Chapter One

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

Showered and dressed, he went downstairs to get some breakfast."Hi Jess ”, his buddy and sister 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 mother 's room and said"near good morning"to her before leaving for school. Why he still did, he was n't sure. He had become so removed, there was no real joining left."Probably just out of substance abuse ”, he told himself. He kissed his mother so long and then left with his brother for school.

In the car, he and his blood brother did n't babble much. It was n't that they did n't like each other, but Jess and Luke had very lilliputian in common these days. They had unlike Friend, St. Luke being more of a social butterfly stroke ; different tastes in euphony, Jess listened to more cloggy metal and rock, while Luke was more into the pop euphony conniption ; etc ... Once they got to school, that was it. The car ride there was the most metre they spent with each former in a day and whichever one was n't driving that day just stared at their phone the intact ride.

Everyday he dreaded going to school day. high-pitched School had never been"as publicize"to Jess. He was a loner, an outcast. He had not even a handful of protagonist, everyone knew everyone, but that was about it. Recently he had been feeling More and more dispirited, his thought sometimes turning to suicide. dwelling life was ... well it was n't a home anymore ...

"Good morn Mr. Knight ”, said his homeroom teacher, Mr. Toer."Morning ”, Jess replied back. He took his derriere and started on the homework he did n't finish endure dark. Math was a particularly knockout bailiwick for Jess. He was just one bad grade away from failing the subject for the semester, but at this degree that was the utmost affair on his idea. Staring at the blank tack of paper in front of him, his mind started to wander."What am I even doing here ? I have no purpose, no desire, no felicity. If I decided to just run away today, will anyone care ? testament my parents notice if I 'm not there ?"The doorbell for the end of homeroom rang, jolting him back into consciousness."shucks 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 schoolhouse ( his crony was in ROTC and stayed for after-school natural action ), his fundament to the storey and the radio cacophony. Music had become Jess'only reprieve from his lifetime and he was retreating into it More and more, barely paying attention to anything else. Music made him finger brawny, made him experience like he had a reasonableness to live. It seemed that the lyrics of the song on the radiocommunication spoke directly to him, lifting him up, making him experience happy that someone, somewhere understood what he felt.

When he got home, Jess went straight to his room. As he was changing into his work uniform, he took a facial expression at himself in the mirror. He was 16, had long, black brown haircloth, galvanic bluish optic, was about six feet tall, and had slim body. The mortal staring back at him looked so far away, it looked like him, but it was n't him. The oculus of the person in the mirror looked so devastate and vacuous 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 customer, just wanting the night to end so that he could go home plate and sleep. Sleep, the one thing and one clock time of the day when he did n't find vacuous, lifeless. When did n't feel anything but peace of mind. The next day was Saturday and he did n't give to go to mold or school so he could sleep all through the Night and well into the morning.

Opening the door to his business firm after body of work, Jess got a half-hearted"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 night, and then went to his room. Turning on his computer, he checked his e-mail. As common, it was just a bunch of junk e-mail, but then Jess saw the e-mail. Wesley had responded to him ! Jess read the e-mail, then shut off his calculator and got into bed. Falling asleep, he smiled to himself, feeling some diminished horse sense of hope.


criticism welcome. Like I said, let me know if I should continue .