Disclaimers:
I do not own Courtney, LeShawna, Noah, Harold, Gwen, Trent, or Duncan. They are all © to Fresh Entertainment and TELETOON. I DO own, however, this plot and the characters who have no names.
Momentum
Happy Birthday
3 Years Later…
The truth about missing time in a story is that in those years, many things have changed and many things remained the same. Like my temper. But, anyhow, 3 years may seem like a long time, but truth be said, it felt like 3 days to me. Time skipping also means you won't really get to know what exactly occurred during that time until later in the story.
"Courtney? Courtney."
Calls of my name drowned on, but I felt the need to just stay inside my bed. Last night was a nightmare; writing, researching, and typing up until 3:00 a.m., falling asleep on my laptop, waking up once again 2 hours later to go to the rest room, laid down, and then now someone was shaking my unresponsive body. I curled up, shaking my head. Mornings were never my thing, even when I was a kid. And being 20 now, I still disliked the cold, bitter chill of the morning. Or any other time, that is. The cold has become an enemy of mine. I forgot as to why…
"Courtney!"
A jolt went through my spine, the warmth immediately vacating my body. I groaned, hearing a light chuckle.
"Girl, you slept in."
Most would find those words somewhat average to hear on a Saturday morning, but I, unlike those most, did not. It made me very skittish and anxious. I wasted time on my work! Sitting up as quick as I could, I let out a small shriek, taking a quick glance at the clock; 12:06. I groaned, allowing my face to fall in my hands for a moment. But quickly realizing I was just throwing away even more of my precious time, I flung myself out of my bed. Getting behind on my work just meant that I'd have to work late into the night, once again, and that meant more lack of sleep, and then-
Something pushed my body back down. Hard. I inwardly sighed, trying to get out all of the sudden rage that's been filling me up the past few seconds.
"LeShawna, please. I have work to do." I groaned; physical effort wouldn't do, considering the bodacious, chocolate skinned young woman I called my roommate and closest friend holding me down could pin a grizzly bear, so I was left with complaining, "It's noon, and I have yet to start!"
"Hold you're horses, Court! Its May 22nd; your 21st birthday!" LeShawna rolled her eyes at my confused expression, "It's your day off, babe. It's time to celebrate the day you were born."
Day… off? On my birthday? Unfortunately, I felt like my brain couldn't compute. And then I got it.
"Oh, right! My birthday… hah… haha. 21..." a half-smile spread on my face. I guess I'm 21, as of now. LeShawna's face twisted in a strange look.
"You be trippin', Court. But anyway. Happy Birthday. Uhh-I'll give you your gift later." Which meant she hadn't bought it yet. Giving her a grin, I merely nodded my head. Completely forgetting your 21st birthday must be a sign of insanity; I wouldn't be surprised. I was always forgetting my birthday, even when people reminded me the night before. Like LeShawna last night, now that I recalled.
Then I remember that I was still supposed to meet up with one of my good friends, Gwen, to assist with some personal issues.
I slumped down in my bed, shutting my eyes. "But I was supposed to help Gwen help find flowers for the flower arrangements for the wedd-"
"Gwen already called up and said it was fine; she knew it's your birthday, and she understands how hard you've been working to make her happy. Jeez, girl, take a chill pill." LeShawna finally allowed me some personal space, heading toward the exit of my room. "Oh," she began, turning around halfway at the doorway, "Lover-boy's been calling all morning. Something about going out tonight, or… something. I don't know. He left a ton of messages on the machine like his ear was hooked to the phone." And then she left, muttering, "Freaky boy's always calling…"
'Noah.'
Inwardly smiling, I quickly jumped out of bed. I did recall making plans with this guy I had been seeing for quite some time for the night; he mentioned about taking me somewhere out to eat for my birthday, and discuss a few topics. As to be expected, he wouldn't mention where we were going. But I knew where ever we were going, it would be expensive. "Wear formal clothing." he said sternly. And that was the only hint I received. My thoughts went "CAH-CHING".
"OH! And don't you think I'm gunna save these messages, girl, 'cause I am NOT your mother. Do you hear me?" came my roommate's voice somewhere outside of my room.
I laughed.
Running a hand through my hair, I stared at the chocolate brown roots staring at me in the bathroom mirror, frowning. 'Guess I should make an appointment to get my hair redyed…' I thought miserably. I started permanently colouring my hair about 3 years ago a darker truffle brown, with random blonde and caramel-red highlights. My usual straight-cut hair had been cut to nicely razored layers--not perfect, but nice enough to where I wouldn't have gotten myself labeled as a rebel. My bangs side-swept over my right eye, and the layers framed my heart-shaped face. My eyes, the same dark, onyx colour as they've always been, and my skin was a light tan--I haven't had as much sun as I did when I was a teen, so my skin has lightened up a bit. Everything looked as if it did every morning.
Sighing, I pulled out the straight iron. Doing my daily routine of straightening my hair, applying my make-up, and then adding the finishing touches, the only thing left for me to do was get dressed. I was never one for any wild patterns our lavish garments or anything that stuck out--that was LeShawna and Gwen's area of expertise. I slid on some faded dark skinny jeans, threw on one of my favorite ivory turtle-necked sweaters, and a black button-up jacket that hung loosely over my figure. Casual, but classy; the way I liked it.
I did one last check in the mirror. Something felt like it was missing… Glancing down at the sink, I came to know exactly why.
A diamond studded nose ring, something that a what I used to be would have objected the moment the brilliant idea was brought up. A flash of deep chuckles and high whimpering, along with a rush of adrenaline, rushed through my memories. Before I could object myself, I slid it in the hole.
And it felt natural.
Finding LeShawna raiding the fridge, I took a seat at one of the barstools lined up against the granite counter, the message machine an arms reach away. But I decided to take out my laptop to continue my writing from the night before. See, I'm a writer for the local newspaper.
"You still writing that column about the gang rapes around the city?" my roommate questioned from behind the fridge door. I glanced up, clicking my "baby", so LeShawna and the rest of the world called it, open and starting it up. Being assigned the task for writing an article regarding the multiple gang rapes occurring around Montréal, Quebec, I've been working non-stop to impress the editors and create a real story.
"Yeah," I yawned, typing in my login and password, "I'll be getting big bucks for what I have so far." I stared at the document I quickly pulled up containing the contents of my article for the newspaper, but my forehead creased in dissatisfaction, "But what I'd REALLY want to do is get into the real action, you know? Actually talk to the criminals themselves or a victim. Get some good interviews from people who's actually been there… you know?"
LeShawna looked up over the fridge, though I couldn't quite see her face. However, I knew her what her expression would have been saying, "Girl, you crazy."
I sighed, staring at the lit screen.
"Happy Birthday!"
A large, attractively decorated pink cake was set in front of me on the counter, the words, "Happy Birthday, Courtney!" popped out in white butter cream frosting. LeShawna was smiling; I mirrored her expression.
"Oh, thanks, LeShawna!"
"No problem." she said cheerfully, but then her face turned grave and scary, "But I ain't singin'"
My lips twitched into a grin. "Yeah, yeah, no problem." 'Didn't want you to sing anyhow.'
"Oh!" my close friend suddenly jumped, a phone ring coming from her back pocket, "Probably Harold." she sighed, snatching her phone out of her pocket.
"'Ay, baby, what's up? … Well, I'm not sure, I'll have to…"
LeShawna's voice drowned on as she made her way into her room, leaving me by myself in the vacant kitchen, the dishwasher's grunts of work providing the affect.
'Might as well see what Noah left.'
Half-heartedly going through the messages, the smile never faded off of my lips. Brushing my bangs behind my ear, I couldn't help but to giggle; he had such a strange way of showing emotion, it was almost funny. It seemed that I always picked up men who had bizarre issues with showing what they really feel, their true emotions. Usually figuring them out and cracking them down was easy after a short while, and it became as simple as that.
Sunshine turned to gray in an instant, and I let the smile drop. There was only one man I couldn't decipher.
Duncan.
"Gwen just text me, Courtney."
Being ripped from my painful thoughts and memories, I took in a gasp and must have flown 3 feet in the air. Seeing as LeShawna cocked an eyebrow, I forcibly heaved a half-fake laugh, swatting the air for her to go on. "Sorry, sorry. Deep in throught. What did Gwen say?"
"Er." Shaking her head, LeShawna took a speedy glimpse at her phone, "Something about going to the mall for bridesmaid dresses. I can't go, 'cause Harold and I are going out, though. She said she absolutely needed your expertise when it came to dresses and pricing, but if you couldn't make it today, she'll take Trent with her…"
"Oh, no. I'll definitely go," I started, rolling my eyes, "Trent would be NO help with that." Giving LeShawna a light smile, I continued, "I'll call her now."
But then somewhat of a jingle began ringing, and glancing at the number, the smile and light had lifted once again. A text message.
Hey, love. Are you awake?
I hit reply, text him back, and snapped my phone shut. It started to ring once again.
Remember about tonight. It's a big surprise. And wear formal. Happy Birthday. I love you.
Smiling lightly, I snapped my phone closed once again, setting it on the table.
'So sweet.' I thought.
-----
"What about these, Gwen?" I pulled out two long, silky formal dresses with a light coat of sparkles from the clothing rack of a dress apparel store. After Gwen and Trent, her fiancé, had taken me out for lunch for my birthday, giving me a fifty dollar gift card to the local bookstore, then found ourselves in this shop. However, Gwen and I had been searching for at least 3 hours so far, and nothing seemed to turn up that would satisfy the picky bride. Trent followed us around like a useless bag of meat; he basically put in no comments on anything we picked out. To be honest, he didn't even care. Oh well.
"Um. No." the pale woman declared dully, not even looking at the dress. I added it to the reject pile.
"C'mon, Gwen, this'll take forever if you're going to be like this." I groaned, sorting through another rack of unexplored clothing. Gwen heaved a sigh, before her dark eyes narrowed.
"I know, but I just… want them to be perfect, you know? And… nothing too frilly or girly," a deep grimance twisted on her face as she pulled out a bright yellow dress with a full skirt. It reminded me of a canary. I stifled a giggle.
"Ugh, can we get something to eat, soon? All of this shopping has been making me hungry." Trent put his hand over his stomach. He was sitting in a chair off to the side. Doing nothing. That totally creased me.
"No!" I stated firmly, throwing another formal dress on the rack to the side, "You haven't put ANY input in on this. Therefore, you have to suffer."
"Well, you haven't asked!"
"Look," Gwen started, stepping back from the clothes rack, "I'm a little hungry as well. I think we should take a little break."
"Good idea." Gwen's fiancé agreed, jumping up from his seat. I crossed my arms, leaning my body to the side.
"Fine," I said reluctantly, "But I can't stay. Noah's taking me out tonight for my birthday, and I have to get ready."
"Alright," Gwen shrugged, "Then I guess we can carry on with our search some other day. We've got until August." It amazed me how calm and mellow Gwen could be about this whole wedding, especially since it was only 3 months away. If I was I n her shoes, I would have everything planned in 3 days tops, in an orderly, well-balanced manner. But she continued this nonchalant attitude toward her own wedding.
"Okay," I established, taking out my phone to check the time, "I'll just take the bus home. You guys go ahead and eat lunch." Flashing a small smile, I gave Gwen a hug, afterward gave the two my farewell. Then it was an adventure to the city bus; a venture that… now that I thought about it… I didn't want to participate in.
Sun beginning to vanish, the moon replacing it's shine, an eerie orange glow coated every thing on the creaky, old city bus. Automatically, I had taken a seat toward the front, as close to the exit as I could get without having to push, or touch, for that matter, any greasy, old person out of the way. But those types of people weren't the only ones I avoided at all cost. It was a crowd of creepy, huge men in the back. They were obviously on something harmful to the body and completely out of it. I mentally prepared myself to immediately jump off the bus once it stopped at the appropriate stop. The man sitting to me on the right did appear to be the nicest person; you couldn't even see most of his face, since he had his hood up. Seemed like a scowl was permanently drawn there with a sharpie marker. I deliberately ignore him.
Though, for some bizarre reason why, I felt the need to stay close. Freaky.
Sighing hopelessly, I rest my chin on the palm of my hand, while my elbow settled on my knee, 'Oh, why didn't I just take a taxi?' I thought miserably, the unfamiliar faces and slowly fading daytime fleeing behind my eyelids.
And then I heard low, peculiar chuckling.
Peeking one narrowed eye open, I realized those sinister-looking men in the back were staring at me relentlessly. I turned my head. Unfortunately, my goal to take no notice of the man beside me had failed; I watched him squirm restlessly, a deep gust of air escaping his lungs. What was HIS problem?
I pulled my purse closer to me. Feeling the hungry, eerie eyes of the strange men on me, I kept staring straight ahead. It was better to ignore them, than to start something up. Normally I would have asked them to please politely keep their greedy, all-seeing eyes to themselves and to leave me alone before I called my lawyer. But I quickly decided that four men against one woman wasn't a good idea.
After about 10 horrifyingly long minutes, I finally decided that getting off and then catching a cab would be for the better.
'The next stop, the next stop,' I repeated to myself. And then the bus stopped.
'Thankyouthankyouthankyou.'
Jumping from my seat, my purse wrapped carefully around my arms, I quickly exited from the sickening city bus, taking a whiff of fresh air as I started down the sidewalk, not even bothering to care what was behind me. And then I started to gasp for air.
The stale, rancid smoke I started breathing in filled my lungs, causing a spasm of coughing to erupt in my body. Eyes squinting, I glanced around where I was. Nothing, absolutely nothing looked familiar. Turning in a complete 360 circle, I spotted nothing but a moving bus, opaque smoke, and an empty street enclosed by soaring, vacant buildings. The street was vacant of civilization, the light posts flickering on and off spontaneously. Intimidation wasn't a feeling I felt often, if ever. But at the moment, I sure felt a whole hell of a lot of it.
"Okay, Courtney. You can DO this. You've survived worse. Just… have to figure your way out of this… but… ohhh," I cried, my face falling into my hands. Faint grunts of gas and metal chugged down the street; it was way too late to get back on that horrid bus. A sudden burst of rage surged through my veins.
"Goddamnit!" I shrieked, kicking the aged brick wall to the right of me. After a few moments, I found myself howling in pain, gripping my right boot's toe. Groaning, I flopped down on the curb, stiffling a small sniffle from behind my sleeve.
"Oh, this is so terrible…"
I hated being alone, I really did. Next to green, icky, goop they call jelly, remaining all by myself was my worst fear. Glancing down the lifeless street, a cold chill ran down my back. This wasn't safe. I needed to find a way to get out this place and into a more secure area.
"Hey, babe, why so alone?"
My heart stopped, and then pounded so hard in my chest I felt like it would burst through my rib cage. I crooked my neck up to see a tall man, grinning fiercely, behind him 3 tall, eerie black silhouettes stood, staring. My limbs began to shake as I stared up, not quite sure what to do. I felt like a tiny, petrified rabbit, cornered by 4 massive, ravenous wolves.
"Aw, I think she's scared. I think we should keep her company."
And the rancid breath of the wolf heated my face, and my sitting body suddenly was pulled up from the sitting position to stand reluctantly. A sudden deluge of fury collapsed over me, and the fear ran cold and scare. Part of me wondered whether or not I should just make a break for it and start running, or beat up every single one of them into minced creeper. But then I realized I had pepper spray in my purse…
"NO!"
Whipping out the pepper spray, I didn't hesitate to pull the trigger. The ugly man howled in pain, letting my arm go. And I took off, sprinting.
It was a very helpful thing that I choose to wear my black, flat-bottomed boots, because I was actually quite skilled with long distant running. I heard something slip out of my bag, but I felt too panic-stricken and out of mind to stop and pick it up. Hopefully it was just lip gloss or my compact mirror. I had to keep running. And I did.
Turning around a corner, I felt like it was a repetitive nightmare.
The street, empty and cold, appeared the exactly similar to the one that held setting to my fear. Stopping to breath, I stared vaguely at the flickering light posts.
"Though you could get away, eh?"
'Fuck.'
"St-Stay away!" I warned, spinning around and holding out my pepper-spray. It seemed to have worked for a moment, but as soon as I found a stream of hope, my body was flung against a hard surface from behind, the cartridge of my pepper spray skidding down into the foggy emptiness of the pavement.
"N-No!" I gasped, trying to struggle. The pain searing through my head and limbs felt unbearable; I felt as if I was going to fall into a deep, long-awaited sleep. My fingers lifted up to feel a warm, thick liquid saturating my hair.
'No, Courtney, NO! Don't! You can get out of this…! Don't give… up…'
My thoughts grew fainter, the sounds around me gradually ending up as background noises I couldn't quite decipher. The bleak, ghostly blackness swarmed around, unfamiliar faces and the pitchblack sky of the night the last pictures my vision could pick up. With every piece of what scarce strength I possessed, I threw it into staying away, to stay aware of what was occurring.
Preparing for what to see, I forcefully opened my eyes.
At first, I thought I was already dead, thought that somehow I ended up elsewhere than where I was. Still pitch black, the only living thing my onyx eyes could pick up was blurred facial features that I only had saved in my memories of the past.
"Courtney? Courtney are you okay?"
"D… Duncan…?"
Okay, yeah... YAY! It took me a lot of effort and time to type all of this, and I'm kind of mad I had to write so much. But oh well. I like how it turned out.
Review, please! If you love me, you know... please...?