Snapshots of Reality

Everything about Vegas is appealing. The lights, the sounds, the people.
Well, it used to be at least, back when my family was still together and I had the money to do what I wanted. There was no barriers to get in my way. Then last year my parents began to stop loving each other and my mom decided to end it. They took the settlement to court, my dad won and kicked me and my mother out. I loved my mother, but she was pretty despondent after she found out that my dad had a mistress. As far as my dad goes, he has never really cared for me. Oh well.
Either way, now I am about fifty miles away from my friends and my old self.

I stared up at the two story house. It was much smaller than I was used to, but these things would have to do for now. "Clover, come on." My sister Rider said from beside me. I stared at her, her perfect manicured nails, bleach blond hair, and shallow blue eyes. She was the epitome of prep. "Hurry up and get in the house, we don't want our neighbors to see you looking like that!" She scoffed at me. I glanced down at my attire, a simple pair of black skinny jeans, knee high converse, and a faded Motley Crue shirt, i found nothing particularly wrong with it. My hair still looked the same, black with blond and red chunks, and all of my piercing's were still there soundly on both sides of my lip and the right side of my nose. "Whatever, go die." I muttered at her before making my way up the steps and into the house. The decor was definitely terrible, it was all red, everything was freaking red. I groaned and set the box down before walking back to get another box.

"Hey! Heads up!" I heard a voice call. It wasn't directed towards me I realized when a football flew over and hit my sister in the face, throwing her and her belongings to the ground. I began to laugh and grabbed on to the mailbox for support as my legs began to give out.

The throwers seemed to be arguing about something down the road I noticed. I watched them flailing their arms around in exaggerated motions, trying to get the other one to submit. Finally, the taller of the two made his way over to where my sister was standing. He was tall and he had black hair, his arms were tattooed and he had a nose ring. He wore a black pair of skinny jeans and a simple black aerosmith tee. He was absolutely gorgeous. "Yea, I am sorry about knocking you over, Max failed to catch it and well...technically you didn't listen to our warning so..." I laughed harder and my sister turned to glare at me, causing the boy to divert his attention to me. "What are you laughing at freak?" I stopped laughing and looked at her, she had a large purple bruise forming in the center of her forehead. "Nothing, nothing at all. Rider, you might want to go inside now though, I don't want the neighbors thinking mom is running a whore house." She brushed past me, bumping into my shoulder as she walked towards the house.

"Sorry about that. Rider is not exactly the nicest person in the world." I looked at the boy who had been joined by a shorter boy who looked exactly like him as far as clothing went. He was much paler and possessed a lip ring of his own. "Hey, I am Max." He said extending his hand to me. I took it and shook it lightly before dropping it and looking at the taller guy. He looked at me with a look that almost read of disgust, but that couldn't be it, he just met me. "This is Ronnie, he is just a jerk right now, he didn't want to come over here, so don't pay any mind to him." I nodded and picked up a box and made my way up the stairs. "Hey, I didn't catch your name!" Max called out after me. "That is because I didn't give it! Now pick up a box and follow me." I laughed as they did what I said and I walked them up the stairs to my room. Things were laying everywhere, my clothes were strewn across my bed, and my guitars were lined up against the wall. Luckily I had come the week before to paint the walls a light lavender color and hung up all of my posters, so that was already taken care of. My lyric books were lying next to my microphones and my drum set. I had always loved music, I had a piano that I played regularly downstairs, but it didn't fit in my room. "You play?" Max said picking up one of my guitars. "Yeah, of course I do, thats why I own it." Ronnie set the box down and picked up my lyric book. "You write well." "Ah! So he talks" I said feigning surprise. He grunted and went back to reading. "So, whats your name?" "Clover, my name is Clover." Ronnie looked at me and opened his mouth to say something, but closed it again and got up. "I got to go meet someone for something. You coming Max?" Max shook his head and Ronnie left.

I sat there for awhile looking at Max trying to figure out what to say. "So, tell me about Ronnie, what is his deal?" Max looked at the ground, before sighing and looking back at me. "He is a cool guy, I mean he uses girls like he changes shirts, but I mean he is definitely a cool guy to have on your side. I don't know what his problem is today, he must be out..." He trailed off, he had obviously said to much, and was not going to say anything more on the issue. "Oh okay." Max stood up and made his way to the door. "So, yeah, I am going home now though. I live next door, in fact my bedroom is directly across from yours, thats my window." I laughed and he smiled at me. "Is it okay if we come back tomorrow? Maybe we could show you around the neighborhood." I nodded and he left. I laid down on my bed and stared at my ceiling. I had lost everything I knew, and been forced into this situation, but maybe it wasn't so bad. I mean I had two friends now. Was Ronnie my friend? I shook my head and looked at the ceiling. This Ronnie guy was a odd character, yet intriguing. I wondered what his story was. I yawned and flipped over to see Max looking over at me before peeling off his shirt and flexing his non-existent muscles. I couldn't help but smile as I fell into a deep sleep.