The birds cooed gaily not minding the whiter, foamier and more inviting snow that fell peacefully from the bluish sky.
Perfection and high-spiritedness filled Fairford Overlook. Christmas flutes, fireworks and “Fairforders” teemed the streets – a few adults dressed in Santa's costumes while the kids that really did look like they had just arrived from the North Pole were dressed in green; Santa's elves, sharing gifts to all houses.
Now! That was the kind of aura I loved waking up to meet after spending half my night wrapping gifts; a chevron necklace and a trinket dish for Madison, a Virtual Reality headset for Mason, a moonlight pyjamas for my mum and a wine subscription for my dad and even something for Sal, my best friend; a Phone Wooden Docking Station and AirPods leather case. It was a perfect Christmas but little did I know that it was to be a very horrible new year with tons of...
**
4 MONTHS LATER
A lot of things had happened in the last four months. Christmas had gone and winter, too. School had resumed and I had broken up with Amaya.
She'd suddenly flared up and called the relationship off then went on to have sex with all my friends. At least, except Sal. Unless was there something I didn't know.
Not that it really bothered me that she did break up with me, I was going to do the break up if she didn’t because of what happened with Maisie. I couldn’t live with the guilt.
I became an extremely moody person and my parents were nosing up my business trying to figure out why I was no longer with Amaya. I was much of a loner now especially when Sal wasn't with me and unfortunately, I lost Maisie's contact too about a week after the new year.
Other than that, nothing much had happened. Maisie and Madison were in the 13th grade, mum had gotten a really nice contract that took her out of town very often, dad's business was going well... I guess and Sal had gotten himself a girl, Yaritza, a Brazilian with long, jet black hair that reached her waist with a fine brown body.
**
The sun was pretty bright as I walked on the brown, parched leaves that gave way with a simple pop as my weight rested on it.
Leaves had gone dry, pretty flowers had wilted. The sky was dull too and the wind was a little dusty as I strolled into the "Commercial" building with my lacy, black and red backpack. The air conditioner enveloped me in itself as I walked through the long illuminated hallway that was filled with other students some in huddles, others walking to their classes too and a few distinctive persons like Tain, the tallest dude in school.
As I made my way to my business class, I became extremely tense just like I always was when I knew that I'll have a close contact with Amaya.
As I came in contact with the door knob, the bells rang that signalled the beginning of the new class and despite my tenseness, I couldn't help but grin and be proud of myself, at least, Mr. Markel will know that I loved his classes.
As I turned the door knob, the first sight I saw was that of a blonde girl with attractive pink lips that wore a neon green Bardot top - off shoulder top and footed leggings. It was Amaya. I pretend like I didn't notice her presence as I walked to a seat on the front row. As I moved to the front, I lost concentration and hit a blue desk so hard I could've sworn that I had gotten a fractured bone. Way to go Amaya! A broken heart and now a fractured bone.
"Sorry darling"
Was what Amaya said back to me with a giggle. I shot an angry look at her and she winked and waved her painted fingers at me. I heard her two best friends chuckle at this and it just made me more infuriated.
I sat on the chair closest to me to nurse my knee, it was hurting really bad and I knew I had to go see a doctor as soon as school was over.
Other students had come in, some making a cacophony as they came in groups and others, alone. Our fat, pot bellied teacher that had a small spectacle hung comfortably on his huge nose was settled already and ready to teach.
Other random students had taken up almost the entire space including where I wanted so I just sat where I was and sulked on the ill luck that came upon me. After a little while, I forgot my misery and drifted off into an unblemished trance where flowers danced with fluffy, white clouds, where the snow fell in colours of the rainbow and where other impossible stuffs happened like me dancing with Maisie on a sea shore as blue dolphins popped in and out of the sea.
"... Mr Rhett! Would you please explain to the class why you aren't paying attention?"
Mr. Markel's face had turned bright red from anger and every student knew he had an awful temper. And I was curious to know if it'll at least, cause changes in a thermometer.
I stammered out words that didn't make sense. My head was hurting again and I felt dizzy. My knee was still throbbing impenitently and I felt terrible but I couldn't tell him because it'd have seemed like a lie because of the situation I was in and besides, that wasn't even the reason why I wasn't paying attention.
I heard Amaya whisper somethings and the whole class burst into laughter before Mr. Markel gained control over the class.
******************************
"Your knee hurt real bad but in about three days of consistent use of the meds, you should be good"
My family doctor said as he used his pointy finger to push his glasses up his nose that was well lubricated with sweat.
I took a look at the knee and patted it while mustering "you'll be fine".
"Were you doing some kind of sport?"
He asked again which was no surprise to me. He was a good old man but he never knew when to zip up his mouth and I knew it'll put him in some trouble some day. There was even a time after a thorough check up on mum, he asked her why she didn't go into the porn industry. Mum was infuriated and it took shouts, breaking stuffs and dad calming her down for weeks straight before she could get herself again.
I pretended like I didn't hear the question as I stood up from where I was seated, put my bag on and left the hospital with the unhidden stares from the nurses digging into my skin. Yeah! A 19 year old rude ass.
**
I never really enjoyed the twins' presence on our way home from school. They could argue, hurl things at one another and spit out spiteful words against each other and the next minute, have each other’s back against me or my mum and dad or anyone at all. But as much as I didn’t like them together, I missed those chatterboxes as I sat in the comfortable space of my Hyundai Elantra, listening to one of Lindsey Sterling’s many instrumentals and waiting for the congested traffic to unclog itself.
My phone beeped and a call came in, Amaya?
“What do you want Amaya?” I asked, her name appearing on my phone's screen immediately draining up the excitement poor Lindsey’s instrumentals had been building up for minutes.
“How’s your knee?” She asked but I knew better than that. Amaya didn’t care about my knee. She didn’t care about anybody but herself. She was “Amaya”.
“What do you have to say?” I asked instinctively resting my elbow on my dashboard already exasperated from the traffic and her voice.
“Why can’t I ask about my ex's knee?” She asked before a pop sound went off in her mouth. She was a chewing a gum. “Well, I wanted you to know that Starglint is uhm, getting a new student, y’know, from a country in Europe… Belgium, I think, and I’ve been told to give him a tour…”
I cut the call off, the traffic had miraculously disappeared and I didn’t want to spend another second wasting my life on Amaya. Besides, nothing connected me and a Belgian dude unless, he dated Amaya, my ex.
I turned up the volume of Lindsey's music and sped home, a long trail of cars behind me doing the same.
Our home's entrance boomed through the air as I slammed it shut and hastened toward my room.“Where are your manners, Russell?” my mum’s thin voice said finding it’s way to the staircase where I was – a few steps left before getting to my room.“Sorry mum, evening!” I shouted back as I hastened to my room, locked myself in and slumped on my bed and ended up regretting it as a loose sock with blotches of different colours bounced off my bed and tried suffocating me with it's densely chummy stench as it landed directly on my nostrils.My throat went dry and itchy instantly, my head was heating up really fast as the hazy memories hidden behind time's facade of last winter began to unveil itself. I took an half empty bottle of water that I had left on my table last
So, as I pulled up in the garage, I could smell the pungent odour of problems brewing. Everywhere was unusually silent and as I got out of the car and slammed it's door, birds on the roof flew away in a rowdy flurry. Scared-y cats! Or do we still say bats?As I walked to the front door, I caught a face at the window peeking at me. It was Mason looking at me from above with eyes that screamed “doom!”. I rolled my eyes at him, got to the door and let myself in.**My dad wasn't back yet and that'd have been a good thing if mum wasn't going to snitch on me. She was still telling me about the things I should've done so that I could've gotten to school on time to prevent having detention but the sole thing I could conceive as she "ranted on" was... MAISIE!.
"I still don't get how you could've ever been with her bro" Sal said as he stuck his thumbs in the straps of his bag leaving room between his elbow and his abdomen. He kicked an empty can off the walk way as Mer interlocked her arms into his and caused a few bumps as she skipped a few times along with us.I sincerely didn't know either how I'd gotten together with Amaya. I never loved her because she'd always been way too fussy and awfully picky. She did almost whatever made her comfortable not minding others and that didn't still stop her from being a wimp. She was pained, pained that I wasn’t “hers” anymore and every single day made reality hit her more – she’d never get a chance with me, again. I was certain that I was accurate with my hypothesis because we'd grown almost together. We attended the same elementary school, high school and now, college.
A really long passage with small apartments, the size of two cubicles merged. From the petite or let's say trivial terrace, the third room on your left.Firmly held by old, red bricks bountifully garnished with cracks on its surface, a pallid ash gray door stood and on its other side, all her worth outside her homeland were kept. ALL.And there, behind the door with drapes drawn to prevent the incurs of the sun during the day- Just like a vamp will do, a small, portable plasma TV hung to the thinned walls, a stein with red, small cheap wine filled the air and a few inches from the cold dark walls, the soft thud of her heart reminded her that she was living as she lay on her single bed, curled up from the world outside and only peeking to know what was going out there through her TV.Life hadn't been always bad, in fact, it looked like it'd stored up the bad mo
The aura at home was so crisp and tense we could have an entrancing banquet of it and there will still be an ample amount of the "meal" left for Maisie. Our emotions flared when my mother began telling my dad how irresponsible I’d been by not picking up Mason and Madison and how I’d gotten detention. My mother had broken our deal, she’d snitched on me although she told me she wasn’t going to mention it, she broke my trust!I didn't plan on telling my parents that Maisie was coming over to hide till God-knows-when because she was wanted for the demise of a bully who'd come after her and even if I there was a slim chance of that happening before, it had been washed away.For the first time in a long time I was scared... No, panicking. The person I loved with all my life was wanted for murder, the person I had dated was probably assisting the pol
Simple smiles, a trivial pressure of bliss that wedged our lips apart and exposed our dentition. Loud, gaudy, unrefined mirths that sent echoes down the lonely but well-lit street.We couldn't help ourselves, we chuckled, grinned, burst out and even howled without the slightest caution that we were in Fairford Overlook, a residential estate and were expected to be calm and perhaps, be sipping a warm cup of coffee that wet night or reading a bedtime story.It was still raining heavily – hitting the road, our hair and rooftops too like it was in a feud but we didn't give a care in the world, we were soaked, we were drenched, we were wanted by the police and we didn’t have a plan then but we were happy, exceedingly happy!That moment was enchanting, flawless and magical - from the incessant rain that seemed to mat down my dark hair, through the gentle
Rows of lockers on both sides of the long corridor thinned out of my view as I raced with feet hastier than Iris', the goddess of the rainbow, swift-footed messenger of the gods. Their colours fizzled out - Magenta, hue of a perfect green lawn, a spotless blue sky and the golden shade of the sun.I went left, turned right and shot down the longer hallway that had two defective bulbs that flickered inversely to each other. I passed by exquisite and identical hazel coloured doors with brass doorknobs. I knew what was on the other side of those doors and I had been in most - Ruddy carpets, plastered cerulean and white snowy ceilings, air conditioners airing at their topmost potentials, black lounge chairs on one side and a tablet-armed chair on the other side of a desk messed with crisp, white papers.I got out of the building easier than I thought I would. I felt like I was running into a booby trap. I retrieved my four
A 2020 Kia Forte was approaching us with headlamps fully blasting with white bright lights although it was midday at an insane speed. It suddenly swerved to it's left - out of it's Lane onto ours and multiplied it's velocity by infinity.It didn't make any sense and the once pinpoint light that fought through the country road's brown dust as it grew to become a blinding illumination didn't help.The Lotus Evoras were well behind us and I thought for a crack second that we were victorious just before the Kia Forte and our Land Rover rammed severely into each other.At that instant every darn thing slowed down - the pieces of the windscreen that shattered, the deafening and unending alarms of the two cars, the suffocating, pallid airbags, the resonant high-pitched shriek of Maisie as a thin but very acute piece of the windscreen tore her face - closely beneath her left eye, a bleeding knee, a broken shoulder, two destroyed v