Alaska's Ocean - Zach Abels

Chapter 2

"What did you get for question 6?" My best friend, Shay asked. We were at the library, studying.

"Um.." I shifted in the comfortable library chair, searching for the answer. "I subtracted three from twelve, then I divided the nine and the x variable by three, so x is equal to two."

"Yeah, that's what I got," Shay said, looking up from her paper. "That's the last one!" I got up from the chair, putting my papers into my backpack.

"Alright, well do you want to sneak out first?" I asked. We were in the basement of the library. Though we lived next to a huge city, the library lacked a good security. The librarians however, never used the basement, so it was where we met. The library had long since closed, and we had to get out without getting caught. The only camera was outside of the building, so we had to sneak around it to the back entrance, which the librarians never locked.

"No, you need to get home. I know how strict your parents are." Shay is the only person outside of my family that knows about what happens at home. I trust her enough to know that she won't tell a soul. She's more like a sister than a friend. A good sister. Not like Ariana, who tried to tie my hands behind my back and shove me under a bed when I was six.

"Okay, I'll see you tomorrow," I said, opening the door quietly.

"Bye Alaska," Shay called softly.

"Bye." I closed the door carefully and crept away into the night.

I was woken suddenly by a bright light. Aaron had gotten up to get ready for school. My mind fell back to my dream. Did the library even have a basement? Sure, Shay and I visited the library, to read and study. But never illegally. Or in a basement.. My heart sank as someone appeared in my doorway. My eyes adjusted to the light coming from the hall, and i recognized Aaron's shape silhouetted in my doorframe.

"Where are you gonna go, Las?" He asked in a hushed tone. Aaron is the only one that has ever called me Las. I guess it's a twin thing.

"I have no idea," I replied. He stood there a moment, looking like he wanted to say more, but turned around to leave. I sluggishly sat up and rubbed my eyes. I was still going to school. I'd still have enough time to get something together after I'd taken the bus home. I got up out of bed and stepped into the shower. The hot water washed away all the doubts and worries I had. All the questions were unimportant. But it was only temporary. As soon as I got out, my bruises and cuts began stinging and aching, no longer under the warm stream of water. They were a continuous reminder of my fate. I had nowhere to go. Was it even legal to kick your sixteen year old daughter out? They sure as hell weren't going to report me missing. I sighed and got dressed. Today was going to be relatively warm for October. I put on a pair of distressed 'boyfriend' jeans and my Los Angeles T-Shirt. The jeans weren't really boyfriend jeans, they were just a pair of Aaron's old ones that didn't fit him anymore. You can bet the rips in it were unintentional. The shirt was a hand me down from Ariana. I slipped on my white converse, put on a beanie over my long wavy brown hair, and grabbed my backpack.

I looked at myself in the bathroom mirror, eyeing the bruise on my cheek. It was the only one completely visible. I pursed my lips and rummaged through the bathroom cabinets to find the makeup i had stolen from my mother almost a year ago. I only used it to cover up bruises. I applied it to the large circle of purple skin, doing my best to conceal the bruise. My jaw luckily had not broken as far as I could tell. It still worked fine. I'm still not sure what the source of the blood had been, though. I did the best that I could to cover my cheek. I had gotten good over the past few months at it, so it looked pretty normal. It had already started to heal overnight anyway. My skin was always fast to heal from a bruise.