@Paperok
This is the first part of the first chapter.
Thursday, August 18, 2016.
6:11 AM.
Beowulf meows, circling around Paul's feet as he brushes his teeth. After finishing he rinses off the brush and gargles some mouthwash, Beowulf rears up digging her claws into Paul's leg. Paul winces swallowing some mouthwash and spits the rest out into the small sink.
"Why do you make me suffer?" Paul coughs rushing out of the bathroom and into the hallway, Beowulf follows meowing loudly. Paul reaches his bedroom at the end of the hallway and opens the door, Beowulf lunges between Paul's legs and plants herself in front of him meowing louder than before. "I'm getting your food," Paul steps over her and picks up the small bag of cat food by the door and takes it over to her pair of bowls, one is still half full of water while the other is barren. Paul carefully scoops some food into the proper bowl while Beowulf purrs and tries to get around him to get to the food. When he finishes, Paul approaches his nightstand picking up a brush and absentmindedly running it through his hair a few times. His phone vibrates a few times but he ignores it pulling a gray sweater with the words One-shot across the chest over his head. He then picks up his blue backpack from beside his nightstand and tosses it onto his bed before sitting down next to it looking at the clock. 6:13. "Plenty of time," Paul picks up his phone and unlocks it, he has some messages from Logan, his best friend on the server chat.
Roatsed Earbuds: @Liquiglass04 I'm skipping today
Roatsed Earbuds: Writing, don't @ me
Liquiglass04 was Paul's username, Roatsed Earbuds was Logan's. He turns the phone's screen off places it down and gazes silently at the mirror, his hair is barely passable for "brushed" he looks like a homeless person, baggy sweater baggy jeans flip flops and socks. At least I'm not ugly he offers himself smiling in the mirror before noticing some kind of a pimple on the right side of his chin and solemnly poking it. Movement catches his attention and he sees Crystal opening her door by the bathroom. She is all dressed, wearing a striped t-shirt and skinny jeans backpack hanging from her left shoulder. Her neon purple hair is laid flat on her shoulders. Crystal is Paul's twin sister. Naturally, his absolute opposite, where he is lacking in intelligence and physical activities she has advanced classes and is more fit than some of the boys in their grade. But that doesn't matter to Paul, she's protected him from bullies and such all their lives, its good to have her around. Crystal walks down the hallway and into the living room on the other end. Paul listens to Crystal and his father's muffled voices.
"Just be careful"
"Nothing will happen"
"That's not what I'm worried about, that boy has no balls. I'm worried he'll come out of the closet and you'll be heartbroken."
"Luis isn't gay dad!" Paul gets up, lifting his backpack onto his shoulders and starts towards the living room, his phone remaining on the bed. Stepping into the moderately sized living room, Paul notices Crystal and his dad sitting on the sectional sofa to his left in the middle of the room. They both look at him and Crystal noticeably cringes, their dad gives him a soft smile.
"We need to buy him better clothes," Crystal says, their dad responds with a light chuckle. The two of them look very similar. The same auburn hair, though Crystal has dyed hers. The same light brown eyes. Paul, on the other hand, Takes greatly after his mother. It's not as if his father or Crystal ever treat him different, barring a long look every now and then from their father. Crystal and Paul have only seen their mother in a photo framed in their father's favorite diner Her and their father competing in an eating contest. Richard, their father didn't react when the owner naively showed the kids the picture making a comment of how similar Paul and the woman looked. He simply laughed it off, Crystal, as intelligent a girl she has always been noticed the way her father's eyes fell. Paul though, couldn't get it out of his mind. Eventually, he asked Richard about it. Richard admitted that Paul was very reminiscent of his mother, but that didn't matter. Paul was different than she was, better. The long look on his father's face brought that conversation back to Paul's mind.
"What are you going to eat?" Richard asks getting up from the sofa and walking to the kitchen on Paul's right.
"Maybe an orange or something," Paul says following his dad into the kitchen and getting an apple from the large bowl on the counter after seeing that there were no oranges left. Richard opens the fridge and pours himself some water from a jug. Paul sits down on the sectional couch a few cushions away from Crystal who is on her phone. She glances over her phone at him eating his apple. "Morning," Paul says
"Yep"
Jessica Rhoem's morning was, contrary to Paul's, loud. Her mother, Angela was angry with her father, George for not calling to get Jessica's prescription filled. Jessica was sitting on the toilet playing Angry Birds ignoring their voices echoing through the house. Swiping down the scroll menu, she sees that it is almost 6:20. She gets off the toilet picking up her pants and moves to the sink. After a few moments of staring into her own eyes, she opens the medicine cabinet and gets her toothbrush and toothpaste. Her eyes linger on the empty pill bottles in the higher shelf before closing the cabinet and rinsing her toothbrush. As she brushes her teeth she considers putting her hair into a bun for school,
"Jessica!" Angela's voice surprises Jessica from the other side of the bathroom door. "Hurry up we're leaving in ten minutes!" Jessica finishes brushing her teeth and exits the bathroom hurrying across the living room and into her bedroom shutting the door behind her. Jessica's room is small, a bed, a drawer, a desktop computer on the floor beside the bed. Jessica gets dressed putting on a red button-up shirt and a pair of black jeans. She ties her black hair into a tight bun and takes a moment to look it over before undoing it and putting it into a ponytail. she could always change it later. She takes a long look into the mirror, there are dark rings around her eyes, her skin dry, a patch of acne between her left eye and her ear. She would like to buy some sort of cream or moisturizer to help her skin or even some makeup to cover her acne up but her mother would never let her insisting that only sluts use makeup. As if summoned by Jessica's thoughts, Angela knocks on the door, "Are you done in there?" Jessica jumps at her mother's voice and picks up her backpack from behind the bed. She opens the door and follows her mother out to the car, she and her father share a knowing look before he picks up his phone and makes a call. George is cheating on his wife, Jessica is aware of this, she caught him in the act on a day Angela was visiting her own mother. George, having the woman leave, tried threatening Jessica into silence but she was apathetic to his threats. He then turned to bribery, Jessica had been wanting a computer. She got that computer. The two get into the car, Jessica in the back seat, Angela refuses to let Jessica sit in the passenger seat until she is 18. The drive to school is short, Angela complains about the weather and her husband's faults while Jessica loads up Angry birds on her phone again. They reach a red light just before the bridge, Jessica loves the bridge. It's not a terribly large or high bridge, it is built over a canal, almost two thousand feet in width. capping at about 28 feet above the water, the bridge is a third of a mile across. The light turns green and they start across the bridge, Jessica rolls her window down unconcerned with her mother's complaints to it. The sun is above the water rising steadily, a mixture of yellow and orange shades reflecting off the water. Jessica takes out her phone and snaps a few pictures. "Get back in here!" Angela almost shouts at her, Jessica sits back and rolls her window up without a word. Getting off the bridge, the rest of the way consists of a few red lights and a right turn. The school, Raulerson High, was a fairly large school. 9 buildings a large football stadium and a soccer field. "Don't get in trouble, my heart can't take that principal yelling at me," Angela says pulling the car to a stop. Jessica opens the door and steps out, "You hear me?" Jessica turns and nods before closing the door behind her.
