Love and Blood
"Stop complaining, you ho", his voice snapped, slurred by the 10 Bacardi Silvers in three hours. "What the h is your problem, you can make them dinner, but you can't make me any? What the f!" The dark-haired girl tried to run, but it was one of the last things she did until midnight . . . when she came to, she was laying on the floor at the foot of the stairs leading to the basement, which was her "room," if that's what you called it. Raven (or Rave, her nickname) picked herself up painfully off the floor, limped all the way up three flights of stairs, hobbled to the bathroom, swallowed a handful of Tylenol, and slid down the railing to her room, where she changed into her pajamas, and approached her homework warily. Geez, that stupid magazine! Why did her English and Spanish teachers have to assign a magazine as the end of the year project? Did they love to torture the students or something? When was she gonna have time to type everything, since she worked almost all weekend! As the thoughts swirled in her head, she fell into a dreamless sleep. When Raven's alarm went off, at 3:00 a.m., she stumbled out of the desk she'd slept in, toward the shower, where it took her almost 10 minutes to shower. If her "uncle" Zack hadn't been wasted on all the booze, she would've had to take a five minute shower. As Raven stepped out the shower, all her problems flew back at her. The mirror was broken and as she looked in it, a lock of the dark hair that made her more mysterious fell into her face. With a move mostly seen by cats playing with a piece of string, she pushed the hair off her face, showing herself the scars on her wrist and arm. Why did everything seem to happen to her?
As she walked toward the mandatory "torture chamber," A.K.A. school, she fell onto trying to think of a way to get an extension on her magazine. As she got closer, she saw a really freaky thing happen. The new boy, Jake, was being beat up by her ex-boyfriend, Matt and his new girlfriend, Courtnee.. Grrrr! Why did he have to see her on one of her worst days? Matt saw her and started making out with Courtnee, letting Jake escape, only to punch Matt in the stomach and start a huge brawl. The police were called: Matt, Courtnee, Jake, and Raven were all suspended for the day.
Matt and Courtnee went to the movies and started making out, only to get thrown out by the usher, Rob! (A G-rated movie, with them going at it a little too hot and heavy!) Jake went walking around town, and Raven decided to do the same. Raven and Jack met on the bridge leading out of town. Jake actually looked at Raven for the first time since he'd transferred to the school, I mean, before he started to think that she'd never like him. And the ironic thing was that Raven had thought the exact same thing when he'd first transferred. Anyway, they walked and talked until almost curfew, which was 11:30 p.m., and Jake walked Raven back to her apartment, where he asked her the thing they both had been waiting for.
"Willyougotopromwithme?" Jake said, or should I say, breathed in a rush. "Wat did you say?" Raven asked, confused. Jake repeated, slowly, "I said, will you go to the prom with me?" Raven whispered, "Even though I'm not Courtnee?" "Of course, you see, she was just using me to get Matt's attention, and even though she said I broke up with her, she actually broke up with me after you and Matt broke up," Jake said, actually being nice for the first time, in, well, ever. As he reached over to grab Raven's hand, but she was turning away, so he caught her wrist. She stifled a yelp, as Jake looked on, very confuzzled at why she was crying. He gently took her wrist, rolling up the sleeve of her black Green Day long sleeved tee, and saw the long slashes and scars. He grabbed her wrist very suddenly and hard, right on her deepest slash. She screamed in pain "WHY DID YOU JUST DO THAT?" Jake snapped back, "Well, it doesnt matter much anyway, because your hurting yourself anyway, so why should me grabbing onto it hurt you anymore!" Rave bit her lip, looking very innocent, yet somewhat mysterious, as she prepared herself to explain how it had started and why it was so bad. Jake saw how much it hurt her, but he was too angry at her to care, but when she started to explain, and cry, he felt really guilty.
Six minutes later, which felt like days, she looked at him, feeling very self-conscious, and embarrassed. Jake looked at her thoughtfully; he had a few questions for her. "Why didn't you ever ask anyone to help you leave your uncle?" Raven replied, a little angry at everyone (present company excluded) " I tried, but no one believed me. And when I stopped caring, I guess I went numb. So I started trying to make myself feel again. I tried the drugs. Weed, X, anything I could get my hands on, I tried, just to see if I could feel after I used them. That didn't work, so I went on to drinking a lot and partying more, but I kept my grades up and my uncle didnt know a thing, until some little moron followed me home, then told my "uncle" I was partying instead of studying. He really never cared about me, yet this time he beat me pretty badly. I ran to my room, grabbing a knife from the kitchen, before I went there. I guess I was gonna kill myself, but I started cutting instead, and I could actually feel my emotions for the first time in, like, four years. And that's my story" Rave said, glancing at Jake out the corner of her eye. "Well, aren't you gonna tell me your story." Jake replied to that remark stonily, yet somewhat sadly. "Why do you want to know?" "Well, I've told you my life story, the least you could do is tell me a story, preferably your life story." Jake said, " As you can probably tell, I'm one of the most popular guys in school. I try to be cool, and I am, but sometimes it gets lonely at the top. So I started hanging out with a different crowd. I got high and almost died when I let a 'friend' take me home after he'd been drinking; we got in a car crash and he almost died, as did I, but the worst part was having no one to talk to after we got better. He abandoned me, and started partying again. I was alone, my old crowd ditched me, and so did my popular clique. Well, I was alone, then Courtnee asked me out, just to get back at Matt. I went along with it because then I wasn't alone anymore."
"Wait, I've got one question, why don't you talk about your family at all?" "Well, I guess they don't mean that much to me." "Why?" "I guess if you're stupid enough to stay with a dumb guy who beat you every night when he came home from work, you're really not worth my time." "Well, why didn't she leave him?" " what are you talking about? She did leave him , but left me with him," Jake finished woodenly. Impulsively, Raven leaned over and hugged Jake tightly. He stiffened, then hugged her back even more tightly. As they began to walk home, they held hands, and at the waterfront, they kissed. The kiss they shared, they had no idea that it would be their first and only kiss. As they were crossing the road by their school, Matt's car came whipping around the corner, he and Courtnee making out while he's driving. They never even saw Jake and Raven walking in the fluorescent yellow crosswalk. Prom was so cool this year, but the funeral that was the day after prom took some of the magic out of it. Matt and Courtnee's trial was decided; the verdict was " guilty of vehicular manslaughter and driving while intoxicated"; they both pleaded guilty and have served eighteen of the three 20-year consecutive jail terms. But, for everyone who knew those two, here's to both of you, hopefully together in wherever ya'll are.