* * *
Knocking on the door I waited for the call, I waited for the reply that I always got.
“Come in.” Without fail it came.
I opened the door and walked into the brick house. I said “Hi” to Lynn’s parents who were snuggled in the corner of the couch watching TV. I went and stood at the bottom of the steps and stared up to the second floor. It looked like a mountain to me.
The song “Put one foot in front of the other” popped into my head and after taking off my boots and leaving them on the bottom step I put one foot on the step and started my way up, while clinging to the banister, I tried to pull my exhausted body up the stairs.
I could hear Lynn talking on the phone. I knew she was probably talking to her boyfriend. Once I made it to her bedroom my legs felt like lead. I was so worn out and tired and looking down at my watch I saw it was only 5 o’clock.
Sighing I walked over and went to her dresser, opening one of the drawers I found the extra pair of clothes that I left at her house. Mouthing to Lynn that I was going to take a shower, I went and turned on the hot water.
After a forty-five minute bath I felt a little better even though my brain would not stop spinning. My head throbbed and so did my side and back. Once I left the bathroom and went into Lynn’s room I saw that she was still on the phone so I went downstairs and asked Lynn’s Mother for some Ibuprofen. Popping two and a rather large glass of apple juice I forced my body back up the stairs and I plopped down on the bed beside Lynn who was just now hanging up the phone.
I groaned into the pillow when I heard Lynn tell her boyfriend in words of “I love you too Snuggles”.
“Oh your just jealous.” And she smacked me on the rear.
“OW!” I screamed into the pillow. She has no idea how badly that hurt.
“What is wrong?” Lynn asked, as she turned to lie on her stomach beside me.
I looked at her like “What you haven’t heard?” But I didn’t say anything because I didn’t want to explain it.
“Just been a long day.” I replied mumbling into the pillow.
“No there is something else. Tell me.” She sat there like she had all the time in the world. Finally after several minutes she said “You had a run in with your Step Dad didn’t you.”
“You know what I don’t get? Why my Mother stays around? She says she loves him but he beats her! That is not love in my eyes! In my opinion guys are just all freaks. You can’t trust any of them! Only thing they want is a girl’s body and they don’t want to give us the love that we want to get it. So they take it by force! They are just sick animals.” I sat up from the frustration of it all, but when I finished my short rant I flopped back down and groaned as my body protested.
“They aren’t all animals,” Lynn replied “But I know that I that it’s a loss cause to argue with you.”
“Lynn, I will promise you right here and now that one day I’m just going to disappear. I’m going to get fed up with it all and be gone. I’m going to start my own life and become my own person! Nobody can control me. Nobody will abuse me. I will do what I want to do and be who I want to be!” I said as I stared up at the ceiling.
“I know you will, Chevy. I’ll miss you, but I wouldn’t blame you.” Lynn said as she turned over and stared at the ceiling beside me.
We laid there lost in thought until Lynn’s phone started ringing. I just about jumped out of my skin. That ringtone felt like it had blown my ear drums.
“Sorry, it is Peter.” She said as she answered the phone and started talking to her boyfriend.
I laid my head back down and tried to calm my heart beat. My thoughts soon went to what I had told Lynn about me leaving everything behind and starting my own life. If it wasn’t for graduation coming up in two weeks I would have got up and went right then. I had no idea where I would go. I just knew it would be far away from this city life! I HATED the city!
My mind soon wondered to my past life. I closed my eyes and I saw my Dad with his arm around my Mothers shoulders as they waved to me while I walked down our long drive way to meet the school bus. My eyes started to water. I blinked several times and tried to turn my thoughts away from the memory.
“My life is crap.” I quietly mumbled when my Lynn giggled at something her boyfriend had said.
Closing my eyes and I gave into the sleep that overtook me.
YOU ARE READING
Bed of Roses (Watty Awards)
Romance"Life isn't a bed of flowers, but its a bed of roses..." Chevy, a girl with problems and heart aches on every turn. She is firm and knows how to defend herself, but her life hasn't always been this hard and she longs for those days. Seeing an opport...
