Green Leaf in Darronfield

Chapter 1: Quiet Little Town

          Sometimes I look out my window, just staring for hours. It's not because the world is beautiful, or because there's anything really interesting happening. I just imagine being anywhere other than where I am at that moment. Driving through the night with my friends, as if I have friends close enough to do that with. Spending the night under the stars. Just anything to distract me from what's going on in my life. I looked it up online and it said that I have some sort of dissociative disorder, but you really can't put much faith into the internet. It's more like daydreaming.

          That's how I was the entire car ride. Daydreaming about what my life would be like if I wasn't completely miserable and had some kind of support. Stability. Anything. I was on my way to some nowhere town that I've never even heard of with my mom. She's one of the main reasons why I avoid my reality. Don't get me wrong, I care about her a lot, she's just a difficult person to be around some of the time. Well, most of the time... All of the time. But no matter how hard I try, I can never truly block her out. There's always a faint muffle of her cold pounding voice in the back of my head, just slowly getting louder and louder until-

          "DAMIEN!" My bitter mother shouted at me, snapping me out of my daze. I'm surprised the car swerving and my body sliding across the seat didn't bring me back.

          "...Yes?" I said slowly turning to her, trying my hardest to hide my irritation. She glared at me, eyes tired and full of resentment. "You know, you could let me drive for a while. You look like you need some rest."

          "Yeah, because I want nothing more than to put my life in your hands."

          "Well if you care so much about safety, you should probably keep your eyes on the road." She reluctantly turned her head back to the road ahead of us, eyes still on me. I could tell that she wanted to keep her head towards me, just to spite me.

          "You got a real smart mouth, ya know that?" The car went silent for a few minute-like seconds. I kept my eyes glued on her. Her long, curly hair and mahogany skin showed off in the sunlight. She could be confused with a goddess if her personality and reckless actions didn't contradict her looks.

          "Did you need me for something?" I said, eyes still stuck on her. A few seconds passed before she opened her mouth to speak.

          "We're almost there. I need you to bring the boxes inside while I go run some errands."

          "What errands do you need to run? We haven't even gotten there yet."

          "I need to run what's my business. You should mind your own."

          "So I need to bring everything inside by myself?"

          "You're sixteen, I'm sure you can handle it." Me saying anything else past this would be a mistake. A very stupid mistake. A mistake that I'm just stupid enough to make.

          "I just don't understand why you have to be so inconsiderate! You're seriously incapable of managing when you have errands to run?" And just like that, she slammed on the brakes and aggressively turned to me, giving me a look that said: "you better shut your damn mouth before I do it for you." Knowing what's good for me, I did. She kept on driving and I was just grateful that she let me off easy. She was probably too tired to try anything.

          About 45 minutes later, we finally arrived at the apartments. The 'Green Leaf Valley Apartments' in all it's tall grand glory. Judging by how the rest of the town looked while we drove in, it seemed like most of the effort put into the buildings went here. I was genuinely shocked by how beautiful they were. They looked too beautiful for us to afford. "We're staying here?" I said looking at my mom. She looked more exhausted than ever.