Nicole

.. David felt one slow tear trickle down his slightly tanned skin, down his cheek, and fall off a beautifully defined jaw-line. More water streamed out of bottle green eyes. David did the best he could to hide his sadness with brown hair, but fails due to its length. It isn’t often that he cries. The last time was when he was ten, when his dog died. Even if David watched all the saddest movies ever made, he probably would not shed a tear. Today was different. Today he was attending the funeral of his close friend and passionate lover, Alexis. Three days ago, Alexis was found brutally murdered in an alley behind her house. David was the last to see her, and though the death was entirely unrelated to him he overwhelmed himself with hatred and guilt. David places a rose on the coffin and decides that the agony he’s currently experiencing is too much. His feet take the first move and slowly turn him away. The distance between David and Alexis grows wider, but the pain refuses to decrease. He sits down, head in hands, to allow the tears to flow. Samantha furiously stomps towards David’s door. She is a petite lady, long brown hair, dark brown eyes, slim and very attractive. As a teenager she’d be commonly referred to as the prettiest girl in town. Now she works as a fashion designer for winter clothes. She is highly accredited in her work and greatly respected. “David, what is this about not being at school the entire week?! Your principal called. You are really letting things get out of hand!” A weak, frail voice replies from behind the door. “I have been at school Mum, just not to class.” “Do you think this is funny? It has been a month since Alexis’s death; you have to focus on school and...” The door abruptly opens. David loudly interrupts Samantha while banging his left fist to the wall. “HOW COULD YOU TELL ME TO DO THAT? IF DAD DIED YOU WOULDN’T BE OVER IT WITHIN A MONTH, IT’D BE HELL FOR YOU!” “There is no need for that, David! And it is different!” “How? In what way? I loved her! Is it just because you’ve been with Dad longer? All the more reason to be mad, I barely got to spend any time with her. Please just leave me alone!” The door slams back into Samantha’s face. Her hand reaches out to re-open it, without success. A weight holds the door shut. The gap between her eyebrows narrow, her voice raises a pitch even louder than before. “David, open the door!” The only thing heard is the sound of her breathing. Samantha lightly hits her head against the barricaded door. Her voice becomes politer, in an attempt to get him to open the door. “Dave, please let me in... I’m concerned about you.” Samantha almost tumbles over when the door begins to open. Samantha’s nose crinkles and her eyes wander around the room. “You’ve been drinking again, but the scent of cigarettes is new to me.” She lets out a sigh and slowly walks out of the room. Later that night, David quietly creeps out of his room in desperation to use the toilet. While sneaking through the hallway he overhears his mum and dad talking. “Charlie, I just don’t know what we’re going to do with him. I can’t cope with the things he has been doing! I...” The talking gradually fades as David continues his brief trip to the bathroom. After rinsing soapy suds off his hands he cups his hands together and fills them with water, then splashes the water onto his face. His hands pull back down into the basin; he turns off the tap and returns to his room. Along his bed he decides to rest, David’s eyes avert from the ceiling above him to the window beside him. The night’s clear, it has been a long time since David admired the twinkling blue lights that reside so marvellously in the sky. Sight becomes narrow as David closes his eyes and drifts off into imagination. In the lounge room, the conversation between Charlie and Samantha continues. Charlie looks incredibly similar to David, but with wrinkles and baggy eyes. “Sam, we have to be supportive of David and have faith in him, he can pull through this.” Samantha’s eyes start to tinge light red and produce tears. Charlie consoles Samantha in his arms and delivers a quick kiss to her forehead. “Mum! Dad! Come quick!” Charlie and Samantha run in panic toward David’s room. The door is shortly in front of their feet, Charlie bursts the door open. “What is it David?!” “I saw Alexis, she was here... smiling! I...” David hesitates with his words and chooses to grin massively instead. His eyes are fixed out the window, as though that was her exit. He faces his parents and notices the concern on his mother’s face. It is the same expression she gave him as earlier that day, when she discovered his new habit of smoking. Samantha says nothing and starts heading out of the bedroom. A loud exhale comes out from Charlie’s mouth. He glances shortly at David and turns away to depart the room. “Now he thinks he has seen a ghost! There is no such thing as ghosts!” “Sammy, please just give him time.” “GIVE HIM TIME?! Honey, he is hallucinating. He’s probably taken drugs or someth-...” “Hey, that’s enough Samantha! David would not let himself sink that low.” “Well he has resorted to alcohol and cigarettes already.” “Did you just say cigarettes?” Charlie stares intently at Samantha and she distressfully starts nodding. “I can talk to him, but I still believe it is just a phase.” “A PHASE?! What kind of ‘phase’ includes hallucinations, smoking and drinking?!” “All of those things most normal teenagers go through. Be grateful he hasn’t lost his virginity yet!” “Well those ‘normal’ teenagers have irresponsible parents! And how dare you talk of things like that? He WILL NOT lose his virginity before he gets married. I trust him with that!” “Then you should trust him to get over this with time Samantha.” “Forgive me for not having your insanely atheist thoughts! I can’t let him fall deeper, as a Christian and as a mother I can’t let him commit crimes! I won’t.” Samantha starts crying again, her loud shouts were clear to David and now he hears her sobs. It is at this moment he realises the pain has taken a chain reaction and will begin to affect Charlie. David puts his hand to the doorknob and closes the door. His feet drag across the floor he and slumps onto the bed. His eyes watch the twinkling stars and they soon disappear as he drifts off to sleep. During the blackness of the night David forgets the trouble he’s causing his family and by the next morning all empathy is lost.

Another slow month drifts by. The fights have not stopped. Each night they argue David discreetly listens but feels nothing for them. He’s swallowed in the epitome of self-pity, and wallows around feeling sorry for himself. David knows that he is the essence of the family problems yet does nothing so he has a reason for complaining.Once the most popular boy in school, who was revered and loved,he is now looked at as a failure. He isolates himself and just watches as the world hurries by although he stands still. It has been a week and six months since David saw Alexis after her death. It is 9:30pm at night and David hasn’t come home. Earlier on this day his parents received a phone call which burst their concerns into dangerous flames. David has been seen with a peculiar figure, he is a skinny man with dilapidated clothes. Samantha twiddles her thumbs and feels sweat dripping down the side of her face. The police have been called; David hasn’t been missing for long enough to send the cops to turn the town upside down, which is basically what Samantha begs them to do. It’s reached 11:30pm and the police finally start helping. When it hits 1:30am Samantha is more or less catatonic, her hands are trembling and she is dwelling on the gutter in front of her house. A thought swoops into Charlie’s mind. “Honey, has anyone checked the alley behind Alexis’s house?” “Yes.” “How long ago?” “Maybe... two hours, it is just around the corner, police would have checked there first.” Charlie’s heels twist and he legs start moving quickly; he arrives there in a short matter of time to find David’s mangled body but oxygen is visibly pumping into his lungs at a slow pace. Charlie’s scream begins to echo throughout the street. After seven weeks David’s body can breathe again as the casts are removed. He was kept in the hospital for a while, and the loneliness of the white room felt worse than death. When he was let out there was a sunset of gorgeous red, orange, purple and pink. He felt like it symbolised the end of his selfish sadness. David questioned how long the feeling would last. He wondered if he’d return to the person people have known him as for the past two months. But the light shone brightly in his eyes and David smiled as he slid into the backseat of the red family station wagon.

image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/10101046@N06/3292434691