Then…
I guess…this is it?
…jeez.
This sucks, huh?
Ha ha…
…
…I won't accept it.
No. I CAN'T accept it.
Before I met you guys, I thought I'd be alone for the rest of my life, and…
And I'm not gonna give up on something like that so easily.
I'll come back. Understand?
No matter what it takes, no matter how long we have to wait. I'll come back.
Okay?
I promise.
(And the lights turn on.)
Susie awoke in darkness.
She lay still for a moment, staring up at the ceiling, tracing the cracks in the plaster with her eyes. The mid-January wind whistled quietly from just outside her window.
Her body was still tense from the ache of waking from a nightmare – a dull ache, one that Susie had become well familiar with. She sat up, her spine creaking with the effort. There, cross legged and bent over in the middle like a broken toy, her eyes became lost in the curves and creases of the bedsheets beneath her, tossed, tousled, comfort only for the body.
Wordlessly, Susie brushed them off and got to her feet, the footfalls of her wide frame deceptively soft against the hardwood. She sighed, stretched, stuffed her phone into her sweatpants.
She shut her alarm off on the way out, not bothering to check the time.
Stress eating was an indulgence that made nights like this bearable for Susie. It was a vice that even she hadn't expected to turn to – if anything, she thought she'd have anger problems, or that her stress would externalize itself in some other way. But college had changed her.
As Susie searched for a meal, half paying attention, and only half caring what she would end up eating, the light of the fridge cast a harsh, artificial glow over the kitchen tiles, highlighting the crumbs and dust bunnies that had yet to be swept. It was her day to sweep, tomorrow – today, technically.
After some deliberation, Susie extracted a carton of eggs. Half a dozen had already vanished since they'd been purchased two days prior, some to breakfasts, some to Kris' recipes, some to evening ventures like this one. Susie shut the fridge behind her, popped an egg into her mouth, and made a mental note to do Kris a favor and buy the next carton herself.
The living room lay before her, the T.V. oblong and monolithic in the gray, early morning light. It made Susie uncomfortable to look at. On the other side of the room, a long couch slumped mournfully against the wall. Susie sat down on it and heard it creak almost pleasantly beneath her. She was a familiar presence on this particular piece of furniture, which now appeared to sag even when she wasn't around to sit on it. It was comforting, somehow, to think that it
hadn't forgotten
remembered her.
She looked down at the carton and saw that it was shockingly bare. Most of the eggs had disappeared into her maw somewhere along the way during her trek from the kitchen. She decided to save the last two, just in case Kris wanted any in the morning.
Susie shut the carton and placed it down on the coffee table beside her. With that, she lay down on the couch and rested her arms firmly at her sides.
The faint taste of eggs still lingered in her mouth. It grew bitterer and bitterer by the second, as it always did when she binged them. The cracks in the plaster above yawned down at her.
She swallowed, her throat sore. The aftertaste was always horrible.
Susie wanted to eat some chalk.
AUTHOR'S NOTES:
Thank you so much for reading the first chapter of my fic! It's beautiful people like you that make writing worthwhile 3
So, I've been away from the fanfiction game for a little over a year, now. Ever since I finished my last fic, I've been working really hard on something else - an original story that I'd like to share with you all. Is it done? Will it be ready soon? Who knoooooows...
For now, please enjoy this little story that I wrote! I should say that it likely won't be as long as my last fic. It's also not really split into multiple arcs, either. It's more singular and interconnected. I'm enjoying the change of pace.
As always, chapters will be uploaded when they're finished, but extenuating circumstances non-withstanding, you can expect a chapter every week for now. They'll go up on Saturdays here and on . (Don't worry, they usually won't be as short as these first two are.)
Also, I have a Twitter now, and it's the best place to go if you'd like to keep up to date on all of my latest writing and creative endeavors! My tag is jordan_peloquin.
Well, I think that's everything, for now.
Again, thank you so much. I hope the rest of the story lives up to your expectations.