NaNo2014- Chapter 01

Chapter One- The Downfall

You were sixteen years old, still mostly innocent, still in awe of the fact that high school was such a different place from what you were used to.
It was a Friday morning when you stumbled out of bed and trudged into the bathroom, narrating your every move internally as you so often did.
“She crept down the hall slowly, barely aware of her surroundings- the thick stupor of sleep still upon her.”
Life was a constant story for you with your raging, childish imagination. You were still so very different from your peers, but for reasons you never could figure out, they’d all suddenly ceased their persecution and started to embrace your differences. People began to admire those things that made you so unique, and some of them had even taken to mimicking parts of your style and personality.
You would never consider yourself “popular,” not in a million years, but you were content just to have people like you, to have people accept you for once.
Entering the bathroom, you closed the door and shed your night dress, turning around in the mirror to admire your pride and your joy- the two things that no one else could ever seem to see. You’d gotten used to it a long time ago, but still, whenever you knew that no one was watching, you enjoyed looking at them.
The day progressed as usual: a cool shower, a toe-tapping happy song as you pulled on your school uniform, and a quick cup of coffee before rushing off to catch the bus.
School was mediocre as always, the only remarkable difference being Tiffany Ann in all her popularity and glamor approaching you to chat. You remember the day. She told you that she thought you were really nice and swapped phone numbers with you.
It wouldn’t have been very noteworthy even still, if she hadn’t called you up later that same night and invited you to the movies with her and her friends. You agreed to go out of common courtesy. She had been kind enough to invite you, so you accepted, simply to be kind in return.
It wasn’t that you didn’t like Tiffany, but you knew that you both had very different personalities and that any true friendship was out of the question.
So you tagged along awkwardly, feeling totally out of place among the pretty, popular princesses.
At the theater, you noticed someone else who seemed out of place- a boy about your age who was obviously just pretending to enjoy himself. Somehow, you got to talking and you learned that his name was Michael Paul and he had some common interests including similar musical tastes.
You sat together in the movie and he put his arm around you in a nonchalant sort of way and somehow, for some reason, you didn’t stop him.
To this day, you still can’t say why you let this person close. He was average, his center shrouded with veils of deep black darkness in stark contrast with you, the little ball of sunshine that you were.
He was impure, tainted, mature in ways that you never would be, and it was by gaining control of your naivety and trust that he lured you into his clutches.
Please note: It was never your fault.
You were lonely. You were always lonely, the heart of a child setting you apart from everyone else. Sure, the after-school beatings had ceased and people had begun to accept and even like you… But none of them could ever have a serious friendship with you. Everyone had their own groups of friends already, and the few friends you actually had grew distant until one day, later on, they would eventually cut you off entirely. But we’ll get there, hold on.
The fact of the matter is you were lonely, innocently naïve, and overly trusting. This guy, Michael Paul, he stole something from you- a precious part of yourself that you could never get back. He made you believe that you were giving it away willingly, but you later discovered that he’d fed you a bunch of lies to coerce you into parting with it.
And was he even grateful for your sacrifice? Like hell. He smashed your heart into a million pieces and pissed all over every single one of them.
He blamed you for all of it. He laughed at you with malice, pleased with himself for what he had done to you. Gloating over his spoils.
But just as surely as the wind will blow, the sun will rise, and the birds will sing, please believe me when I say that it wasn’t your fault. It was never your fault.
Those friends I mentioned earlier? Jacqueline and Stefany: They left you to rot in your time of need. Your friend Jessie was blissfully basking in the arms of Michael Paul.
And so, you had no one to fall back on, no one to turn to, no one to comfort you. You were completely and utterly alone, trapped inside a world of hurt like you had never felt before. The whole chain of events messed you up real bad. You couldn’t understand why. Why did it happen? Why were you being punished? What the hell did you do to deserve such soul crushing anguish!?
Somehow, you decided, you must deserve it. You didn’t know why, but surely, you thought, you must. And thus, you took it out on yourself.
You darkened a bit during all of this. Again: not your fault. It was nothing that you did, it was what a bunch of other rotten people did to you. I wish there was a way that I could send that message back in time to comfort you. I wish you could have understood. But instead, your self-worth began to erode, flaking off in places you didn’t even know you had. Those pieces blew away in the wind and collected at the feet of a boy who bent down and scooped them up, carefully. His golden hair glistened in the sunlight, gentle winds caressing through it as he stood, looking at you with piercing blue eyes.
“I’m Dorian,” he said. “Are these yours?”