Better Left Unsaid

Chapter Two

Statford was a town where nothing ever changed.  It was located one latitude line south of hot as hell and about a dozen miles north of Alligator Heaven.  We were a steady population of 8,192, only changing when someone gave birth or someone died.  No one in their right mind moved to Statford; no one ever left.  It never changed.

That's why, when I didn't see anyone in the roads on my way home, I wasn't bothered.  I knew where everyone would be.  Anyone older than sixty would be down eating lunch at Ramona's, the town's mix of a restaurant, bar, and cafe.  For some reason, none of the people my age seemed to like it there, so I guess it had become the major hangout for the older folk.  Everyone my age would be down by the lake, sunbathing on the shore or mucking about with their families' boats and jet skis.  Bobby Cole's was located on the lake shore, a snack stand-slash-diner, so they'd all get their food there, and not head home until well after it grew dark.  And the women would all stay home with their children, preparing dinner for when their husbands got home.  It was the way things went, every day of every summer.

I pulled into my driveway, unclicking my seatbelt as I shut the car off.  Reaching over to the passenger seat, I grabbed my phone and my hoodie--where had that stupid thing been when I was freezing my butt off inside that stupid building?  Groaning, I opened my door and clambered out.  I pressed the lock button on my keys, wincing at the harsh beep my car replied with.

Once inside, I threw my stuff onto the kitchen counter, grabbing the lemonade pitcher and milk from the fridge, and the box of Cheerios from the cupboard.  I fixed myself a large bowl, followed by another, and then a third.  It was the first thing I'd eaten since yesterday, save for a small bag of Cheetos from the vending machine.  By the time I was finished, I could already feel myself slipping asleep, so I threw my dishes in the sink, not even bothering to wash them, and headed to the couch in the living room, where I turned on some history documentary about World War II.  I fell asleep almost instantly, thoughts of bombs and blue-eyed girls floating around inside my mind.

**********

I didn't dream as I slept, which was weird for me, since I dreamed all the time, whether I was having an eighteen-hour-long Saturday morning marathon snooze or just napping on the fifteen-minute bus ride home from school.  Either way, when I came to during what appeared to be an episode of Myth Busters, I was exhausted, even more so than when I'd originally lied down.  Glancing at the old grandfather clock my father refused to sell no matter how loud and tacky I thought it was, I groaned at the time.

7:18.

That meant I'd slept hardly over five hours.

Shuffling into a sitting position, I yawned and tried to shake the stiffness from my limbs.  My clothes were damp with sweat, clinging to my body in a way that made me feel disgusting.  These are the same clothes I wore yesterday, I realized, almost in horror.  I needed to get out of them.

I stumbled half-asleep into my room and through it, to my bathroom, not stopping until I'd stripped my clothes and climbed into the warm, steamy heaven.  My shower was long and seemingly well-deserved, or at least I thought so.  By the time I was done and wrapped in one of Dad's warm-and-fuzzy bath towels, my skin was scrubbed raw and my (still frizzy) red hair smelled of lemons.  I decided on air-drying it since blow drying did so little for its frizziness that it ended up just being a waste of time and energy.

After twisting my hair up into a half-ponytail, half-bun hybrid, I stepped out into my bedroom, frowning at an unfamiliar white envelope perched in the middle of my bed, almost like the way my dad just sat ominously in the entryway whenever I cut it close to curfew.  He thought it intimidated me and that was why I was never late, but I wouldn't have broken curfew anyway.  There was just something about rules that I liked--the routine, maybe the boundaries and confinements; it was like math, proofs in geometry.