, was he was an atheist. Short tempered on the subject, so much so that I was afraid to reply to his snarky comments. It was like God and himself had some unknown dispute that only he knew about, that it boiled in the core of him that any mention of the name made him hiss in anger.
Something stuck to me, after the argument, and after I slipped earlier that my parents were having marital problems. He said, "God is one sick bastard, life is all part of his plan, right? So he planned that psycho killers will rape women and kill them, he planned the ripping of families apart; he planned the slow painful deaths of the sick. Sick bastard planned murder and rape and disease and illness, he planned it all, leaving us here to suffer."
I thought it over last night, hard; I still do to this day. Eli was wise beyond his years, wiser than most veterans of science and philosophy. I scoffed at him, playing it off as a stupid comment of non-believers, but it stuck to me.
I was thinking it over while crossing the street to school, whipping my head to look at a car stopping a mere inch away from me. I swooned.
That's when I woke up, my heart was beating so fast and my breathing was so ragged, I felt like I was there. Really there. Reliving that moment. It was so real, tangible; I swear that when I awoke the echo of squealing tires still rung in my ears. But I'm going to continue the memory, because Dr. Holloway would throw a fit if I didn't…
"Clare! Come on! Wake up!" Cried a voice, it was low and I barely registered it, if it weren't for the familiarity of the person who spoke it.
"Uhh…what…Eli?" I mumbled, squinting my eyes to try to make his face less blurry.
"Oh, dear god I thought I hurt you." He sighed in relief, pulling my body towards his.
Confused, I hesitantly wrapped my arms around him. I got lost in his scent - woodsy and musky - I stopped myself from pressing my mouth against his neck. He pulled away first, so I loosened my arms to look at him.
"What happened?" I asked, taking in the ghostly white face and dilated green eyes.
"I…almost hit you." He said, there was no doubt of the shame in his voice.
"Oh." I breathed, my mind numb as I got lost in his moss-colored eyes.
"Are you…alright?" He asked, his eyebrows scrunching together in concern.
Still confused, dazed, and numb from the experience and the close proximity of our faces, he shook me as if to get some response again.
"Uh, yeah. I think." I mumbled, breaking eye contact. "That still doesn't explain why I just woke up."
"Well, uh, you fainted. I brought you to the back of Morty. You've been out for about twenty minutes." He chuckled nervously, it was then I noticed were in the back of…something.
"Who's Morty?" I asked, regretfully pulling away from his warm embrace.
"He's my vintage, one of a kind hearse." Eli said, quite proudly, like he was the father of a gold medalist track star.
"Wait…so…we're in the back…of a hearse…" I thought out loud. "This means, we're in the place that dead people are pu- OH MY GOD!"
I squealed and scrambled out of the car, falling hard on the cement ground. I stood quickly, staring at the ominous black space of the hearse.
"Clare. It's just a hearse. I talked to the guy who owned it and he told me it was used two times. No biggie." Eli commented, scooting to the edge of the opening of his hearse.
"No biggie? No biggie? Dude…there were dead people in there. Dead! As in, no longer breathing. As in decaying and oh my god I have to stop talking now or I'm going to throw up."
I placed my hands on my knees, my breathing becoming erratic and fast. Blood pounded in my ears, nearly drowning out all the sound around me save for my intense heartbeat and breathing.
"Clare, calm down. It's no reason to get worked up over. Think about it this way," Eli casually slipped out of his hearse and walked towards me. I was currently having - or close to having a panic attack. "It's a car with a lot of trunk space. About sixty years old, around the same time it was used. Twice. Just calm down."
Eli placed his arm around my hyperventilating body, before pulled me closer to rub my back. It was then I realized that my body was shaking, and tears were forming in my eyes. I had no idea why I was so afraid, but Eli kept whispering sweet words to console me. Slowly, oh so slowly, my body started to calm down. But my heart rate increased as Eli placed a tender kiss to my cheek when he pulled away.
"Um…thanks. I honestly have no idea why I got so freaked out. I mean, I have an idea why….my grandmother had died when I was seven, she…it was bad. But whatever. Thank you." I said and looked at Eli through my bangs. "That was so embarrassing."
"It's okay. Everyone is afraid of something." He said, rubbing my arm reassuringly.
"Yeah…" I drifted off, before gasping. "Wait, how long was I out?"
"Twenty minutes, give or take a few minutes." He said with a confused look.
"Damn, shit, damn…I mean…whatever. I'm late!"
"For what?" Eli asked, even more confusion written across his gorgeous face.
"School!" I groaned, placing a hand on my forehead - my parents were not going to be happy when they hear about this.
"Shit! Today's my first day! Come on, where are you going. It's the least I can do." Eli offered, nodding his head towards his…car.
"Degrassi. It's like two blocks from here." I sighed, giving him a smile.
Eli's lips slid into that smirk I adored, "Well, your chariot awaits, milady."
Fate has a funny way of setting people up - it's even funnier how they make it near impossible for one to love another. With Romeo and Juliet, it was warring families. With Edward and Bella, it was the forbidden love between two societies. For Eli and me…it was high school.