Night and Day

Chapter 4: Delilah

The bus almost breathed as it sang over the pavement toward my school. The rain tickled the windows, a kind of greeting, and all the students tried to ignore it, indifferent, seemingly, to life in general. For most, life seemed to be something of a joke. I had to wonder if I had just been blessed with an excellent deck of cards. It struck me as strange that I should harbor such a positive outlook, when most surrounding me found sleep to be the highlight of their day. I could chalk it up to adolescence; perhaps I had merely skipped that "surly stage" that so many teens seemed to suffer from. However, it could be, too, that I had yet to experience true pain. Had I lived a sheltered life?

The bus sighed as it halted beside the sidewalk, just across the street from my rotting school. Built sometime in the sixties, the architecture was exactly the same, though it bore great signs of wear. The broken plumbing was the least of its many blemishes and you were apt to look up and see all the old wiring that had been there since my parents were kids. Missing tiles were a trifle here; funding was none existent.

It was to be a day like any other, or so I believed. The weather was displaying its usual host of grey clouds and frigid rain. People were gathered together in pods, blocking the hallways in their ignorance. My friends were rested up against our usual meeting place, where we convened every morning, an unspoken rule, but something was amiss.

Pressed up against my friend, Natalie, or Nat, as she preferred, was Kaitlyn, whose eyes were red and whose hair was especially disheveled. She was not crying now, but her voice was monotone, her face deadpan. Her eyes would not stray from her lap and her words came out as though they were being dragged from her.

Softly she murmured, "That's my life."

Nat blinked, unsure of what to say.

I frowned as I took my seat beside them. I was afraid to ask. Kate's pain was clear; I only wondered why.

"It's not your fault."

"It is," Kate insisted.

"It's not. My parents fight all the time, with or without my help. There was nothing you could do."

"But maybe I could have done more!" Her blue eyes were blue fire. "Maybe I could have made things easier for them. If I was just more responsible or better in school...if I could just be more, they might be happier."

"You want to talk about feeling like shit? I'd like to see my parents divorced. They don't see my future leading anywhere. But I'd like to think you've got a shot."

I never knew what to say when the sun went down. Of all my friends, Nat and Kate could be the unhappiest. Natalie could hide her despair better with a dramatic flair and a heart of steel; she betrayed little emotion, save for her winning smiles and careless demeanor. However, Kate wore her emotions unwilling out on her sleeve. She would not cry in front of you, but in every word there was a trace of pain. Within every gesture, there was indifference.

"What's happening?" My voice was small, reluctant. This was not something I could understand. I was only an intruder, and I felt as awkward as I ever had.

"Her parents got divorced." Natalie never hesitated.

"What?"

"Her mom left. Last night." Natalie hugged Kate closer, as if to take the sting away.

"They never showed any signs of it," Kate muttered. "I mean, they fought, sure. All parents fight. All couples fight. But never did they reach such a point...I hope she comes back."