Chapter 3 re-uploaded
Chapter 3
Black
Chloe's P.O.V
It took us hours to clean up the house, but somewhere at 3 pm we were done and the house looked just like it always did, clean and mysteriously slime-free. I said my goodbyes, hugged Simon, gave an awkward hug to Tori and an even more awkward handshake for Derek, and walked out of the house towards my car. I started old Sherry and put her in gear. As I drove out onto the street, my mixtape began to play. I liked to call it that, despite it actually being a small USB loaded with songs. It suited the old-school feeling you'd get when you drove in my, for lack of better words, vintage car.
Ultraviolence with Lana Del Rey was playing.
'With his ultraviolence, ultraviolence, ultraviolence, ultraviolence…'
I drove around the corner and focused on the road. I couldn't decide weather I could truly relate to the lyrics because of how I felt about Derek; that bitter-sweet feeling I had about him this whole morning.
' I can hear sirens, sirens. He hit me and it felt like a kiss. I can hear violins, violins…'
Or because of my dad, who I loved and missed, but who I also wanted to, at the same, fuck off when he babbled about how "busy" he was or how he was "working", when in actuality he was simply avoid me. Ever since I got out of that mental hospital and attempted to single handedly cope with my medication in his absence.
Another line from Lana's song echoed through my thoughts, 'Give me all of that ultraviolence…'
Fuck both of them.
By the time I had gotten home gotten extremely pissed at the both of them. In Derek's case, I hated how he was such an ass and how he tried to show me how much he wasn't. Meanwhile he continues his perverted jokes that only lead me to believe more in his crude manners.
And in the case of my father, I disliked how he ignored me. How he avoided me and was never actually being there to comfort me when I needed him the most. He left a giant hole in my heart for cutting me out of his life.
I groaned and threw a pillow from the couch at the wall behind the TV. The pillow hit the wall with a soft puff and flopped on the floor.
"Okay, relax," I reminded myself and walked to the wall in my heels. I picked up the pillow and brushed it off ensuring no dirt resided on its surface and subsequently placed in back where it belonged. As I was standing over the couch, I thought I saw something out of the corner of my eye.
I turned my head towards it, nearly giving myself a whiplash, and saw a little girl with hair over her face. Her eyes were completely black, just like her hair and she looked right at me. Then she began to laugh. For a moment I just stood there and watched her laugh.
I told myself, 'It's just a vision. It's not real. It's only in your head.' I shook my head and closed my eyes. When I opened them again the girl was gone. That was my que to take me meds.
I quickly walked out of the living room and into the bathroom, where I opened the closet over the sink and grabbed that little, yellow, plastic pill-glass that I had come to know as my only way to sanity. As I swallowed the pills, no water needed, I looked at my reflection in the mirror. I hadn't cut my hair in centuries. It was long, almost at my waist, tangly and had a hint of strawberry. Just like my mother's.
I found it incredible how I looked increasingly more like her as I grew. My hair, my eyes, my nose and to be honest, my entire face resembled my mother's and I hated it. It meant that every glance in the mirror would painfully remind me of her. My chest ached at the thought of seeing her and I couldn't take the pain that prevented me from breathing.
I scowled at the girl in the mirror. "It's the hair" I murmured to myself. It's all about the hair.
Thus, I convinced myself that if I wanted to do anything about it, it had to be done now.
As in right now.
When I got back from the supermarket it was around 4 PM. I decided it was time to call my dad. It rang five distinct times. "Steve Saunders speaking," a voice said on the other side.
"Hi dad, it's me," I said.
"Chloe! How are you? Is school going well?"
I smiled.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. Just finished junior year, so I'm gonna be senior after summer, and then off to college and-" He cut me off.
"That sounds good honey. Listen, something just came up, can I call you back later?"
I hesitated. "Oh, okay. Sure."
A sigh of relief was heard. "Great. Bye, sweetie." he said.
"Bye dad." I replied to the empty line.
I looked at the phone and tried to hold my tears back. In the end I got up and threw it on the couch that I was sitting on a moment ago. I walked out in the kitchen and found a pair of large scissors. "Perfect."
I took the bag with the hair color and the scissor out into the bathroom.
An hour later I washed the color out of my hair and dried it with a blow dryer in my room. Once again I looked in the mirror, but this time I saw a completely different girl. A girl with shoulder-long, messy, black hair and matching eyebrows. I looked nothing like myself. That good-girl look I had before, the one totally out of my character, my bold personality, was gone now. I looked like a real rebel. A girl that didn't give two shits about the world and what others thought. It was exactly how I wanted it to be.
"How's that for adorable now, huh, Derek?" I said to the mirror. The girl in the mirror gave me a big grin.
