Cindy
I couldn't believe how much fun I had today. And with Neutron! That's something that never happens. Even though we were working together to keep the world from being destroyed I was really excited. But you do have to understand that I haven't been out of this house in a very long time, at least not to do anything fun. I'm surprised I got away with going over Jimmy's house today especially since I hadn't even asked for his permission.
When I got home I found my dad passed out on the couch with an empty bottle of Vodka in his hand. I tried Vodka once and I just about threw up and ever since then I've hated alcohol. Then when my dad started drinking it constantly and I saw how much it changed him I really hated alcohol. But I guess that's just how it is. Things happen, people change; it's all just a normal part of life, for me anyway.
I walked straight up to my room and fell backwards onto my bed. All I could think about was the next week. Jimmy had explained his entire plan to me. We were gonna build the machines everyday after school until they were finished and then we were gonna leave in his space car, that we had won from an intergalactic space show, and we would set the first one up and wait 24 hours for it to charge. Then we'd set the second one up and wait another 24 hours for it to charge. So this whole thing was going to take at least a week give or take a few days.
"I can't believe I'm actually looking forward to being with Jimmy," I said to myself as I closed my eyes and smiled. I fell asleep instantly and began to dream…
I looked out into the trees as I felt the wind stroke my skin softly as it wisped by. I could smell lavender carry through the breeze. It was so beautiful! It was so sunny and I was surrounded by trees and flowers everywhere. I walked barefoot in the soft green grass taking in all the beauty and warmth of nature. I could hear the faint sound of a stream nearby so I followed it. I could hear birds singing all around and I started singing with them softly as I neared the stream.
"Young girl don't cry. I'll be right here when your world starts to fall," I sang to myself as I dipped my hand into the cold water. It felt so good rushing through my fingers washing away my pain. I continued singing, "When you're safe inside your room you tend to dream, of a place where nothing's harder than it seems." I stopped, in the water I could see the reflection of someone standing behind me but the water was rushing too fast so I couldn't make out who it was. I stood their nervous, afraid to turn around. That was until I heard his sweet voice.
"Don't stop, I liked it," The mysterious man said. I turned around to see who it was only to find…
"JIMMY!" I said enthusiastically. Then he smiled with his knee-weakening grin and I could feel my entire body start to melt. We just stared into each other's eyes for what seemed like hours until he gently took my hand in his.
"Come here," He said leading me through the woods, " I wanna show you something." I followed him eagerly awaiting his surprise. It wasn't that long before we reached a clearing in the woods and Jimmy covered my eyes.
"Jimmy where are we going?" I asked with a smile on my face. He just laughed softly.
"You'll see beautiful." My heart began to beat faster. Jimmy Neutron just called me beautiful! I'd never felt so nervous and excited in my entire life. What was going on?
"We're here," he said happily and slowly removed his hands from my eyes. I thought I was going to cry.
"Jimmy it's beautiful!" I choked up trying to catch my breath. In front of me was a complete view of the stars and Jimmy had microchipped them to spell out I Love You Cindy! I was so amazed, and a little confused considering no more than 30 minutes ago was it sunny outside. I couldn't believe it!
"Not nearly as beautiful as you Cindy," He said softly, looking into my eyes. I felt like I was gonna cry. No one has ever treated me like this before and I've never been this happy in my entire life.
"Jimmy…" I responded, holding back my tears, "Why are you doing this?" He smiled sweetly and lifted his hand up to my face, tucking my hair behind my ear. I could feel his warm skin rest against mine and my heart began to beat faster with every second.
"I love you Cindy," I couldn't believe what I was hearing! Jimmy loves me? I couldn't help it, he was so sweet and so sexy I had to kiss him. He slowly brought his hands down to my waist and gripped onto my hips, and I looped my arms around his neck. I ran my hand through his hair and he slowly closed his eyes. I leaned in for the kiss as he did the same. I had never felt so excited about kissing someone in my life! We got closer and closer and then…
"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING YOU STUPID CUNT!" My dad was screaming at the top of his lungs and grabbed my ankles pulling me off my bed and onto the floor! "You're supposed to be cleaning up the fucking house and I find you sleeping in your fucking cum stained bed?" He kicked me in my side as hard as he could! It felt like a thousand knives being stabbed into my stomach.
"I'M SORRY! I'M SORRY!" I cried! Tears were running down my face like a waterfall. I began coughing up blood as he continued to beat the shit out of me. I tried to crawl away but I couldn't, he was too strong. He pulled me up by my hair and slammed me into the wall as hard as he could!
"Sorry isn't good enough! You're not good enough!" He shrieked as he punched me in the face! I screamed at the top of my lungs for him to stop and I struggled as hard as I could to break free of his grip but it only made him angrier. "You're nothing but a God damn slut just like your whore of a mother!" He threw me across the room and into my dresser! It hit my back and I fell straight to the ground.
"Please stop! I'm sorry dad! I'm sorry!" I begged as I backed up into a corner, but I was sobbing so badly he couldn't even understand what I was saying. He kept beating the shit out of me, and screaming at me until I was covered in blood and tears, then he left the room slamming the door behind him.
I lay there on the floor screaming at the top of my lungs. "I HATE YOU!" I shrieked, "I HOPE YOU DIE AND GO TO HELL! BASTARD! I HAVE NO DAD!" I continued screaming and crying until my body couldn't take it anymore.
I passed out a few minutes after and woke up at about three o'clock in the morning. I moaned in pain as I slowly got up off the floor and headed towards the shower. I felt the blood run off my skin and saw it run down the drain. When I got out I dried myself off and looked in the mirror. There were bruises and cuts everywhere. Why? Why does he do this to me? What did I do wrong? I thought to myself. I began crying so hard I couldn't breathe and I fell to the floor. "Why?" I said to myself bawling, "Why?" After about 10 minutes of crying I finally pulled myself together and slowly got up. I wiped the tears from my eyes and opened the medicine cabinet. I pulled out my syringe off the shelf and injected the medicine into my arm as tears rolled down my face. Then I put it back away and shut the door, with only the mirror in front of me and I saw the bruises and cuts vanish. "Only one more year," I said to myself, "Only one more year."
Jimmy
I woke up this morning actually excited to go to school because I knew that once it was over Cindy was going to come over again. I don't know why I was feeling this way but I kinda liked it. I can't help it, when I'm around her I just want to make her laugh and make her smile. She hardly ever smiles anymore. Ever since her mom left 5 years ago she's completely changed. But I don't blame her, that had to have been a really traumatic experience for her. What I don't understand though is that she still has her dad and it's been at least 5 years since that happened so why is she still miserable? I guess she was really close with her mom or something.
After I took my shower and got dressed I went downstairs only to hear my parents screaming at each other which was nothing new. I was just about to leave when something on the kitchen table caught my attention.
"Mom why are you packing a suitcase," I asked curiously. She looked up at me with bloodshot eyes full of tears. She slammed the suitcase shut and started walking towards me. "Mom what's going on?"
"Oh sweetie…" She cried as she ran her hand through my hair. I could see my dad behind her giving her the evilest look I had ever seen. She dropped her suitcase and gave me a huge hug, I could barely breathe. I was starting to get scared. I didn't know what was going on. After a few minutes she finally let me go and looked at me. "I just have to get away for a while ok."
"You're leaving aren't you," I knew exactly what she was doing I'm not an idiot. She nodded and I could feel tears start to build up but I was not about to cry especially not for them. I was so angry I couldn't even talk. I couldn't even look at her. I had to get out of there. No goodbyes or tears, I wasn't going to deal with that. If she wanted to leave then she was going to have to go knowing that I wanted nothing to do with her.
"I-I have to go to school," I managed to choke up and I walked towards the door.
"Jimmy wait…" I slammed the door before she could finish and ran towards the bus so she couldn't catch me. I hated her so much! Fucking bitch! How can she do this to us? Whatever I don't need her I don't need anyone! I hope she does leave and never comes back.
I sat in an empty seat and slammed my head against the window hoping it would knock me out. No such luck. I gritted my teeth as the bus drove off and I practically ripped my skin off as hard as I was digging my nails into my arm. I watched as blood trickled down my skin and onto my seat. I leaned my head back and shut my eyes hoping that it was just a dream even though deep in my heart I knew it wasn't. Then somebody touched my arm and I jumped, startled. I looked up with my eyes full of tears that refused to fall only to see Cindy sitting next to me. She looked worried and she wiped the blood off of my arm with a tissue.
"What do you want Vortex?" I growled trying to get her away. I really did not want to talk to her right now because I didn't want to feel anymore emotions than I was already feeling. She narrowed her eyebrows and locked her eyes on me. It was kind of frightening actually.
"Jimmy I know what happened," She choked up, "and I want to help you."
"How in the world could you possibly know what happened?" I sat up and stared down at her. There is no way she could know what had happened. She started to angrier.
"Because that's exactly how I reacted when my mom left me. And you even told me your parents hated each other." Apparently she could know. I just stared at her not really knowing why and the next thing I knew I was laying on her shoulder as she stroked my hair and kept kissing me on my head. "Jimmy…," she started and I looked up at her slowly lifting my head off her shoulders and sitting up. She just looked at me like she was trying to say something but couldn't.
"What?" I asked softly. She just let out a sigh and looked down.
"I'll just talk to you after school," She said sadly and the bus came to a stop. I tried to grab her to make her stay but she had already gotten up and left. I forgot we had to work on the machines after school. Ugh! I really did not want to work on them… but I did want to see Cindy.
It was 2:45 and I was almost home. That had to be the shortest day of school I'd ever been through. I didn't do any of my work, I slept in almost all my classes, I didn't eat anything. I just couldn't, and I didn't care. I had too much stuff on my mind to even try and work. It was weird though. I have 6th and 7th period with Cindy and I have lunch with her but I hadn't seen her at all since that morning. Maybe she had gone home sick or something, I didn't know. I was going to call her as soon as I got home but once I got into my lab I didn't need to. Cindy was in there working on the machine, one of which was finished now.
"Cindy what are you doing here?" I asked confused.
"You gave me the password to get into your lab remember," She didn't even bother to look up at me when she answered. I walked over to her and grabbed her shoulder gently and she turned her head towards me. "I didn't think you would want to work today so I finished your machine and now I'm finishing up mine." I looked at both of the machines in astonishment.
"What'd you do, ditch school and break into my lab?"
"It's not breaking in when you have permission and yes," She replied, "I left after 1st period." She continued working on the machine and no more than 30 seconds later she tossed her tools aside and smiled. "Finished." She looked up at me and her face glowed with pride. I couldn't believe it.
"How did you finish so quickly?" I asked, still in shock.
"Well God Jimmy I'm not an idiot I know how to read blue prints." She replied giggling and slowly got up brushing off her jeans with her hands. Then she stared at me and I turned my head slowly and stared at her, still amazed.
She laughed at my expression. "Is it that surprising?"
"Yes," I said half laughing. "You are crazy! You ditched an entire day of school to finish these just so I wouldn't have to?" She smiled and nodded. "But why?" Her expression slowly went from happy to sympathetic.
"Jimmy…," She started. She ran her hand through my hair stopping on my neck and I felt chills run down my spine…but I liked it. "I know how hard it is when someone you love leaves you and you have no idea where they're going… or if they're even going to come back." I lowered my eyes to the ground taking in her words, she knew exactly how I was feeling. She took her other hand and grabbed mine, gently pulling my body next to hers. I looked straight in her eyes and I could feel tears forming behind my eyes but I kept it from showing.
"Trust me Jimmy, it may hurt now…but it won't last for long." Now I was confused.
"What are you talking about?…," I said trying not to sound rude but curious, "You're mom left over 5 years ago and you're still depressed." She just looked straight into my eyes.
"Jimmy I have other things I have to deal with in my life," She choked up, "I don't even care about my mom anymore. After a year of no phone calls, no letters or emails or anything… I knew she wasn't coming back. I decided that if she didn't want anything to do with me then I didn't want anything to do with her." I could see her eyes start to water up and I held her tight in my arms as she laid her head on my shoulder. I started rubbing her back and I kissed the side of her head.
"I'm so sorry Cindy," I spoke softly. She pulled away slowly and just smiled as she wiped the tears from her eyes.
"It's fine Jimmy I'm over it now," She placed her hand on my face, "And you will be too and I'm going to be here for you." She said sweetly. I smiled and kissed her forehead.
"Thanks Cindy," I replied softly. We both just smiled at each other. "Well since you've already finished both of the machines what are we gonna do now?" I asked trying to take my mind of my mom. She just smiled at me.
"We could watch a movie," She suggested.
"That sounds great," I replied quietly as I stared into her eyes. Then we went into the lounge room in my lab and she laid her head on my shoulder as I wrapped my arms around her and we watched Napoleon Dynamite. We would make fun of the movie and laugh together and it was so much fun just hanging out with her. After that we watched Mr. Deeds and by the time that movie was over it was already 9:00pm. "Well you should probably be getting home now," I said lending my hand to try and help her up but she refused to take it.
"Uh Jimmy is it ok if I stay for another hour or 2?" She asked frightened.
"Uh yeah I guess, but why?" I asked confused. She just sat there silent.
