This is a bit bifferent...

My realistic - fiction story turned into a... sci-fi/ fantasy. But whatever. Chapter Two is rather confusing, so I have a LOT of editing to do.... And it's a bit longer than Chpt. 1. Prologue “I LOVE YOU,” she whispered, releasing him and turning to her circular hell. “I’m pushing it already…” He blinked at her, perplexed, and let his finger-tips glide along her arms wistfully as she pulled away. “You don’t understand…” a convoy of tears found their way down her face. “I promise you… I’ll see you again…” He shook his head. “Why does this always happen?” He frowned, but no expressions of extreme grief made way onto his blood-drained face. It was her turn to become befuddled. “You mean… What?” “I always thought that love was something that only happened to good people…. Was I wrong? Or am I just a bad person?” It was rhetorical question, of course, but the need for one last embrace was felt in some strange energy around them. She glanced at her left hand; her finger-tips were dispersing. “It’s really my own fault; I wish that this wasn’t happening. I’ll find a way for us to be together… forever, I’m sorry,” she pouted, and he pursed his lips, murmuring at her ear. “I love you too,” Chapter One IT WAS A BREEZY DAY IN UTAH, of the United States of America. The first fall leaves, a few plastic bags and papers flew gently across the pavement in the lot. May bent over and picked up a basketball buried behind some bushes. She bounced it a few times and walked toward the basketball hoop. She shot it and in went through to metal rim and made a quiet ‘whoosh’ noise against the net. Her face beamed with satisfaction. The first time she’d made it on the first try. She shot again. It went into the hoop again, silently. She grinned again. A boy was leaning in against the gray chain-link fence. She shot again, and of course, it went in, and again, silently. His mouth was open, and his eyes looked shocked. She shot again and it bounced on the rim, but it went in. “I bet you can’t do that from any other spot.” He said, walking onto the court. She smiled. “Probably not.” She walked about three yards to her right and shot again; and it went in, again. “Holy crap!” “Wanna play?” he was right next to her now. She stood with the ball at her feet, looking confused. She picked it up and licked her lips… her nervous tick. He reached for the ball and hit it down with the palm of his hand. It dropped effortlessly from her grip and bounced on the ground. He bounced it near the ground and took it a few yards back. “Uhm… you mean like… play basketball, a one on one game?” He nodded. “Okay…” She’d never played basketball before, she’d never really even shot hoops. It was a fun game, she decided. He won, she wasn’t as good on her feet, and it was probably just luck when she first started shooting around anyways. It was a quick game too, first to twenty-one. She finished with fourteen when he won. “That was pretty fun…” she said, she was a little tired, but it didn’t take too much energy out of her. She looked up and he was smiling at her. He said something, but she was too lost in his eyes. They were beautiful. Blue… no… gray… both, actually… He was really cute. He was a few inches taller than her, unless they were standing on the slant, which they shouldn’t be, if they were on a basketball court. He was muscular, kind of. Not big, but not skinny. He had curly, golden, dark hair, that fell over most of his forehead… and his lips… he had dark, chapped, full lips. His nose was perfect too. He was perfect, actually. He raised both his eye-brows as if to say “well?” and those eye-brows he raised… were perfect too, the same dark color as his hair. “Uhh… ok.” She said, hoping that was the right answer. “Great,” He stepped towards her, turned his hands, palms up, and moved then slightly away from his body. She stepped in and embraced him. The cologne he was wearing smelled good with the little bit of sweat mixed into the scent. She felt him hold her hair for a quick moment and she rubbed his back once with her hand and they let go of each other. “That was fun. See you tomorrow.” He jogged away, leaving her dumbfounded. What had he said when she was lost, staring at the perfect boy she’d just met? Tomorrow was the first day of the tenth grade; sophomore year. What was he talking about!? She realized now that he had handed her the basketball again and she rolled it over and over again in her hands. There was black marker written on it, it was an old basketball, but the marker seemed generally new, as if the ball had only been written on a couple of weeks ago, and the ball must not have been used too much. It was hard to read, but what seemed like was “M.C.” maybe the old owners initials. She put the ball back where she had found it and began walking towards the school. She stopped and pulled up the hood on her jacket. She stopped at a nice house, almost exactly in-between the park and the school. She opened the mail-box and sighed with relief. Finally, her schedule for the next school-year had showed up. She was happy that her parents hadn’t told the school to forget about her classes. She put the big envelope inside her jacket and continued walking to the school. When she got there she walked around the back and onto the field. She picked up her backpack, which she had left there and looked around for a minute. Nobody was around. She removed her jacket, and if you were there, you would have been surprised; she was wearing a dirty, too small, tank-top; her jeans were a mess too… torn and faded… though that was expected of a fourteen-year-old. It would have been surprising, probably because her skin and teeth were clean, and her curls were kept clean and brushed. She stuffed the jacket in her backpack and ran to a fenced off area against the school, she crawled through a hole in the bottom of the fence, and slid her body in between in a large blue dumpster and the rough brick wall. Her chest was getting bigger, she used to be able to press her back against the dumpster and slide smoothly through, but now she had to pull her shirt tightly away from her back and slide her back on the wall, it hurt a little, but she’d gotten used to it. She stopped about halfway down and used her heel to kick back against the wall. The wooden board that she had kicked fell down and she put her feet in backwards, eventually getting on her knees. She dropped her backpack, which was in her hand, being dragged along the whole time. Then she put her hands against the dumpster and slid her legs and torso in backwards, by then, her hands were on the ground, and she carefully moved her chest and head in, pulling her arms in and looking around, hoping to see nobody. And nobody, is exactly who she saw. She reached her left hand out of the two foot tall, two and a half foot wide hole in the wall, and pulled in her backpack- it was easier to pull it in with the hand opposite of the direction it was in…. think about it. She pushed the board back against the hole; home. It wasn’t much. It was one of the few rooms that were burnt up a few years back, and it was right next to the cafeteria. She had the essentials though. It was an art room, she thought. It had four black-topped tables, two stacked together on either side of the room, and three sinks on the counters, only one of them worked though, another ran water, but it was gray, and sometimes solid white. The last one though, was out of shape beyond repair. A third of the room was black, and the electricity had been turned off at the end of the school year, so she had to deal with the dark… and light, as the sun and moon gave it. She carried everything in a backpack. She didn’t want anything to be found in the room when she was gone. She had water, from the sink, and she had only been in these conditions for a little more than a month, so she’d been able to live off of a bag or pretzels, twenty-two dollars, and a few packets of dry Ramen Noodles. It wasn’t exactly the most energizing diet, but it kept her alive. She had to have lost a lot of weight, and most of the fat, because she was skinny to begin with, and she wore her jacket, not only because of her shirt and the fact the she didn’t have any sun-screen, but because she was embarrassed at how skinny she was. She was amazed at how her legs had only gotten a little smaller. In her backpack she had: a toothbrush, a tube of toothpaste, a hair brush, a bottle (only one third full now) of body-wash, that she used for her hair as well, only cleaning herself every third day, trying to conserve the soap, and it was also really hard to do… she had a bulky, dark-blue jacket, a stick of deodorant, a pair or flip-flop sandals (one was broken now), her library card, a library book (due in a couple of days, but she’d finished reading it now), a small hand-towel, twelve dollars and forty-two cents (in her pocket, actually), and an extra pair of underwear. She also had what she had been wearing. A white tank-top, and a pair of jeans. Both, were old. The jeans were fitting still, but the top, was getting too small because, as she noticed when she saw that her bra was barley fitting, her chest was getting too big for it, and she had gotten a little taller. All this in only a month?! She only stayed in the room for the night, and a couple hours through-out the day, but it had been almost two weeks since she’d washed her shirt, and tomorrow, she was going to school, so she was going to make herself look nice. She took off her shirt, and even though she was alone, she was uncomfortable, and she put her jacket back on. She ran the water, but it was never warm, so she didn’t allow any time to be wasted in efforts to let it heat. She got the shirt wet, and got out the soap; she rubbed in a little bit of soap and rubbed it gently for a good five minutes. She rinsed it out, rubbing it still, where it looked at its worse. She was glad that there were no holes in it. She stretched it out a little while it was still wet and hung it over the edge of one of the table’s. She took off her shoes and washed her socks quickly. She put them up to dry and thought for a minute. Last time she washed her clothes, she let them dry, while she went out for a walk, and came back and slept. But her flip-flops broke that day, and she was worried that somebody would see them and catch her staying there. It was more dangerous this time too because people would probably be in the school for sure today. She decided she couldn’t stay here tonight anyways. She got her sandals out and looked at how badly it was broken. She pushed the middle of the thong part back into the hole and pulled it back up gently. She decided it would probably be fine, she just had to be gentle with it. She put them on, and put the soap, shirt, and socks in the backpack. She pushed gently on the warped door that made her feel safe at night, and walked out, pulling ever so softly in the charred handle, fitting it as best as she could into its frame again. She took ten steps and she was in the cafeteria. She walked back and hopped over the counters, into the kitchen, and out the back door. When she walked out, she was next the dumpster, and the door automatically locked, so she had no way back in, except for behind the dumpster. And she didn’t want to go back out behind the dumpster because it would be hard to close the board over the hole again, because it was inside the room. She thought for a minute. Where was she going to stay? Well… it was Sunday, she had an idea. She walked to the park again, and cut through a neighborhood behind it. She saw a church with a few cars in the parking lot. She walked into the doors. There were teenagers there for some activity, she didn’t care though, she hated church, but it was perfect, for now. She’d never been inside this church, every day, she saw it, when she would sit at the park and read, or walk around to keep herself in shape, but she never went inside. It was clean, and she was happy that everybody was facing the other direction, making something, she thought, there were colorful things around. She went into the bathroom and stood there thinking. Where was she going to stay? Even if she stayed here, people would see her. She’d have to stay in the bathroom. Gross. But it would have to do. She walked around the bathroom, which wasn’t as clean as the rest of the church… almost, but not quite. No, she decided to look for something else; but not until people started leaving. She saw the hand-dryer and smiled. She got out her wet clothes and started to dry them. After a couple minutes, they were just warm and damp, but the door handle turned so she shoved them back into the backpack and put her hands under the dryer. A girl, probably a year older than her, walked in and went into a stall, without giving May a second glance. She decided to try to finish drying her socks, at least. So she did, it didn’t take more than a minute, and she left, just as the girl started walking out of the stall. “Perfect,” May smiled. There was a room in the back corner, she found, must have been for small children, because there were toy bins around the room. It was big, not too cozy, but she didn’t think anybody would walk into it, seeing as they were all at least twelve years old. She sat down in the darkest corner and but her backpack down, laying out her shirt to dry over a bin full of toys, and she lied down on the backpack to sleep. Sure, it was only seven o’clock, but she needed to sleep now, so she could get up early enough to go to school. That thought reminded to her to look at her schedule. So she sat up and dug through her back-pack. It wasn’t there. Where had it gone? She thought. She swore out loud and remembered. It probably fell out either on the way to the school, or at the school when she had it in her jacket. She couldn’t leave it. She had to run, and get it, before they locked the church up. She got up and grabbed her bag, careful not to forget her shirt, and she ran out, not even checking for people watching her. She ran past the park and to the house, there were light on, and she didn’t want to get caught, so she pulled her hood up again and walked quickly, surveying the ground for the envelope. When she got to the school, it wasn’t around. Finally, she found it, where she had put her backpack down to slide by the wall. It was getting dark though. She needed to hurry back. She picked up the packet and walked quickly back to the church. She approached the doors again and pulled them open… or rather… she tried to. They were locked. She swore under breath and turned around, heading for her back-up plan of sleeping at the park. “You’re a little late.” She winced. Great, a responsibility talk. She hated those. After all, that was why she wasn’t in her own home anymore. “Sorry, I must have read the invitation wrong.” She said sarcastically without turning around. She heard laughter. She turned around and there was a warm smile, laughing at her joke. She grinned. She recognized those lips. They were the same big, dark, chapped lips she encountered less than forty minutes ago… “It’s ok, I got here like ten minutes ago, I was at the park and lost track of time and stuff so yeah… this stuff is always boring anyways…” he looked up from his shoes. He grinned as well. He remembered seeing the beautiful girl with brown… red? He couldn’t tell… whatever color her hair was, it was beautiful, and her pale skin and short, thin figure complimented her big… purple eyes. That was the most amazing, very rare around here. “Hey!” “Small world…” she couldn’t stop smiling. “Yeah…” he looked at the church, thinking. He finally decided to ask her “where do you live, I’ll walk you home… if you want.” “Oh,” she was shocked. What was she going to say? “Nowhere,” What!? That sounded so stupid! “What?” He was confused. “Nothing… I mean… it’s pretty far away… my… mom is going to pick me up in awhile… how about we walk to your house?” “What? How will she know where you are?” “I’ll just call her.” She lied. “Ok, sounds good.” So they set off walking towards the school again. “It’s not that cold… I mean… sorry, maybe it is… sorry.” He noticed her jacket and decided not to say anything after he’d already started. “It’s ok.” She remembered that she didn’t even have a shirt on and that the packet was still in her arms. “I get cold easily….Hang on a sec” She lied again, she was actually sweating. But then again, maybe that wasn’t because of the jacket… She put down her backpack and put the packet in it. “Why do you already have your backpack with you? School doesn’t start for another twelve hours.” He laughed a little and saw that she wasn’t smiling. “Are you ok?” “Yeah, sorry, I’m just weird, ok?” They started walking again and he frowned. “No, you’re not.” “What? Come on, you haven’t even known me that long, you don’t know.” She smiled again. She knew that if she didn’t she would just end up arguing with them. He smiled too, thinking the same as her. “Right over there, with the blue car in front.” She pointed about half a block away. She looked, and to her dismay, it was right next to the house that she had been at earlier to get her schedule. She pulled up her hood. “Ok. So I guess you’re going to that school tomorrow?” “Yeah, I just moved here about a month ago though. So you’re the only person I know. It sucks that you live far away though, because now I won’t have anybody to talk to at school.” “Oh… well… I’m on a special permit, I’m going there.” More lies. “Great! But are we still going to play basketball again tomorrow afternoon?” “What?” She was shocked, when had they discussed this? “Remember? We agreed to meet in the park tomorrow afternoon and we’d play again.” Oh. That must have been what he meant when she wasn’t paying attention earlier. She blushed. “Yeah, sorry, I’m a little spaced out today.” As they got closer to the houses, she saw the garage open in the house she had visited earlier. She stopped and her heart was beating fast. Had they seen her? He turned and looked at her and she continued walking “sorry…” May didn’t like this time of day either. There were a lot of things in life she didn’t like. More now than she had before, although she was sure she liked this boy. He seemed nice enough… and considerate enough… was that the right word? Should she tell him what had happened to her? They were walking past the house now… She held her breath and walked a little faster; even though they were already walking pretty quickly. At the next house they stopped. Now what? “Wanna sit down?” He pointed at the porch. “You can call your mom.” “Oh… I’ll call her later.” “Really, you should call her, and we’ll sit here and wait.” “I have a confession to make…” She was about to tell him. “I was never going to call…” She started lying again. “I was just going to walk to the church and wait again… She shouldn’t be coming for awhile anyways. “What? Why didn’t you just tell me that before?” “Would you have let us walk together instead of sitting and waiting if I had told you?” She was thinking on her feet, and she thought she was pretty good at it so far. “Well no… but-” “See,” She smirked at him. “We can sit down for a minute though.” They walked up the driveway and sat on the porch. They both stared at the street for awhile. Then she leaned over and rested her head on his shoulder. And as he put his arm around her she realized, that she didn’t even know his name. She was about to ask, but the sound she heard was interesting. A strong, familiar voice spoke, it was little distant, but she didn’t need to move to see… she already knew who, and where, it was coming from. “Beth. I’m going to see if Anna is still at Joan’s house, it’s getting late.” She heard a car door slam shut, and listened still. “Ok Bill… You do that. Make sure we still don’t lose another child.” “Please Beth… I said I was sorry, and we’ve done all we could… We still have a family though. Come with me and we’ll talk about it.” May listened for a minute more and heard some noise, then sat up and saw the car driving away quickly, and caught a glimpse of the garage door falling shut. She turned and looked at the sweet boy with whom she’d spend the last few minutes that she wished would’ve been forever. His eyes were shining, they were so beautiful. He had a concentrated look on his face. And he opened his mouth. “Excuse me?” A tall, lean, woman was standing over them with her hands on her hips. “May I ask who you are? And why are you, young man, are not in the house yet? It is seven twelve now. You got done at seven, and it takes less than five minutes to walk home. So, what have you been doing for the other seven?” “Mom…” he stood up. May just realized that he was holding her hand, because he pulled her up with him, causing her hood to bounce down again. “Listen to yourself… seven minutes? Come on…” “No, actually, more than seven, if it takes less than five to get here, so what have you been doing?” “We stayed after for a couple of minutes to clean up, we did art today, and I ran into my friend and we walked back here and we were just sitting here.” He let go of her hand. “Just sitting? I’m not stupid! Get inside and tell your friend to go home!” She slammed the door. “Sorry… my mom… she’s just…” He sighed heavily, gave May a hug, and said goodbye quickly, running into the house. She stood up and started walking again. She pulled her hood up again, remembering that she was right next to- wait… nobody was home. She stopped and beamed. She looked around and quickly ran into the back yard of the home that the two people just left. She felt her hand around the rim of a pot with a giant flower in it and found a key. She unlocked the back door and walked into the nippy home. Wasting no time, knowing that a trip to a friend’s house didn’t take too long, she walked to the stair-way and ran up the stairs, turning herself at the top, launching herself into a door. It was usually open… before. She opened the door and walked in. She flicked on the light, and her heart beat faster. Bad memories… a pink stain had set into the carpet, and the door was broken around the handle and in the front. A poster on the wall, a creative one at that, was torn, hanging off the wall dramatically, like in a movie. She shook her head and walked to the closet. She picked up two pairs of pants and five shirts and pairs of socks each. She closed the door and walked into the open bathroom and took a bar of soap from the counter, and her make-up… she missed that. She took an old compact mirror from the drawer and a pony-tail. Shoving everything in her back pack, sloppily, she ran back out of the house, careful to lock the door and put the key back again. As she walked back around the house she wondered… how was she going to do this? She couldn’t survive much longer… As she wondered about her situation and considered tonight’s sleeping arrangement options, she suddenly felt her body get very cold, and she trembled with chills for at least five seconds. She decided that the park bench seemed like the classic and best idea for refuge tonight, but she was terrified of being found, and after thinking about the chills and thinking that the absolute openness of the location might get cold, she finally settled on the crawl around tunnel spaces at the park, not warm, but definitely less open. After deciding that there was little chance that she would be found, she crawled into one of them and used her backpack as a pillow, and jacket as a blanket, and as she drifted off, she wondered about the nameless boy from earlier today, and then she dreamed about him too.