AUTHOR NOTES:
You can also find the story in more creative detail over on Wattpad under the name RealHajiime (two i's) I might change that user name at some point. You'll know when. Wattpad allows me to add pictures for references and add videos so I'll often add different music that sets the mood similarly to the game. So I highly recommend reading this story there as well for a more creative experience.
Each chapter will be 1,000 words or greater depending on the amount of content and there will be 10-13 chapters each episode. Each episode is named after a specific song. In Life is Strange, the ending montage usually plays a different song every time. This is that same format. This episode takes it's name from the song "Back to the Beginning" by Aaron Espe.
Episode One: Back to the Beginning
Chapter Two
I entered the store but it was completely empty from my angle. Obviously the clerk was right there behind the counter I had my hands in my sweater pocket and walked over to the magazine section. I probably looked a little sketchy like that, but I wasn't wearing anything much to come off as suspicious. It turned out I wasn't alone in the store, as I could hear the door of the cooler in the drink aisle open and close constantly, but I wasn't curious enough to check who it was. It wasn't my business.
I searched through the different magazines on the shelf. Most of it was just celebrity drama or slice of life bullshit. Things like what are the Kardashians are naming their goldfish and shit like that. Cuisine magazines, fitness magazines, these are the kinds of shit you'd see in your local pharmacy, it was that boring.
I went down the aisle to see if there was anything, anything at all worth checking out to pass the time. I came across a manga magazine at the very end of the aisle that was hidden by more pop culture bullshit. That in itself was blasphemous to me. I took it out and it ended up being a "Shonen Jump" magazine. It was the only one here, so I was confused if it were actually ordered, or if someone had bad luck and misplaced it. Whatever the reason was, it was mine now. For the moment at least.
The front cover had multiple Shonen Jump heroes on it. Naruto, Luffy, Ichigo, all of them. Faces that I recognized among those three were also there, but could never get into. Manga like Toriko. No hate on that, but I could never get into it.
I did smile a bit though. I felt like I could finally just relax a bit. I didn't exactly read any of the chapters that were int he magazine, but I did skim through stuff. I did remember that there was someone rummaging through the cooler for drinks though. I did go all the way down to the end of the aisle, so I heard everything much easier now. It had been a few minutes now actually that the person had been in the coolers.
I stopped assuming it was a customer and just thought it was a worker reloading the coolers with drinks for the day time. Sure enough I was right on the money as the girl working there walked passed me, but not before looking at me and I looked back. I was right on the money but I didn't expect it to be this girl. She was my school mate I guess you could say.
An attractive girl with black, long hair and brown eyes and fair skin just like me. She wore the store apron, but dressed fashionably underneath, still protecting herself from the cold though. This was Jessica Thomas. I knew her, I guess. She knew me too. When she walked passed, she sort of hesitated and went right back to what she was doing.
Long story short, we don't get along. We used to be friends. Best friends in fact, but that shit didn't last forever like we thought it would. When she looked at me it really looked like she was judging me and that sort of annoyed me. I wanted to confront her, but it wouldn't make any sense. I've had enough of arguing. I simply don't have the strength to do anything like that anymore.
That said, I felt too distracted by her presence to continue reading. Even more so considering she was only a few steps away from me packing drinks into the cooler right behind me.
"You still read that kinda shit?" She said to me.
Did I hear her right? Did I hear her at all? Did she really just initiate conversation with me, and of all things to say, it was something like that? Not that it's surprising for her to belittle me. It's just I fully expected her to ignore me. We're schoolmates so it's impossible to not see her around Blackwell, but we never talk. We don't even acknowledge each other.
I turned my head slightly. "Do you have a reason to care about what I read?" I asked her.
"Working the night shift in this shitty store in silence is drop dead boring. So, humor me."
I didn't feel like giving her that satisfaction if it was just gonna come at my expense, but I didn't wanna go home yet. "Why're you even here at this time of night? No boys to ride on?"
"Fuck you."
"You wanted to talk, right? Let's talk."
I didn't know where this conversation was going. None of it was hostile. I don't think it was anyway.
"I need the money," She said. That didn't make sense to me.
"The fuck for? Don't your parents spoil you?"
"Would I be here if that were the case, Dumbass?"
"The hell do you need the night shift for? You live in the dorms."
"Quit grillin me for answers. I don't owe you any explanations."
"Whatever."
"Don't tell Principle Wells you saw me here, got it? I'm not supposed to be out of the dorms this time of night."
"I could care less about where you're supposed to be and why. The farther you and your groupies are from me, the better school life is for both of us."
"Good," She said a bit relieved.
That was the end of the conversation. She moved on to the next cooler with the crate of drinks and started organizing. That whole conversation was probably about two minutes and I had only been in the store for about five minutes. No where near long enough to start heading back, but honestly I didn't wanna be in the store much longer either.
I put the magazine down and went into cooler to grab a soda. I didn't just wanna come in and not buy anything. I walked to the front and gave the clerk the dollar fifty for the soda and walked out of the store without another word. After leaving I just kept walking for a while. When my dad is drunk out of his mind I usually just stay hold up in my room, but like I said, he was invading my privacy way too much.
But where could I go at this time of night? There was a bench just next to a set of stairs that led down to the seashore, so I decided to just take a seat, drink my soda and wait out an hour or two. It was my moment of calm. So what could I do from here?
It's nothing new - the fact that my dad drinks himself to stupidity every other night. The fact that he blasts his reggae music as if we don't live in a small apartment complex. It's annoying, but it was the life I was used to. I was oblivious to the issue when I was a kid, but as I grew, I naturally understood the damage his alcoholism was doing to himself and the family.
My mom stressed over it constantly. Always tried to get him to quit and he knew she was right. Problem was, he just didn't like hearing it. He still doesn't. He's never one that likes to confront the problems that he faces, yet is so quick to bring up everyone else's flaws. Even I tried to talk some sense into him sometimes, and he'd always say he would do better, only to go back to the same nonsense after a few days, as if me or Mom magically forgot the discussion.
Part of why he drinks so often is because back when I was five, he got into a car accident on his way to work very early in the morning that almost took his life. He's had a disability ever since and can't walk without feeling intense pain in his foot and back and must use a cane anytime he has to go out. I feel like this burden has fucked him over on the inside.
I mean, he was still an alcoholic before that, but it feels like if he were to have an excuse for it, this would be it and it would be legitimate. I pondered that thought for a while as I drank my soda. Of course with Mom gone, he's been even worse. If there were ever a reason now, it'd almost definitely be her. That thought sort of depressed me more than I already was.
I drank more of my soda and looked up to the night sky for a few minutes. Tonight was a full moon and it was big and bright. This was something about Arcadia Bay that we never got in New York City. You can see the stars so clearly here and the light from the full moon was almost blinding. The moon was behind a light post that seemed to be broken because it wasn't shining any light and on top of that post was a hawk, postured to the side, literally creating an epic silhouette in front of the moon.
It was a curious sight so I decided to pull out my phone to snap a picture of it. I thought it'd make a cool wallpaper. Since everything was silent in the street except for the sea, you could basically hear the snapping sound effect from the phone and the hawk looked down on me, but didn't move. Spending most of my life as a city girl, I didn't know what to expect.
Did I threaten it? Startle it? In New York we only get pigeons and other species of bird I don't know of. There'd be one falcon I'd see a few times every spring and summer time though. That was an epic bird. My dad saw it tackle a pigeon and eat it right next to the neighboring building we stayed at before. To me, birds are a funny breed of animals, especially the way they always snap their neck to look at something.
I took the picture, but I guess the hawk didn't really care. Must've just heard the sound of the snap and got curious. But I decided to make it my wallpaper. If nothing else, one cool thing came out of this little time out. I caught a cool piece of imagery. I drank the last of the soda since it wasn't a big bottle and threw it in a near by trash can.
I had zero hope that my dad went to sleep, but I couldn't stay out forever. I had to get to Blackwell in the morning, so I decided to walk back home and just call it a night. Yeah, he might be drunk out of his mind, but at the very least, he lets me sleep when I wanna fuckin sleep. This walk did kinda made me drowsy anyways.