The Story I Wrote
So this is the story I wrote. Criticism is much appriciated as long as you don't say "it sucks". I'm really serious about this.
It's called
Ghosts of the Past
by Carol Ann Lake
Sunset. Most people consider it to be such a beautiful thing, but I couldn't see it. It's the bringer of darkness to the world. How apropos.
I stepped out onto the second floor veranda of the large Victorian building and took a deep breath of the air. I gripped the railing with one hand so hard that my knuckles turned white. The house had been consuming me. It was exactly the same as it had been five years ago, only completely uninhabited, barren. Each corridor had loomed as if ghosts had been walking down them not long before. Maybe they had.
Or maybe one had.
A small tear arose unbidden from my eye and flowed down my cheek. Oh, Alex, why can't you be here with me? Why?, The wind whipped my shortly chopped hair in my face. I closed my eyes and tried to dispel all thought from my mind.
I heard the door open and close behind me. Will. I couldn't believe Will had followed me here. I sent him silent messages, Go away, hoping he would get the clue, but I didn't sense any movement behind me.
"Are you okay?" he asked me suddenly and I hastily wiped the unbidden tear off my cheek and tucked a stray twist of hair behind my ear at the same time, hoping Will wouldn't notice.
"Max?" his voice seemed to insist that I answer and yet be tentative, almost fearful, at the same time.
"Define okay," I sniped at him. I turned around and stared him right in the eye. Why can't he just go away? I could deal with him. Not now.
He finally came away from the doorway and stepped right up to meet me, his nose unsuccessfully trying to meet the sky. I could tell he was trying to look taller, but I could still look over his head, and I had to look down to meet his eyes. Their normal bright green was clouded over with sadness. I tried to remain defiant and not get lost in them as they searched my face.
"I know this house has a lot of memories," he said. I just glared at him. Silence hung in the air between us for a time outside of time. It seemed like hours, yet I knew it was only moments due to the last rays of the sun that still peaked over the hillside and caught in Will's red hair, making it seem like it was glowing.
And thus being, it was Will who finally interrupted the silence by saying, "Maybe you should talk about it."
I snorted. Talk about it? Maybe I should talk about it? He had to be kidding me. What was he expecting me to do? Pour my little heart out? Talk about how my inner child, little Maxie or whatever, wants to cry every second of every day because she misses her big brother and wishes she could somehow, anyhow, have him back? Never. I'd sooner die. In fact, that didn't sound like entirely a bad idea.
"Max?" he inquired of me again, this time softly.
"Go away," I practically whispered, but I realized the coldness in my voice. So what? It was good, in fact. Maybe he'd finally heed the advice. Not that he ever did.
"Is that what you really want?" Will asked, his manner of asking almost child-like in its innocence.
"Yes," I replied in the same cold tone, but louder, and rising in volume as I continued. "When I say 'go away,' I mean it. So, GO AWAY!" I screamed the last two words forcefully and I saw Will retreat a few paces.
Will shook his head. "It shouldn't be this way," he stated. "Alex w-"
"Don't talk about Alex!" I cut him off sharply. No! He couldn't talk about him, shouldn't be allowed to talk about him. Not now. Not ever. Especially not now.
Will sighed. "Max, I know-"
"What do you know?" I mocked him. Just who did he think he was? He had absolutely no right to go around assuming he knew everything about how people felt. "You know nothing. Not about me." I was furious and the words came out of my mouth with almost no previous thought, just pure fury. "You never will know anything about me! You'll just be a clueless son of a bitch for the rest of you life!" I stopped and stared at him for a second. Then said, "You don't understand, I know you think you do, but you don't."
Will shook his head, and he looked hurt. Oh, poor baby. "He was my friend too," he stated defensively.
His friend? He was his friend? That didn't even begin to describe how I felt. "But he wasn't just my friend," I said, "he was my brother."
"He was-" Will started to say, but stopped. He didn't need to finish, I knew exactly what he was about to say. Will was just so easy to read. He was about to say that he wasn't really my brother. Part of me can't even believe that he could even consider saying that. I glared at him with a look of complete and utter disgust. True, Alex hadn't been my brother biologically, but he was in every way that mattered, every way that I cared about. Will should've known better. I could tell he regretted it just by looking at him, but that wasn't nearly enough for me. Oh, he'd regret it all right.
I curled my hand into a fist. "You shouldn't've never said that."
"Shouldn't have ever or should have never." Will automatically responded.
"WHAT!?"
"It was a double negative..." Will managed to get out, although he squeaked on the end of it.
The ball of my emotions was rolling downhill, collecting speed. "DON'T YOU DARE CORRECT MY ENGLISH!"
I put my hand back on the rail and both of us said nothing for a while. I didn't look at Will. I didn't want to.
"It should have been me. Alex was the best of us. He was the only one that always thought of others before himself," I whispered. "It's not fair..." I didn't think Will would be able to hear me. The words were to myself, but he apparently picked up on them anyway.
"Sometimes the gods of irony like to stand up and slap you in the face," he commented, trying to add some humor into the situation, but it was ill recieved by me. Will so obviously didn't quite grasp my state of mind.
Will slowly slid his hand over mine on the rail and I stared at it. Both our hands were exactly the same size. "I think it was a little more than a slap in the face," I muttered bitterly. Then he grasped my fingers and I retaliated back from his touch. Still, neither of us said a word. I looked down and realized that I held something in my other hand. A picture. A picture from what seemed like another lifetime.
I looked at myself in it. My hair was long, and hung neatly down my back. My eyes were slightly downcast. A shy smile played across my face.
Next to me stood my "real" brother, Ian. At the time he was my blond other half. He used to practically talk for me. He always seemed to know exactly what I was thinking and feeling. It's so different now. All we have is arguments.
On the other side of me was a younger and (if it's possible) smaller Will. His hair looked as if he'd just gotten out of bed. He had a pair of glasses placed awkwardly on his face and taped together in two places. His hands were on his hips and his head was held high. Will had had such a Napoleon complex.
And standing over us was Alex. Funny, protective, accepting, kind, just all-around amazing Alex. Alex who was the heart and soul of our group. And who was no longer with us.
Then my eyes turned next to him. There was a blonde girl in a pair of overalls with her arm around him. Lucy. Oh...
A hundred and one thoughts flooded my mind at once. I hadn't seen Lucy in what felt like forever. I hadn't even thought about her. How could I forget like that? Lucy was Alex's best friend. She was here so often she was practically a member of our family. She'd known Alex long before we were close. How could I be so selfish?
"What happened to us?" I asked the air softly.
A voice beside me answered, "I'm not sure. I guess we just all went our separate ways. People do that. When something happens to them."
I looked at Will. I had only ever known him through Alex. They'd been great friends. And look at the way I'd been treating him. Like he was garbage. Like nothing about him meant anything.
I was about to apologize, but instead what came out was, "Why do people die?" I needed to hear this. Will always had an answer for everything. I remembered that. Any time I had any kind of question when we were younger, Will had always had an answer for it, he'd always had something to say.
"Well..." Will had that inquisitive look he'd always had while he thought of an answer. I waited expectantly, almost desperately. "I guess everyone has to die. If we all lived forever, imagine the population problem we'd have. It's bad enough as it is."
That wasn't quite what I was getting at. "Yeah, but why do people die when they're still young? When they still have their whole lives in front of them?" I asked.
"Um..." Will cleared his throat. I waited again. This time he looked nervous. Please, please, please, I silently begged. I needed an answer. I need assurance that there was reason to the world. "I..." Will looked at me sadly. "I don't know." He bit his lip.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean I don't know!" Will yelled suddenly.
I shook my head and ran back inside. I ran through the first room and everything around me blurred. I kept running until I was halfway down the corridor, and then I stopped. I looked around. The corridor used to seem so friendly and cheerful when I was a kid. Now it seemed dark and unwelcoming. A chill went down my spine as I heard Will's footsteps pounding behind me.
"I'm sorry," he said when he caught up to me.
I turned around to face him. He'd been crying. His freckles stood out on his tear-stained face. I took a deep breath. "Don't be sorry. You should stick up for yourself more often." I told him.
Will looked at me as if he was looking at an animal that had just behaved in a way that contradicted the natural order of things.
"And..." I took a deep breath. "I'm sorry. For everything. For the past five years. I know you were Alex's friend too."
Will gave me a quirky smile. "Nah, he just hung out with me because I did his homework."
I knew for a fact that this wasn't true. Not just because I knew they were really friends, but reasons anyone should know. Alex was perfectly capable of doing his own homework, and anyway, Will didn't even do his own. He said it was boring. Although, he did tutor Alex occasionally. And the last year before what happened, Will was over the house a lot, any time he needed to excape his father.
I actually smiled back at Will. It felt...different, nice. But there was still something off. Something that I hadn't addressed. That I hadn't thought about. But I couldn't excape it. It came onto my mind in one swift, painful moment. What had been bothering me since I was twelve years old.
"It was my fault, Will." It was true. That was my issue all of these years. Every time I pushed someone away, or yelled at Will or anything else, I was really angry with myself. I had been there when Alex had died. I could have done something. After I got thrown, I just sat there like an idiot. Alex could still be alive today. If I had.... If...
"No it wasn't," Will stated as if I had just lost it.
"But it was," I tried to explain. "I could have done something-" I was hysterical. The part of me that had held up a wall to the world all of these years came crashing down around me. I was having a breakdown. With any luck I'd be stuck in a mental hospital the rest of my life muttering about days long lost.
"What could you have done?" Will asked sharply. "You were barely twelve years old. The guy had a knife."
A knife. I remembered that knife as if I was seeing it right at that moment. Staring at me with a sinister glitter. Paralyzing me. I just stood there and shook my head for a while, a second away from losing it completely. So I ran again. This time all the way downstairs and out the front door. The yard was getting extremely dark with the fading sun and a breeze lifted the air into a private chorus. Seeing eyes would have thought it beautiful, picturesque, but mine were blinded by anger and sadness.
"Max!" Will panted after me. "Please!"
I looked back at him, tears running down my face. I couldn't help it anymore. The dam had broken, and everything inside me was breaking down with it.
"It's not your fault, Max! It's not your fault!" he cried. He shook his head. "I can't believe you think that. Snapping at people for every little thing...I wonder..." he trailed off and looked at me with something indescribable in his eyes.
"What do you mean, 'every little thing'?" I asked, defensive.
"Oh, you know..." Will thought back. "Like for me correcting your English, or-"
I raised my eyebrows. So that's how you want to play. I could get him back for that one. A smug smile involuntarily came over my face. "So what if I don't talk GOOD?"
Will's eyes narrowed, but he smiled. "You just did that on purpose," he muttered jokingly. But then he sighed, getting serious again. "You getting off the subject, Max" he said. "I really meant what I said, you know. It really wasn't your fault. There was absolutely nothing you could have done. I promise you." I had never seen someone look so sincere in my entire life.
I nodded. "I know..." Will had said that to me like he meant it, and...I actually believed it. For the first time in the longest time, I actually felt like I deserved to live. That I had a place on this planet. It's strange how someone that I've known for so long and never gave a second thought to, that I've tried to give the cold shoulder, gave me the greatest gift possible. He had suddenly become my sun in the darkness. "You showed me that. Thanks."
"We need some chocolate," Will suddenly stated. At my look, he explained, "There is no problem that can't be solved by copious amounts of chocolate."
I actually laughed. It felt good. "I think that would be good. There's a shop downtown."
"I remember," he said. He nodded and beamed.
I turned back toward the house, which stood as a dominating figure in front of me. It had been the comfort of my childhood and the bane of my present. Who knew what lay in store for it's future? Maybe it would finally get some rest.
"Where are you going?" Will asked me. "I can't drive, no one would believe that I'm old enough. And besides," he added. "I didn't bring my license." He shrugged and looked back at me. "So get your butt back here!" he added, stamping his foot like a little kid.
"Just throw a bunch of long words at them, they'll think you're a genius," I joked. It felt good to be throwing friendly banter between each other again.
"I am a genius," he said, as if he were reading a fact out of a textbook.
"And you're modest, too," I added, in half-snort.
Will just bounced on his heels and smiled wildly.
"I'll be right back," I assured him.
I went back in the house and looked around. The house was quiet and every footstep I took made a resounding echo. The smell of the dust, untouched for years was almost tangible. The ghosts of the past were rising again to meet me. I looked down at the picture of the five of us and traced my finger slowly around its frame. "Goodnight, Alex," I whispered. Then I placed the picture on an oak mantelpiece against the back wall and went back outside to meet Will.
So, as it turns out, maybe life isn't so bad after all.
fin
Please, please, please comment on this.
The characters are mine, I've written about them before (since 8th grade in fact), and if anyone so much as thinks of taking anything from me, I will hunt you down, and they will find your body later. Trust me.
It's called
Ghosts of the Past
by Carol Ann Lake
Sunset. Most people consider it to be such a beautiful thing, but I couldn't see it. It's the bringer of darkness to the world. How apropos.
I stepped out onto the second floor veranda of the large Victorian building and took a deep breath of the air. I gripped the railing with one hand so hard that my knuckles turned white. The house had been consuming me. It was exactly the same as it had been five years ago, only completely uninhabited, barren. Each corridor had loomed as if ghosts had been walking down them not long before. Maybe they had.
Or maybe one had.
A small tear arose unbidden from my eye and flowed down my cheek. Oh, Alex, why can't you be here with me? Why?, The wind whipped my shortly chopped hair in my face. I closed my eyes and tried to dispel all thought from my mind.
I heard the door open and close behind me. Will. I couldn't believe Will had followed me here. I sent him silent messages, Go away, hoping he would get the clue, but I didn't sense any movement behind me.
"Are you okay?" he asked me suddenly and I hastily wiped the unbidden tear off my cheek and tucked a stray twist of hair behind my ear at the same time, hoping Will wouldn't notice.
"Max?" his voice seemed to insist that I answer and yet be tentative, almost fearful, at the same time.
"Define okay," I sniped at him. I turned around and stared him right in the eye. Why can't he just go away? I could deal with him. Not now.
He finally came away from the doorway and stepped right up to meet me, his nose unsuccessfully trying to meet the sky. I could tell he was trying to look taller, but I could still look over his head, and I had to look down to meet his eyes. Their normal bright green was clouded over with sadness. I tried to remain defiant and not get lost in them as they searched my face.
"I know this house has a lot of memories," he said. I just glared at him. Silence hung in the air between us for a time outside of time. It seemed like hours, yet I knew it was only moments due to the last rays of the sun that still peaked over the hillside and caught in Will's red hair, making it seem like it was glowing.
And thus being, it was Will who finally interrupted the silence by saying, "Maybe you should talk about it."
I snorted. Talk about it? Maybe I should talk about it? He had to be kidding me. What was he expecting me to do? Pour my little heart out? Talk about how my inner child, little Maxie or whatever, wants to cry every second of every day because she misses her big brother and wishes she could somehow, anyhow, have him back? Never. I'd sooner die. In fact, that didn't sound like entirely a bad idea.
"Max?" he inquired of me again, this time softly.
"Go away," I practically whispered, but I realized the coldness in my voice. So what? It was good, in fact. Maybe he'd finally heed the advice. Not that he ever did.
"Is that what you really want?" Will asked, his manner of asking almost child-like in its innocence.
"Yes," I replied in the same cold tone, but louder, and rising in volume as I continued. "When I say 'go away,' I mean it. So, GO AWAY!" I screamed the last two words forcefully and I saw Will retreat a few paces.
Will shook his head. "It shouldn't be this way," he stated. "Alex w-"
"Don't talk about Alex!" I cut him off sharply. No! He couldn't talk about him, shouldn't be allowed to talk about him. Not now. Not ever. Especially not now.
Will sighed. "Max, I know-"
"What do you know?" I mocked him. Just who did he think he was? He had absolutely no right to go around assuming he knew everything about how people felt. "You know nothing. Not about me." I was furious and the words came out of my mouth with almost no previous thought, just pure fury. "You never will know anything about me! You'll just be a clueless son of a bitch for the rest of you life!" I stopped and stared at him for a second. Then said, "You don't understand, I know you think you do, but you don't."
Will shook his head, and he looked hurt. Oh, poor baby. "He was my friend too," he stated defensively.
His friend? He was his friend? That didn't even begin to describe how I felt. "But he wasn't just my friend," I said, "he was my brother."
"He was-" Will started to say, but stopped. He didn't need to finish, I knew exactly what he was about to say. Will was just so easy to read. He was about to say that he wasn't really my brother. Part of me can't even believe that he could even consider saying that. I glared at him with a look of complete and utter disgust. True, Alex hadn't been my brother biologically, but he was in every way that mattered, every way that I cared about. Will should've known better. I could tell he regretted it just by looking at him, but that wasn't nearly enough for me. Oh, he'd regret it all right.
I curled my hand into a fist. "You shouldn't've never said that."
"Shouldn't have ever or should have never." Will automatically responded.
"WHAT!?"
"It was a double negative..." Will managed to get out, although he squeaked on the end of it.
The ball of my emotions was rolling downhill, collecting speed. "DON'T YOU DARE CORRECT MY ENGLISH!"
I put my hand back on the rail and both of us said nothing for a while. I didn't look at Will. I didn't want to.
"It should have been me. Alex was the best of us. He was the only one that always thought of others before himself," I whispered. "It's not fair..." I didn't think Will would be able to hear me. The words were to myself, but he apparently picked up on them anyway.
"Sometimes the gods of irony like to stand up and slap you in the face," he commented, trying to add some humor into the situation, but it was ill recieved by me. Will so obviously didn't quite grasp my state of mind.
Will slowly slid his hand over mine on the rail and I stared at it. Both our hands were exactly the same size. "I think it was a little more than a slap in the face," I muttered bitterly. Then he grasped my fingers and I retaliated back from his touch. Still, neither of us said a word. I looked down and realized that I held something in my other hand. A picture. A picture from what seemed like another lifetime.
I looked at myself in it. My hair was long, and hung neatly down my back. My eyes were slightly downcast. A shy smile played across my face.
Next to me stood my "real" brother, Ian. At the time he was my blond other half. He used to practically talk for me. He always seemed to know exactly what I was thinking and feeling. It's so different now. All we have is arguments.
On the other side of me was a younger and (if it's possible) smaller Will. His hair looked as if he'd just gotten out of bed. He had a pair of glasses placed awkwardly on his face and taped together in two places. His hands were on his hips and his head was held high. Will had had such a Napoleon complex.
And standing over us was Alex. Funny, protective, accepting, kind, just all-around amazing Alex. Alex who was the heart and soul of our group. And who was no longer with us.
Then my eyes turned next to him. There was a blonde girl in a pair of overalls with her arm around him. Lucy. Oh...
A hundred and one thoughts flooded my mind at once. I hadn't seen Lucy in what felt like forever. I hadn't even thought about her. How could I forget like that? Lucy was Alex's best friend. She was here so often she was practically a member of our family. She'd known Alex long before we were close. How could I be so selfish?
"What happened to us?" I asked the air softly.
A voice beside me answered, "I'm not sure. I guess we just all went our separate ways. People do that. When something happens to them."
I looked at Will. I had only ever known him through Alex. They'd been great friends. And look at the way I'd been treating him. Like he was garbage. Like nothing about him meant anything.
I was about to apologize, but instead what came out was, "Why do people die?" I needed to hear this. Will always had an answer for everything. I remembered that. Any time I had any kind of question when we were younger, Will had always had an answer for it, he'd always had something to say.
"Well..." Will had that inquisitive look he'd always had while he thought of an answer. I waited expectantly, almost desperately. "I guess everyone has to die. If we all lived forever, imagine the population problem we'd have. It's bad enough as it is."
That wasn't quite what I was getting at. "Yeah, but why do people die when they're still young? When they still have their whole lives in front of them?" I asked.
"Um..." Will cleared his throat. I waited again. This time he looked nervous. Please, please, please, I silently begged. I needed an answer. I need assurance that there was reason to the world. "I..." Will looked at me sadly. "I don't know." He bit his lip.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean I don't know!" Will yelled suddenly.
I shook my head and ran back inside. I ran through the first room and everything around me blurred. I kept running until I was halfway down the corridor, and then I stopped. I looked around. The corridor used to seem so friendly and cheerful when I was a kid. Now it seemed dark and unwelcoming. A chill went down my spine as I heard Will's footsteps pounding behind me.
"I'm sorry," he said when he caught up to me.
I turned around to face him. He'd been crying. His freckles stood out on his tear-stained face. I took a deep breath. "Don't be sorry. You should stick up for yourself more often." I told him.
Will looked at me as if he was looking at an animal that had just behaved in a way that contradicted the natural order of things.
"And..." I took a deep breath. "I'm sorry. For everything. For the past five years. I know you were Alex's friend too."
Will gave me a quirky smile. "Nah, he just hung out with me because I did his homework."
I knew for a fact that this wasn't true. Not just because I knew they were really friends, but reasons anyone should know. Alex was perfectly capable of doing his own homework, and anyway, Will didn't even do his own. He said it was boring. Although, he did tutor Alex occasionally. And the last year before what happened, Will was over the house a lot, any time he needed to excape his father.
I actually smiled back at Will. It felt...different, nice. But there was still something off. Something that I hadn't addressed. That I hadn't thought about. But I couldn't excape it. It came onto my mind in one swift, painful moment. What had been bothering me since I was twelve years old.
"It was my fault, Will." It was true. That was my issue all of these years. Every time I pushed someone away, or yelled at Will or anything else, I was really angry with myself. I had been there when Alex had died. I could have done something. After I got thrown, I just sat there like an idiot. Alex could still be alive today. If I had.... If...
"No it wasn't," Will stated as if I had just lost it.
"But it was," I tried to explain. "I could have done something-" I was hysterical. The part of me that had held up a wall to the world all of these years came crashing down around me. I was having a breakdown. With any luck I'd be stuck in a mental hospital the rest of my life muttering about days long lost.
"What could you have done?" Will asked sharply. "You were barely twelve years old. The guy had a knife."
A knife. I remembered that knife as if I was seeing it right at that moment. Staring at me with a sinister glitter. Paralyzing me. I just stood there and shook my head for a while, a second away from losing it completely. So I ran again. This time all the way downstairs and out the front door. The yard was getting extremely dark with the fading sun and a breeze lifted the air into a private chorus. Seeing eyes would have thought it beautiful, picturesque, but mine were blinded by anger and sadness.
"Max!" Will panted after me. "Please!"
I looked back at him, tears running down my face. I couldn't help it anymore. The dam had broken, and everything inside me was breaking down with it.
"It's not your fault, Max! It's not your fault!" he cried. He shook his head. "I can't believe you think that. Snapping at people for every little thing...I wonder..." he trailed off and looked at me with something indescribable in his eyes.
"What do you mean, 'every little thing'?" I asked, defensive.
"Oh, you know..." Will thought back. "Like for me correcting your English, or-"
I raised my eyebrows. So that's how you want to play. I could get him back for that one. A smug smile involuntarily came over my face. "So what if I don't talk GOOD?"
Will's eyes narrowed, but he smiled. "You just did that on purpose," he muttered jokingly. But then he sighed, getting serious again. "You getting off the subject, Max" he said. "I really meant what I said, you know. It really wasn't your fault. There was absolutely nothing you could have done. I promise you." I had never seen someone look so sincere in my entire life.
I nodded. "I know..." Will had said that to me like he meant it, and...I actually believed it. For the first time in the longest time, I actually felt like I deserved to live. That I had a place on this planet. It's strange how someone that I've known for so long and never gave a second thought to, that I've tried to give the cold shoulder, gave me the greatest gift possible. He had suddenly become my sun in the darkness. "You showed me that. Thanks."
"We need some chocolate," Will suddenly stated. At my look, he explained, "There is no problem that can't be solved by copious amounts of chocolate."
I actually laughed. It felt good. "I think that would be good. There's a shop downtown."
"I remember," he said. He nodded and beamed.
I turned back toward the house, which stood as a dominating figure in front of me. It had been the comfort of my childhood and the bane of my present. Who knew what lay in store for it's future? Maybe it would finally get some rest.
"Where are you going?" Will asked me. "I can't drive, no one would believe that I'm old enough. And besides," he added. "I didn't bring my license." He shrugged and looked back at me. "So get your butt back here!" he added, stamping his foot like a little kid.
"Just throw a bunch of long words at them, they'll think you're a genius," I joked. It felt good to be throwing friendly banter between each other again.
"I am a genius," he said, as if he were reading a fact out of a textbook.
"And you're modest, too," I added, in half-snort.
Will just bounced on his heels and smiled wildly.
"I'll be right back," I assured him.
I went back in the house and looked around. The house was quiet and every footstep I took made a resounding echo. The smell of the dust, untouched for years was almost tangible. The ghosts of the past were rising again to meet me. I looked down at the picture of the five of us and traced my finger slowly around its frame. "Goodnight, Alex," I whispered. Then I placed the picture on an oak mantelpiece against the back wall and went back outside to meet Will.
So, as it turns out, maybe life isn't so bad after all.
fin
Please, please, please comment on this.
The characters are mine, I've written about them before (since 8th grade in fact), and if anyone so much as thinks of taking anything from me, I will hunt you down, and they will find your body later. Trust me.