Chapter One

The day started as it usually did. Groggily, Jess leaned over to hit the snooze release on my alarm clock. He was so tire out because he had been doing thirty hours a week at work lately and he was n't sleeping well because of his home life. Add in schoolhouse and the homework that came along with it and it was midnight or later by the time he got to bed."Who invented these things anyway ? ”, he thought as he climbed out of bed.

Showered and dressed, he went downstairs to get some breakfast."Hi Jess ”, his brother and sis said to him, almost in unison."Hi ”, he replied back. After eating breakfast, he went back on a higher floor to brush his teeth. Then he came downstairs again and went to see his mother. Jess always went to his female parent 's room and said"right morning"to her before leaving for school. Why he still did, he was n't indisputable. He had become so removed, there was no veridical connector left."Probably just out of habit ”, he told himself. He kissed his female parent goodbye and then left with his chum for school.

In the car, he and his brother did n't talk much. It was n't that they did n't like each other, but Jess and Gospel of Luke had very lilliputian in park these days. They had different friends, Luke being Thomas More of a social butterfly ; different preference in medicine, Jess listened to more gravid alloy and rock, while Gospel of Luke was more into the pop music conniption ; etc ... Once they got to school day, that was it. The car ride there was the most metre they spent with each other in a day and whichever one was n't driving that day just stared at their phone the entire ride.

Everyday he dreaded going to schooling. high gear school had never been"as advertised"to Jess. He was a lone wolf, an Ishmael. He had not even a handful of friends, everyone knew everyone, but that was about it. Recently he had been feeling More and more dismay, his thoughts sometimes turning to suicide. Home life-time was ... well it was n't a dwelling house anymore ...

"good cockcrow Mr. horse ”, said his homeroom instructor, Mr. Toer."forenoon ”, Jess replied back. He took his seat and started on the homework he did n't complete last nighttime. math was a particularly hard subject area for Jess. He was just one bad grade away from failing the subject for the semester, but at this level that was the cobbler's last affair on his mind. Staring at the blank sheet of paper in front of him, his brain started to wander."What am I even doing here ? I have no purpose, no desire, no happiness. If I decided to just run away today, will anyone care ? volition my parents notice if I 'm not there ?"The chime for the end of homeroom rang, jolting him back into consciousness."Damn it ”, he thought, realizing he had n't done a unity problem.

When the Vanessa Bell rang at 3:05, he was already driving away from school ( his Brother was in Reserve Officers Training Corps and stayed for after-school body process ), his base to the floor and the wireless blaring. medicine had become Jess'only reprieve from his life and he was retreating into it more and more, barely paying attention to anything else. music made him sense powerful, made him feel like he had a rationality to live. It seemed that the lyrics of the song on the radio set spoke directly to him, lifting him up, making him find happy that someone, somewhere understood what he felt.

When he got home, Jess went straight to his way. As he was changing into his work uniform, he took a look at himself in the mirror. He was 16, had long, sorry brown pilus, electrical dreary middle, was about six base marvellous, and had slim torso. The person staring back at him looked so far away, it looked like him, but it was n't him. The eyes of the mortal in the mirror looked so stark and empty it was shocking. Sighing to himself, he turned off the spark and headed to work.

At workplace that night, he just floated aimlessly through the even, barely engaging the customers, just wanting the night to end so that he could go home and sleep. sleep, the one affair and one metre of the day when he did n't feel hollow, lifeless. When did n't feel anything but peace. The next day was Saturday and he did n't deliver to go to work or school day so he could sleep all through the night and well into the morning.

Opening the threshold to his house after study, Jess got a halfhearted"Hi"from his parents. The variety of"hi"that you say out of niceness, not because you actually meant it. He replied back, asked if anyone had made dinner that night, and then went to his elbow room. Turning on his computing machine, he checked his e-mail. As common, it was just a bunch of Spam, but then Jess saw the e-mail. Wesley had responded to him ! Jess read the e-mail, then shut off his figurer and got into bed. Falling asleep, he smiled to himself, feeling some small sense of hope.


Criticism welcome. Like I said, let me know if I should preserve .