My Gorgeous Nightmare

As I was putting on the finishing touches, someone knocked on my door. “Come in,” I called.

Ronnie poked his head in. “Are you almost ready, Angel?” he asked. I nodded, standing up.

I noticed he’d changed as well, and redid his make-up. “Damn,” I thought. “Why does he have to be step-brother?” I didn’t mind the fact that he was Ronnie Radke, but I had a thing for guys who wear eyeliner. “Don’t call me that,” I said, as we walked down the hall. “I hate that name.”

“So, what should I call you?” he asked.

“You’ll come up with something; everyone has their own name for me.” We cut off our conversation as we joined our parents. Ronnie and I sat in the back, and he stole my phone. When I got it back, I saw that he’d added his number. I texted him, “What’s up?”

“Not much,” he replied. We texted the entire ride, getting to know one another. We had a lot in common. He made a face as we walked behind our parents. They were holding onto each other, whispering in each other’s ears. They were worse than teenagers. Ronnie and I followed them to our table. I slid into our side of the booth first and handed out the menus.

The waitress brought our drinks and those little loaves of bread while we decided what we wanted to eat. The first two loaves of bread disappeared quickly, which wasn’t surprising considering there were four of us eating. More was brought, and I ate two entire loaves by myself. When our meal arrived, I ate all of it. If you’ve never been to Outback, you have no idea how much food that is. I saw Ronnie watching me in amazement, but said nothing. Our parents were too wrapped up in each other to notice us. Ronnie and I probably could have gotten up and went to eat at Taco Bell and come back without them noticing. Didn’t I feel loved? After paying, we all piled back into our former spots in the car before returning home.

“Goodnight,” our parents called as soon as the door was unlocked, I rolled my eyes as Ronnie gagged. We knew what was coming. I ran to my room, quickly plugging in my ear buds before returning downstairs. I was already hungry again, so I rummaged through the kitchen hoping food had magically appeared while we were gone. Finding nothing, I decided to walk to the store. I decided to invite Ronnie, who was already in his room. He was on the phone when I asked, and he said he’d meet me in a few minutes.

I sat on the steps to the porch while I waited. Out of habit, I began singing to the music playing. I didn’t notice Ronnie had come out until he nudged me at the end of the current song. I pulled out on ear bud so we could talk while I still had music playing. We walked past a few houses before anything was said.

“You’re an amazing singer,” he said.

I shook my head. “A lot of people have said that, but I get nervous when I know people are listening.”

“You’re an interesting person,” Ronnie said. I laughed, giving him a confused look. “You ate enough food for the entire week less than an hour ago, and you’re already hungry again, and you’ve got a great voice but are afraid to use it.”

“Get used to it, I’ve always been a strange one,” I said. We got to CVS and split up, going for what we wanted. Meeting at the register, we dumped a pile of chips, crackers, cookies, candy, chocolate milk, and every other kind of junk food you can imagine on the counter.

The poor cashier looked so lost as she rang everything up, a look which was only deepened by Ronnie’s asking for a pack of cigarettes to be added to the order. We split the bill evenly and headed home. Somehow, Ronnie convinced me to sing on the way. More than once he joined me.

As we put our food away, we could hear our parents. Grabbing a few things, Ronnie and I went into the backyard. He offered me a cigarette as he lit one. “Not now. I’ll take you up on the offer when I’m pissed about something,” I said.

We sat in silence for a while, just listening to the music on my iPod. After a while, I switched to Something by ETF in the middle of another song. Ronnie watched me as I sang the song softly.

“Are you ok?” he asked as another song started.

I nodded. “That’s just one of my favorite songs, and sometimes I just need to play it,” I answered.

“Why?”

“Why is it a favorite, or why do I play it?”

“The first; why is it a favorite? It’s a good song, but you looked so sad when you sang it,” Ronnie said.

I could tell he was concerned. I shrugged. “It’s how I feel most of the time,” I said, not looking at him.

“How can you feel like that?” Ronnie asked. “You’ve got to have tons of guys in love with you.”

I shook my head. “I don’t have a lot of friends; I tend to screw up everything good that happens to me.”

“Do you believe in true love?” he asked.

Once again, I shook my head. “Nope,” I said. “True love exists in fairy tales, which are just lies told to children to make them think life is great as an adult.” I looked up at the sky, wishing the city wasn’t so bright. Even on the best of nights, you were lucky to see three stars in the sky. I could feel Ronnie watching me.

We sat there in silence for another half hour before Ronnie nudged my arm. “Let’s go in. You look tired.”

“I’m always tired,” I said, slowly getting up. “I never sleep well. Never knew why, but the few times I do sleep for an entire night are all I need.” We picked up our trash and headed inside. The house was silent as Ronnie and I made our way up the stairs and down the hall.

“What’s you’re middle name?” I turned around quickly when Ronnie asked that.

“Cornelia,” I told him. I hated both my first and middle names. “Why?”

“Because I know what I’m going to call you,” he said, smiling.

I raised an eyebrow, looking at him. “And what would that be?”

“A.C.”

I couldn’t keep from laughing. “I like it,” I said.

“I thought about Cinderella, but I like A.C. better,” Ronnie said. I nodded at him before slipping into my room.