No One Can Touch Us

Now being $5 short on cash, Elizabeth walked home slowly yet with a small smile on her plump lips. She held a white, plastic bag in her left hand while her right hand was tucked away nicely in the pocket of her green sweater. Aimlessly, she began to hum while she swung back and forth her left hand, the contents of the bag clicking and tumbling on the inside. She hadn’t a care in the world at the moment, she just wanted to get home and indulge herself in the CD she’d bought of a local band that had been around years ago.

A soft ringing, followed by a vibration in her back pocket, tipped Elizabeth off that her cell phone was ringing with either a text message or a phone call.

“Hello,” Elizabeth answered softly without looking at the caller ID.

“Where the hell are you?” William, her boyfriend, asked harshly over the phone. Elizabeth’s small smile quickly turned into a flat line, though she tried to keep her voice happy, for his sake and hers.

“I thought I told you,” Elizabeth mused more to herself then to William. “I went out to run some errands.”

Over the phone line, William huffed, yet knew Elizabeth wouldn’t dare lie to him. He didn’t even know why he’d called. Maybe he wanted to see if she’d lie to him; to see if she was with another man.

“Are you going to come over tonight?” Elizabeth asked, not wanting William to grow paranoid. A nice change in subject always went in her favor.

“No,” William said quickly, too quickly. “I’ve got some stuff I need to do, I’ll see what you’re up too though, so I’ll probably call you later tonight.”

“Sounds fine with me,” Elizabeth answered sweetly, egging William on so conflict wouldn’t arise.

With a quick exchange of affectionate words, Elizabeth shut her phone after she was sure William had hung up. The last thing she needed was William thinking she’d hung up on him on purpose. It made a small, sarcastic smile appear on her lips. She didn’t know why William was so paranoid, so possessive and jealous. She never went out to parties without him, she didn’t look at other men – it was she who was worried he’d cheat. Once a cheater, always a cheater. It was like a hard to break habit. William had already slipped twice, and Elizabeth didn’t need a third time.

A small sigh left Elizabeth’s lips as her house came into view. She’d been living in that small white house for so long, she was sure that if she was dropped off somewhere in Huntington Beach with a blindfold, she’d be able to walk back to her house without any problems. She liked living in the same neighborhood since she could remember. She had various memories she cherished on this very street, in that same little white house that seemed to not age throughout the years.

“Uh, anyone home?” Elizabeth called out as she pushed the front door open after unlocking it.

“In the kitchen!” her mother’s smooth voice called back.

The kitchen smelled of cookies and cinnamon making Elizabeth instantly smile widely as she stepped on the linoleum floor. Easily, she hopped on one of the counters that wasn’t occupied, set her plastic bag aside, and glanced at the oven and then to her mother’s face.

“I’m guessing I missed dinner,” Elizabeth said with a teasing smile.

“Yeah, you did,” her mother laughed, “though there are left over’s in the refrigerator.”

“I think I’ll pass,” Elizabeth smiled, “I want the cookies though.”

“I’ll bring a few to your room when they’re done,” her mother informed, which made Elizabeth laugh as she hopped off the counter.

“Awesome.”

Not wanting to put anything off any longer, Elizabeth walked quickly to the living room, where under the staircase was the door that lead to the basement. She pushed it open then stepped inside, flicking on a light and closing the door behind her. She went down about seven steps, and then let out a large sigh as her bedroom -once the basement- came into view. It was decorated with simplicity being the key objective. There was a bed in the center of the room, a TV in front of the bed that was hung up on the wall, the door that lead to the walk-in-closet, a small window above her bed, and then another door that lead to a small bathroom. The walls were a splash of light orange, and everything else in the room was painted or decorated in wild colors to make up for the lack of furniture.

“Let’s see what good this CD is,” Elizabeth mumbled to herself, sitting on her bed and kicking her shoes off.

Her white laptop rested on one of the nightstands that were set on either side of her bed. She laid down flat on her stomach and then reached over for the laptop, setting it on a pillow before turning it on. As she took the CD out of the plastic bag, she couldn’t help but to pull out the used pair of drumsticks too. The minute she touched them, that small shock that ran through her chest before now stung the tip of her fingers, though she ignored it and focused on getting the CD to play on her laptop.

“I think I’m in love,” Elizabeth gushed quietly as soft piano notes began to leave her speakers.

“Your hazel green tint eyes watching every move I make. And that feeling of doubt, it's erased...”

Elizabeth smiled as the song began to progress until guitars and drums now accompanied the vocals and piano. Elizabeth hung by every lyric, repeating them over in her head as she closed her eyes to take in the piano more.

“Note to self: learn the piano for this,” Elizabeth told herself quietly as the song changed to a more upbeat, hard rock song with heavy guitar riffs.

As she lay in bed, her eyes began to droop. She hadn’t realized just how tired she was up until now. She rolled over, her face now looking up at the ceiling and the laptop somewhere near her head. She reached out blindly until she felt the drumsticks brush her palm, then grasped them and brought her knees up. With eyes closed, she began lightly taping out rhythm and beats on her thighs and knees to accompany the songs that were still playing on her laptop. She was a drummer at heart, she loved to play around with pencils believing they were drumsticks, though now she had a proper pair, albeit they were used and chipped at the end. She did have her own pair of drumsticks from her days in drum-line, yet those were worn down to a point where if they'd bang against anything they's splinter up and break.

“Gotta start somewhere,” she mumbled to herself as she opened her eyes, holding the sticks up to her face to take in every detail she’d missed earlier.

She wanted a drum set, she wanted to live on her dreams as she did in high school for those very short 4 years, yet being tight with money and not having a job didn't allow it. She did have a drum pad though it was ancient and needed refined tuning - she had to start somewhere, though now all she could do was practice on her knees with the used pair of sticks that she'd been drawn too from the start.

A small skull with batwings was at the side of the brand that had been painted on the sticks. There was also an autograph in metallic purple, yet with old age and use the name was hardly readable. There was what appeared to be the letter “J” though that was all she could identify as the rest was in a messy cursive that was chipping off. It drew Elizabeth’s attention and with her index finger she traced the remnants of the name, feeling a slight spark at the tip of her finger.

A chill ran through her spine and she set the drumsticks aside, sighing heavily and closing her eyes as a blanket of cold air suddenly loomed over her entire body making her cringe.

“I’m probably just imagining things.”