Parker

Chapter 1: Parker

And so when that day in the summertime came, he tried to ignore it. And it wasn't easy. Every year there was a new rumor that revolved around her, and it spread through their tiny town life wildfire.

"Mira did a photoshoot for Vogue, did you know?"

"Mira was proposed to by a foreign diplomat"

"I heard Mira's pregnant"

"I heard Mira had an abortion"

"Mira does E now"

"I heard Mira went to rehab"

"I heard Mira got fat"

"I heard Mira is bulimic"

"I heard Mira joined a cult. They think she's a god, and they dance around her in circles."

And they went on and on like that. Recited at parties as the crowd was dying down and the beer was running dry. At 'Plate', their town's only decent diner as teens and early twenty-somethings crowded around a booth for a late breakfast. Even in Heath's basement, while they got stoned and watched reruns of old 'Friends' episodes. The rumors circled themselves like dog chasing its tail until everyone finally got bored enough to move on to the next subject.

He tried to ignore it. After all, he thought, what was it really, to be beautiful? It wasn't like playing the flute, or studying for a test, or learning to ride your skateboard. It was not acquired. It was not earned. It was something you were born into-like money, or perfect vision, or the little dimples on his cheek that he and his mother both shared. He shouldn't admire it so. It took nothing to be beautiful.

He told himself that he wasn't like the rest of them. The ones that hung on Mira's every word, and listened to every minuscule piece of gossip with her name in it, or stopped to gawk at her as she walked by-all because she was blessed with genetic perfection.

He was better than them-wasn't he?

Remembering it all now- the rumors, the parties, the gossip, the two sisters walking down the street without a care in the world-only sent shivers down his spine.

The tragedy that had occurred nearly two years ago felt as if it has been imprinted upon the town. As if it was immediately part of history; a part of all of them. And as it happened, the tragedy only made Mira all the more popular. As if it added a new layer of mystery to her that no one actually wanted to solve.

It seemed wrong somehow to Parker-a misfortune of epic proportions becoming more romanticized as the days wore on.

He told himself that it wasn't his business-that he wasn't the type of person to engage in gossip such as that. Even though, he admitted to himself frequently, that he was not quite sure what type of person he was.

His entire life, he had been told that he was nice. And for most of it, he wondered if he actually was. It was true, he said polite things. He actually listened when others spoke to him about their problems, and pretended to be interested even when he was not.

He would put a blanket over his mother when she fell asleep watching television on the sofa, and picked up groceries without being asked.

He took jobs at Parina's lumber mill during the summer and gave the money to his father, because his furniture store was failing quite miserably by the time Parker got to high school.

When his friend, Troy, had made out with Parker's girlfriend during sophomore year of high school, he hadn't criticized him for it. He was angry, upset, and embarrassed. But he hadn't known how to react other than to smile at Troy and tell him that it was all right. He hadn't been able to bear the sight of the two of them, walking down the hallway hand in hand. But he hadn't known what to do other than give Troy a high five, and wave politely at his ex-girlfriend-who had never given him the courtesy of actually dumping him.