Destructive (On Hold)

Destiny

Sunlight filtered through the window and all was silent except the sound of birdsong.

I wish.

Sunlight crashed through through the window, illuminating everything in sight, engraving its fiery presence into my eyelids so it hurt. I groaned as I ground the sleep out of my eyes. In the hallway there was the typical yelling and smashing and poundings on the door from the other kids and Aunt and Uncle.

"Get up! Everyone get up and get out! Today is another blessing from the Lord!" Aunt hollered, stabbing the already decrepit bedroom doors in our hallway with her umbrella - she felt it was necessary to have it with her constantly.

I blinked, rolled the duvet out from under my armpits and stared up at the ceiling solemnly. Time for another day in heaven. My brain hurt at the thought of another routine day; get up, walk to school with Ari while she talks about cars or something, sit through lessons and the teacher's' patronizing explanations, walk home, get yelled at, do chores and barely eat. Plus I had extra chores to look forward to. Knowing my luck I will probably be scraping leaves out of the gutter this afternoon.

I surveyed my room as I stretched and got out of bed. Sometimes I do a headcount of all my stuff because of all the stealing that goes on. Not that I really have anything nice enough to steal. I had an old Mickey Mouse alarm clock from my 8th birthday - three weeks after I arrived here, when Aunt and Uncle were sucking up to me and the social workers "caring" for me - a crooked, red old structure that sat lonely on my bedside table. It was 6.27. We were deprived of morning showers; apparently it was a waste of water. So I got dressed in the thrift-store clothes I had reluctantly grown accustomed to, assuring myself that they were 'vintage'. My wardrobe was mostly bare apart from fuzzy old jumpers and anoraks ranging in all sorts of unfortunate colors; bright orange to lime green to dark maroon. None of them suited me, although I was pretty sure nothing would suit me really. I picked out the least offensive khaki anorak and some blue denim jeans, bootleg, thank God. Some girls here only own flares from the 70's. I am strangely comforted by the fact that I'm not the only unfashionable 15 year old on the planet.

The dining room was packed with kids, ages ranging from toddlers to teenagers, all craning around the table for expired milk and cornflakes, pushing each other out of the way and savagely grabbing the food like it was gold. I stood, frazzled at seeing such a violent scene so early in the morning, then shrugged it off and headed out the door. Aunt and Uncle honestly would not care if I didn't have breakfast. 

I pulled the strap of my bag tighter around my neck, peering suspiciously out into the street because we were kind of situated in one of those bad neighborhoods. Cautiously, I crossed the road, the cobblestone crunching underneath my sneakers.

"Ruby! Ruby, why'd you hang up?" My head snapped to the left, stricken. "For God's sake, you look like you've seen a ghost," Ari laughed. Her thin blonde hair flapped around her as she quickened her step which soon became simultaneous with mine. Her red pimples were particularly red today in contrast to her pale skin, which was almost blue in the cold. I could relate. I shivered and pulled my sleeves over my freezing fingers.

"Sorry, just tired," I murmured. "Why are you up so early?"

"Wanted to see you," Ari said vaguely, turning her head the other way. I thought she was lying. She said, "You hung up on me."

I said, "Yes."

"You were mad."

"Cleverly observed."

"Hey, I'm just trying to talk to you," Ari snapped, sounding irritated, which only made me angrier because I was meant to be the one who was irritated. She should be begging for forgiveness, not me.