Hope

Just a short story that I wrote one day. Hope you like it!

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Miracles happen.

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Ally didn’t know why her life was a mess. She didn’t know why the people in her school didn’t talk to her. Nor did she know why her family life was non-existent. Nevertheless, she carried on, hoping for a day when she’ll get rid of all the troubles and life a live that existed in her dreams. Of course, she didn’t know if that day would ever be there, but it was something she believed that there was something planned for her. Something happy. Something that’d bring a change in her dull, gloomy life.

 She opened the door of her house and was greeted by empty bottles of beer that were strewn across the living room. Grabbing her shirt and pulling it upwards to cover her nose, Ally proceeded to pick up the bottles – some broken – and put them in a garbage bag, silently. Tears started welling in her eyes, but she blinked them away, telling herself to look forward to the day when all this would be over.

Managing life was hard. Her alcoholic father’s meager income was wasted primarily on the beer. Though the income her part-time job got wasn’t much, it was enough to fill her stomach and fulfill her daily needs. Sometimes, when things got worse, she’d live with her aunt, but Ally didn’t want to burden her.

The stench of the beer was hard not to ignore and it filled Ally’s nostrils, making her feel nauseous.

It’ll get better, she told herself.

That was one thing she said to herself a thousand times each day. She was tired of her life, tired of bearing it all. Tired of cleaning up; tired of living with a person so abusive, she couldn’t call him her father. She longed for her mother, who now lived up in the heavens.

But then, she also had a life ahead of herself. She had a life ahead of herself that she looked forward to, if it ever happened. All she had to do was to believe and hope.

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Ally never talked in school. Her lips never parted. So much that she had to struggle to open them to eat.

Sitting in the cafeteria all by herself, Ally watched the students in her school chatter, some squealing, gossiping or just talking mindlessly. She sighed, putting a lock of stray brown hair behind her ear. Nobody ever saw her; nobody ever noticed her, she thought.

Nobody even knows who I am, she thought.

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It wasn’t like this forever. Years back, when Ally was a little girl, she belonged to a happy family. She was the only child of her parents who loved her unconditionally. She knew she had a mother and a loving father. But the images of empty beer bottles and dirty clothes that were laid everywhere in the house made it difficult for her to exactly remember her mother’s face. There was no picture of Ally’s mother – her father had got rid of them.

The memories were the only happy things that Ally had, and she cherished them.

She longed to know what happened to once happy family she was part of. But every time she asked the man who was supposed to be her father, she’d have bruises on her entire body.

Ally was thirsty for a better life, a better world in which she’d live.

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Shane was never the one to fret over things. He had everything he needed. No, he wasn’t popular and nor did the girls swoon over him, but he barely cared. He wasn’t on top of the school’s social ladder, but he wasn’t at the bottom either. That was all he needed. As he walked in the park, he noticed a petite figure sitting on one of the benches.