Sanity's Left Us All Blind

"Oh, cheer up. You'll make friends."
No, I wouldn't. I could barely make any damn friends back in Pennsylvania, how was I supposed to make friends in a place I honestly considered my worst nightmare?
I rolled my eyes and kept my gaze out the window. "Welcome to California," the sign read.
"Finally," Mother said.
My parents got divorced, simple as that. Dad didn't want me, so he sent me to live with Mother. I never liked her. She always pushed me to be something I didn't want to be. Especially now, moving us to Huntington Beach. A place full of things I hated, like the beach, and the sun, and bikinis, and shorts, and tans, and, yeah, you get the point.
I sighed and checked my phone, hoping to God that somebody cared enough to call. I was relieved to see 1 missed call from Natalie, my best friend. And a voice message. I dialed 1 and listened to her cheery voice.

“Hey, Em! Sorry I didn't call before, you know how my mom is.” I could imagine her eyes rolling as she said that. “Life is hell without you. No lie. Kayson is going like, suicidal, and Danielle won't even leave her room. They miss you to death, Emberbabe, and I do too. OMIGOD, you'll never guess who asked me out, though! Did you guess yet? No? Okay, I'll tell you. PARKER! PARKER RYAN ASKED ME ON A DATE WITH HIM!” I chuckled to myself at her excitement. “He's taking me to this really fancy restaurant in like, Erie, and I'm totally freaking out. I wish you were here. You always know how to dress for guys.” A lie, but it was nice to be told I did something right. “Anywho, Kayson's starting a band. Like, that music you like where people scream and there are guitars and junk. He's the lead singer, which of course, was my idea, and Danie's playing guitar, and some kid from Meadville that Kay's friends with is playing bass, but they don't have a drummer yet. I was so bummed, because you play the drums! And guitar. Maybe you'll start a band there. I gotta go, Madre wants me to-” her call ended there.

I wish I could be as happy as she always was. We actually became friends because she was determined to cheer me up. It didn't work, but we eventually got close. Kayson was my other best friend, and I had a huge crush on him. Then there was Danielle. She told Kayson that I liked him, and I hated her for that. Of course, we fought it out in the school parking lot. I won. We became good friends after that.
It wasn't until Mother squeezed my leg that I realized we were in Huntington Beach. “We're here,” She whispered.
“Just fucking great,” I mumbled to myself. Let the eternal Hell begin.
The houses along the streets were just too happy. It was like one of those sitcoms where the family lives in a suburb but there's a scandal. God, I hoped our house wasn't like this.
Mother stopped outside a very nice, large, Victorian style house along the beach. “Oh my god,” I whispered at the sight of the house. My eyes were quickly taken from the beautiful house to a beautiful boy, er, man, leaning against the house next to it.
“Holy shit,” I whispered again.
“I know, it's beautiful, isn't it?” Mother asked me. I dare not tell her about the green eyed heartthrob who lived next door. I simply nodded and bit my lip.
We headed inside, the movers not yet here. We entered a living area, full of furniture, oddly, but painted beige. I headed upstairs to claim my room, of course, the biggest one I could find. Back in PA, I pretty much lived in my room. That was the only good thing about the move – the idea of a bigger room.
At the end of a long hallway sat a door. I opened it, thinking it would be a closet, but smiling when I realized it led to another set of stairs. “Jackpot,” I sang under my breath. I jogged up the steps, dust flying with every step I took.
My jaw dropped. This was the greatest room I'd ever seen in my life. The walls were brick, exposing the original building material. The ceiling was made of a dark wood plank that matched the flooring. There was only one window. Good. I hated sunlight.
“Ember? Neighbors are here!” Mother voice shot through the house. I sighed and ran back down two flights of steps to find the green eyed beauty standing in our new living room. I suddenly felt like running back up the steps.
“Ember! Come here!”
“Fuck,” I mumbled, turning back around and meeting Mother's side.
Mother gestured to me. “James, Maria, this is my daughter, Ember. She's seventeen.”
I nodded a 'sup' to the middle aged couple. They smiled in return.
“Hello, Ember. Quite an interesting name. We have a son your age. ZACHARY!” Maria called. Of course, the god joined the couple and smiled at me.
“Hey” he mumbled.
I held my hand out to him after brushing nothing off my Misfits shirt. I smiled when I realized he was wearing the exact same shirt as me. He took my hand as if it were to break. “I'm Ember.”
“Zacky,” he said, finally looking me in the eyes. His were truly amazing.
“Zachary, why don't you show Ember around town a little bit?” James asked.
Zacky turned around and headed out the door, obviously expecting me to follow. I did, though. Who couldn't follow him? We were back on the disgusting streets of Huntington Beach.
“What do you want to see?” he asked me.
I shrugged. “I dunno, the beach, maybe?”
He nodded and bit his lower lip.
I took this time to thoroughly examine him. His black hair was spiked up, but not to an extreme. He wore jeans that were slightly tighter at the thighs but baggy at the ankles. On his hands were black wristwarmers.
We arrived on the sand and sat down. “How do you like it here?” he asked.
I laid back in the sand, allowing my arms to support my head. “I don't. At all. This is my fucking worst nightmare.”
He chuckled. “You drink?”
“What?”
“Like, are you into alcohol?”
Ohhhhh. “Yeah, a little. Not when Mother's around, though.” I said, sitting back up to face him.
“Mother?”
“I don't like her.”
“Oh.”
We sat there in the silence for a while.
“Your eyes are fucking amazing.”
I stared in shock at him. Mine were blue, boring old blue, and he thought mine were cool?
“I disagree. I think yours are. They're so green.”
He shook his head. “I don't see why everybody's so amazed with my eyes. They're just eyes, you know? If there's no soul behind them, they don't mean a fucking thing.”
What did that mean? “Are you saying you have no soul?”
“Sometimes it sure seems like it.”
“Why do you say that?”
His snakebites flashed as he turned to me. “I can't do a fucking thing right. I've been single for the past two years, my friends are only my friends because we're a band together, and here I am, with you, and I'm probably fucking everything up. Sorry, Em.” I didn't let anybody except Natalie call me Em. Speaking of, I'd have to tell her everything that he just said.
“It's cool. I know what it's like to be a failure.”
Zacky smiled. “I don't see how. Hey, there's a party tomorrow night at my bandmate Matt's house, would you wanna go? I mean, if you don't want to, that's-”
“I'd love to go,” I cut him off.
I didn't know what was going to happen tomorrow night, but I knew it was going to be interesting.