Why Can't It Be Like the Movies? (part 2 of 4)
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Untitled Document
Remembering
Kris let out a loud sigh as she stared up at the plain white ceiling above her. She was lying in the middle of her queen sized bed that was placed conveniently under the window, which was opened slightly. A cool breeze swept into the room, blowing Kris' hair into her eyes. She blew upwards, moving some of the hair so that she could see, but a few stubborn strands still remained.
Her parents were still at work, so Kris was home alone. After playing endless hours of video games, she was bored.
"I wish there was something to do…" She muttered, blowing at the hair that refused to move out of her sight. Every time she tried, the hair would fall back into her eyes. She blew again, but to her dissatisfaction, she did not prevail. She let out a grunt and sat up in the bed and ran her fingers through her hair, enabling her to see.
"What to do?" She asked herself, looking around the room.
Her room was quite large. The walls were painted a dark grey, which was almost unnoticeable under the mass of posters that were plastered on them. There was a large desk on the right side of the room, parallel to the door. It had an old looking computer on it that Kris never used on account that there was no internet, and the desk was cluttered with papers, books, and art supplies. The rest of the room, not unlike the desk, was also cluttered. Her clothes were mostly all on the floor. Dirty, and clean. She rarely cleaned her room, but she liked it that way. Things were so much easier to find in the clutter.
At the end of Kris' bed stood her prized possession; a Gibson Les Paul vintage mahogany electric guitar. Kris loved this guitar. But what she loved most was the memories that came with it.
Kris got up off her bed and walked over to the guitar. She looked at it for a few moments, admiring the cherry-colored finish, and how the light shone off it. She smiled to herself then carefully picked it up; then sat down on her bed and quietly strummed. She hadn't played it in years, so she had to get the feel for it once again.
After a few moments of mindless strumming, Kris remembered a song that she used to play all the time for her. "Blind" by Lifehouse.She chuckled softly to herself and started strumming the song, and sang along quietly.
"I couldn't make you see that… I loved you more than you'll ever know…"
As the words came out of her mouth, the tears flowed from her eyes. The droplets hit the guitar, bursting into smaller portions of themselves before rolling off.
Kris abruptly stopped playing, and laid the guitar down on her bed. She buried her face in her hands and let herself go. She stayed there for a while, sobbing. Finally, she couldn't stand the thought of her parents coming home and seeing her like this, so she made her way to the bathroom. The tears in her eyes clouded her vision, but she managed to make her way down the hall. She turned on the tap and let the cold water run for a moment before splashing water in her face, and through her hair, snapping her back to reality.
She took in a deep, shuddered breath and tried to regain her composure. It was slowly working.
"I'm so weak…" She whispered under her breath, before splashing another handful of cold water in her face.
She looked up in the mirror. She looked ridiculous. Her eyes were red, and puffy. There was water dripping off the ends of her hair, and her face, soaking her white tank top. She didn't care, though. She ran a hand through her hair and analyzed herself some more.
Her face was boyish, and had a few freckles sprinkled across her nose and cheeks. All of her features were nice, and in proportion. Her eyes were a strange mix of blue and green, and she always got complimented on them. Her hair was short, barely passing her ears, and black. She had a total of six piercings. A silver hoop and two studs decorated her left ear, while a hoop and just one stud occupied her right. She also had her left eyebrow pierced. Kris liked how she looked, for the most part. She wished she was taller, though. Her body was quite athletic, and toned. She loved to work out. When her focus was entirely on her workout, then she could forget a lot of things. It helped her relax.
Kris sighed and grabbed a towel from the towel rack and quickly dried off her face and hair, then headed back to her room. She quickly stripped off her wet tank top and looked around the room for a new one. She could hardly tell what was dirty, and what was clean. Finally, she found a black D.A.R.E t-shirt on the ground that she thought was clean, and pulled it down over her head. She walked over to her bed and looked guitar, picked it up, and put it back on its stand before dropping down onto the mattress face first. She was exhausted all of a sudden.
"I wonder how she's doing…?" She mumbled before falling into a deep sleep.
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Kris looked at the small blonde in front of her and raised an eyebrow. "Of course I'm a girl."
"But… I… I thought…" The blonde stammered, turning even redder than she already was.
Kris laughed and threw her shirt to the other girl, who nearly dropped it. "I know what you thought. It's alright. I get it a lot. Now, put that on so we can get going, ok?"
The other girl nodded and put on the t-shirt, feeling more embarrassed by the second.
The two girls walked out of the trail, Cassie stayed behind Kris, not wanting the other girl to notice how embarrassed she was.
"How…? She looks like a boy!" Cassie thought, unable to believe such a handsome boy could turn out to be a girl.
Kris abruptly stopped, causing Cassie to bump into the other girl with an "oomph".
"What's the deal?" Cassie said, slightly annoyed by the sudden stop.
"Say something, you're giving me the creeps." Kris replied, turning around to face the other girl.
Cassie stared at Kris for a moment and blinked. "What am I supposed to say?"
"Anything. Just don't walk behind me like that… Makes me think you're going to stab me, or something."
Cassie stared at Kris for a moment and shook her head. "You're weird."
"Thanks." Kris replied, chuckling.
The girls continued walking, this time keeping a general conversation about absolutely nothing. Kris walked Cassie home, and then walked back to her own house.
Before going in, Kris smiled to herself.
"I think I like that girl." She thought, and then walked inside.
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"Kris, honey. It's time to get up." A gentle, feminine voice called out.
Kris groaned and rolled over, ignoring the voice.
"Come on, Kris. It's time for dinner. Get up." The voice called once again, this time with more aggression.
"Ugh… Fine… I'm up… I'm up…" Kris replied groggily.
Kris yawned and stretched out, then laid on the bed for a few more moments, then looked up at the voice that was calling her. The lady before her was tall, in her mid thirties, and had long, beautiful black hair.
"Morning, beautiful." The woman said with a playful smirk.
"Hi mom. What are you doing home? Don't you have to work?" Kris asked, still sounding quite tired. "It's almost nine thirty in the evening. I got off about an hour ago. We were waiting for you to get up to have dinner." Kris' mother replied.
"Oh… Sorry 'bout that, I seemed to have dozed off." Kris said with a nervous chuckle.
"It's alright. Just hurry up and get washed up. We're having Chinese." Her mother said as she walked out of Kris' room, closing the door behind her.
Kris sat up in her bed and swung her legs over the side, then stretched once again, cracking her back in the process.
"Ouch… " She muttered, then got up.
She was about to leave her room when she remembered something. She still hadn't read the note that she found in her locker. She fished in her pockets for it, and took it out. She slowly unfolded it and read the contents.
"Get over yourself, you're not that great.
If you don't stop acting like you're the boss around school, then you're going to regret ever moving here, bitch."
Kris eyed the note for a while, then crumpled it into a ball and laughed.
"A threat? I'm not used to getting those. It's usually love letters." She said to no one in particular as she threw the paper ball aside and opened the door to her room and went downstairs to eat her dinner.
After Kris was finished with her dinner she helped her mother clear the table, and wash the dishes. She decided to go for a walk. She put on some warmer clothes, since it was night and the temperature had dropped substantially. She put on a pair of faded blue jeans, and a black hooded sweater with a large white skull on the front. It was her favorite.
Once she got outside she was glad that she decided to change, it was really quite cold out. She was even a little cold wearing what she had on. But she didn't mind at all.
She walked down the street aimlessly with her hands stuck into her jean pockets for warmth. For once, she actually wished that someone was there. She wanted someone to talk to.
"That Melanie girl lives right next door to me…" She said to herself as she was walking further down the street. She thought about it for a moment. She didn't really know Melanie at all. Would it be weird for her to show up on their doorstep late at night like this?
After a few minutes of contemplating Kris decided that she would go and see if she wanted to go for a walk. What harm could it do, anyway?
She changed her direction and started running back towards her own house.
"Hm… Number eighteen, right?" She asked herself, looking to the left, and right of her own house. She started toward the right.
Inside the house to the right of hers she could vaguely pick out some people sitting in the living room. The television was on, but all the lights were out. The glow of the television lit up the room quite a bit, though. There was a man sitting in front of the T.V in a Lazy Boy recliner, with a beer in his hand, and just boxers on. The man had a big beer belly, and a lot of hair… Everywhere. Kris shuddered at the view.
"Could that be it?"
She watched for a few more minutes, wondering if she was at the wrong house, or not.
Kris was about to turn around and try the other house when she saw a small shadow approaching the living room of number Eighteen. Soon after, a girl showed up, carrying another beer for the man in the chair. Kris' face lit up as she realized that it was Melanie, and she was at the right house.
She sprinted up to the front door, and rang the doorbell.
A few seconds later Melanie appeared at the door.
She seemed confused, and shocked at the person who was standing in front of her.
"Kris…?" She asked, her voice even quieter than usual.
"Yeah… I was just wondering if you wanted to go for a walk, or something… I was really bored… Uh, I'm sorry for coming over so suddenly." Kris said. Her nerves were getting to her, being in front of such a cute girl.
"I…" Melanie started, but was interrupted by a shout coming from the living room.
"Melanie, who is it?" The voice bellowed.
"Nobody… I… I mean… Just someone from my school… Wanting to know if I can go out for a walk…" Melanie replied, her voice was shaky and nervous.
"A walk? Why the fuck would you go for a walk? Whatever. Go for the fucking walk. But don't be late, ya hear?" The voice replied. He sounded quite angry, and it made Kris even more nervous.
Melanie quickly went inside the house and put on her shoes, then came back out, closing the door behind her.
"Sorry about that…" She said.
"It's alright… Who was that, anyway? Your dad?" Kris asked as they started walking down the street.
"Ah… Yeah." Melanie said, her eyes wandering to her feet.
Kris noticed her discomfort, and decided to change the topic."So… How do you like it here?" Kris asked.
"It's alright… I don't know many people, though. Only you." She replied, her eyes still glued to the ground.
Kris sighed lightly, knowing that a conversation wasn't going to be easy to get out of this girl.
They walked in silence for a while. Kris didn't know what to say. For once in her life, she was completely speechless. She mentally kicked herself for that, because she always knew what to say, every other time. But not now. Not when it's actually needed.
They walked what seemed liked hours before deciding to turn around. On the way back, Melanie glanced up at Kris a number of times, trying to think of something to say, Kris thought. But she never did say anything.
They reached Melanie's house, and stopped at the beginning of the driveway.
"Uh… I guess I'll see you tomorrow morning?" Kris asked. The awkward air around them hung heavy, and Kris was feeling very uncomfortable at this point.
"Yeah…" Melanie replied, and started towards her house. She stopped in the middle of her driveway, and turned around to wave to Kris. Kris waved back. "Bye!" She called out.
Then Melanie ran into her house.
Kris walked back to her own house, and went up to her room. She couldn't get Melanie off her mind. She sighed threw herself onto her bed.
"Why couldn't I talk to her?" She groaned.
She rolled over onto her stomach, and buried her face in her pillow.
That's when she heard it.
Coming from next door, she could hear the angry shouting of Melanie's father, and the quiet pleas coming from the blonde haired girl herself.
Kris' body stiffened. She knew it was her fault.
Onwards to Part 3
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