August

One

What if your entire life was a lie? Everything you knew and loved was just a figment of your imagination. That one day something woke you up and showed you the harsh reality of our world. Would you still want to live in it?

Sixteen years. Sixteen years I lived in that town and I didn't even know its name. I think it's somewhere along the lines of August because Marian said she named it after me. She had founded our town the year I was born. You'd have thought she would have been of high importance, but everyone treated her like their best friend. She was just that kind of person. Sometimes I couldn't tell if she was really my mom, or just a friend who took care of me.

Anyways, I had a pretty normal life. I was an only child, but I had friends to keep me company. My best friend was Nina. She and I went to Maerd High School together. Nina was the best. She had wavy brown hair and big grey-blue eyes. She always wore a colourful flower headband with her small diamond earrings. One year, for my birthday she had gathered the whole school and threw a party. I don't know how she did it all.

Today I woke up earlier than usual. It's hard to stay asleep when there were evil butterflies eating at your stomach. I laid there for a while, waiting for the clock at the end of my bed to hit 7am. Watching the seconds tick by was like torture.
5:33...
5:34...
5:35...
I turned over in my bed and closed my eyes.

After what felt to be an hour I looked back at my clock. It was 5:40am. I decided to get up and take my time getting ready. I brushed my teeth and tamed my crazy hair, which my mom said was too long, but I wasn't letting her near my head with a pair of scissors. I dressed in my favourite outfit, called Nina and told her when to pick me up and then headed downstairs. Before I was even down the stairs completely, I knew what my mom was making, my favourite, bacon. I sneaked up behind her and snatched a piece right out of the pan.

"Hey!" She exclaimed, a little startled, "You know you're going to burn yourself one day!"

"Ha! When have you ever known me to get hurt?" I said jokingly.

"True, true, how about you go sit down and eat the proper way."
I sat at our old vintage table and finished my breakfast. The doorbell rang and I stood up to answer it but before I could even get near the door it burst open. Nina ran in, her hands full of balloons, and gave me a hug.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY you old grandpa!"

"Ha, thank you my young child," I joked. We always did that because she's a year younger.

"I have big plans for today!" She said enthusiastically, "remember I've been taking thoughs flying lessons from my dad? I'm going to borrow his plane after school and fly us over the town!"

"You sure you're not going to kill us?"

"Come on! With all those lessons, I'm practically a pro!"she said. I laughed.

We walked to school, the whole street lined with balloons and Nina was smiling like a clown the whole way. The longer we walked the darker the sky was getting. Today the walk seemed longer than usual. I started to feel dizzy so I asked Nina if we could take a seat on the curb. She didn't respond so I looked over at her.

"Can we sit down for a minute? I feel dizzy."

She stopped walking and just stared at me, looking like she was going to say something but stopped. The world went silent.

"Nina?"

She didn't move. I looked around. Nothing was moving. It's like the world had stopped. I looked back at Nina who was frozen in place. For some reason I wasn't scared. My vision started to blur. The more I moved the dizzier I felt so I just stood there. I felt so tired. The world started to fade and black started creeping through the corners of my eyes. I slowly lost all vision and it felt as though I had left my body. I fell into a peaceful darkness.