Chapter One

The day started as it usually did. Groggily, Jess leaned over to hit the drowse button on my alarm clock. He was so tire out because he had been doing 30 hours a calendar week at work lately and he was n't sleeping well because of his home lifespan. Add in shoal and the prep 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 sister said to him, almost in unison."Hi ”, he replied back. After eating breakfast, he went back upstair to sweep his teeth. Then he came downstairs again and went to see his mother. Jess always went to his female parent 's room and said"ripe morning"to her before leaving for school. Why he still did, he was n't sure. He had become so distant, there was no substantial association left."Probably just out of habit ”, he told himself. He kissed his mother sayonara and then left with his brother for school.

In the car, he and his brother did n't blab out much. It was n't that they did n't like each other, but Jess and Luke had very picayune in plebeian these days. They had different Quaker, St. Luke being more of a social butterfly ; different gustatory sensation in music, Jess listened to more fleshy metal and rock, while St. Luke was more into the pop music scene ; etc ... Once they got to school, that was it. The car ride there was the most fourth dimension they spent with each early 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 school. gamy School had never been"as advertised"to Jess. He was a lone wolf, an pariah. He had not even a fistful of friends, everyone knew everyone, but that was about it. Recently he had been feeling more and more depressed, his mentation sometimes turning to suicide. Home life was ... well it was n't a home anymore ...

"Good morning Mr. horse ”, said his homeroom teacher, Mr. Toer."Morning ”, Jess replied back. He took his seat and started on the homework he did n't finish up lastly night. Math was a particularly backbreaking subject for Jess. He was just one bad grade away from failing the field of study for the semester, but at this point that was the last thing on his mind. Staring at the vacuous tack of composition in front of him, his mind started to meander."What am I even doing here ? I have no design, no desire, no happiness. If I decided to just run away today, will anyone maintenance ? Will my parents notice if I 'm not there ?"The buzzer for the end of homeroom rang, jolting him back into consciousness."tinker's damn it ”, he thought, realizing he had n't done a single problem.

When the bell rang at 3:05, he was already driving away from school ( his chum was in ROTC and stayed for after-school bodily function ), his human foot to the floor and the radio blaring. music had become Jess'only reprieve from his liveliness and he was retreating into it more than and more, barely paying attention to anything else. Music made him finger sinewy, made him feel like he had a intellect to dwell. It seemed that the words of the birdsong on the radio spoke directly to him, lifting him up, making him sense happy that soul, somewhere understood what he felt.

When he got home, Jess went straight to his room. As he was changing into his oeuvre uniform, he took a spirit at himself in the mirror. He was 16, had long, sinister brown hair, electric puritanical middle, was about six invertebrate foot tall, and had slim body. The individual staring back at him looked so far away, it looked like him, but it was n't him. The eyes of the person in the mirror looked so desolate and empty it was shocking. Sighing to himself, he turned off the light and headed to work.

At work that night, he just floated aimlessly through the evening, barely engaging the customers, just wanting the night to end so that he could go family and sleep. sleep, the one thing and one meter of the day when he did n't feel hollow, lifeless. When did n't finger anything but peacefulness. The following day was Sat and he did n't have to go to work or schooling so he could sleep all through the Night and well into the morning.

Opening the threshold to his household after employment, Jess got a halfhearted"Hi"from his parents. The kind of"hi"that you say out of politeness, not because you actually meant it. He replied back, asked if anyone had made dinner party that dark, and then went to his room. Turning on his computer, he checked his e-mail. As usual, it was just a caboodle of spam, but then Jess saw the electronic mail. Charles Wesley had responded to him ! Jess read the email, then shut off his computer and got into bed. Falling asleep, he smiled to himself, feeling some modest common sense of hope.


critique welcome. Like I said, let me cognize if I should carry on .