Pretty, Ugly Girl

Abi made her way to the park. It was raining out but she just had to get out of that house. James' girlfriend was around again and she was fairly certain that she was living in that room with him. Not only did Abi find that gross but she also found it incredible stupid of her brother. Of course she didn't say anything about it to him – that was Jade's job – but she could think it as much as she wanted to.

A packet of cigarettes were in her pocket but she hadn't touched them in ages. As much as she wanted to pull one of the fags from the packet and light up with her lighter, she just couldn't bring herself to do so. It was like she was slowly but surely going off smoking. Which seemed insane in itself because she had been smoking since the age of eleven. Some would think that was too young but others had started before she had. Not to mention the fact it was the year she went to high school so in a way, she wasn't that young.

Walking past the swings, Abi just kept walking down towards the skate park. She had a little bit of hope that someone would be there. The best person would be Tommy but she wouldn't mind if it was one of the girls who she met before. Sure, she hadn't seen them all that much and barely even spoke two words to them, but they still knew each other from Tommy so it wouldn't be that bad. At least, that's what Abi was trying to convince herself as she went over the hill and spotted the skate park.

From where she was there wasn't much of the skate park she could see. So she had to walk closer to see whether anyone was in it. She had a feeling there was no one because even as she walked closer, she still couldn't see anyone in there.

Her feeling was correct. When she got next to the skate park, she let out a sigh and looked around the empty skate park. So much for finding something to occupy herself with. Now what could she do for the day?

With a sigh, Abi ran her hand through her hair and looked around the place. There was actually nothing for her to do in this town and there was no way she'd be heading back home just yet. If she had the opportunity to never go home, she'd take it in a heartbeat. She wouldn't think of anyone else other than herself when going. After all, it's her life and no one else lives it.

No one else has the thoughts she does – at least not the specific ones she does. Everyone is different but no one seems to understand that. Abi understands it in some aspects but in others she doesn't. Some people say they understand it all the time when in fact, they probably don't. But it's not like they'd ever admit that or tell anyone about that.

It's just something they would never do.

Going through her pockets, Abi pulled out any money that she had and counted it. She wanted to see whether she had enough money to be able to catch the train to the closest city to her town. At least there she might be able to find something for her to occupy herself with rather than just staying bored all day. After recounting her money twice more times, Abi put it back in her pocket with a sigh. She was only fifty pence off being able to get a return ticket. And as much as she'd love to get just a single journey ticket, why would she want one to the city? It was one of the lamest cities ever, not to mention one that barely had anything of interest in.

“Abi?” She practically jumped out of her skin when a voice from behind her called her name. Spinning round quickly, her hair whipped into her face at a fast rate, hitting herself in the eye with a strand of hair. It made her eye start watering. She still managed to see that Tommy was standing in front of her. She hadn't heard him approach.

“Oh hey Tommy. What are you doing?” she asked, brushing her hair back behind her ears before remembering about her ears which made her shake her head slightly, her hair resting in front of her ears once again.

He just shrugged, “Going for a little walk. What about you then Abi? What are you doing?”

Abi didn't even know what she was doing herself so what was she going to tell her? Granted she didn't even really have to tell him anything, but it wasn't like she had anything to hide though. Just the fact that she didn't even know what she was doing because she was bored and any idea she had in her head was crushed because she had hardly any money on her to do anything.

“To be honest, I don't got no clue what I'm doing. There's nothing around here to do and there's no one around to hang out with,” she finally said, shrugging her shoulders before jamming her hands into her pockets. She was grateful that today she had decided to wear a semi big jacket. She doesn't normally wear big jackets like she is today.

Tommy nodded as if he was thinking before he turned to his left and started walking. Abi was just staring at him until he turned half around and motioned her to join him. Figuring she had nothing else to do and this was at least giving her something to do, she caught up with him and just walked next to him. She didn't know where they were going or why they weren't talking now but she didn't say anything.

Turns out they were heading towards the park. Abi should have figured that out but she didn't until it came into sight and Tommy started climbing the steep grassy hill up to it which, of course, made her have to climb it too. They ended up just sitting on the swings which didn't surprise her a lot because she didn't have Tommy down as the guy who'd sit on the bench for a conversation nor on the see-saw for one.

“Tell me about yourself Abi,” he broke the silence after a minute or two of them just sitting on the swings. When Abi just shrugged her shoulders Tommy shook his head, “I don't know a whole lot about you Abi. Tell me things about yourself so that I can get to know you. After all, I'd assume that your parents wouldn't be all that happy to know that you're spending most of your time around someone you don't hardly know.”

Oh how Abi wished that was true but she knew he father most probably didn't care. After all it seemed like he only cared about his job. “My dad wouldn't even care,” she snorted, shaking her head. “And it's not like I care about what Mel thinks so I really don't care whether she's happy about this or not. She's not my mother and she never will be.”

“You sound annoyed.”

“Thank you, captain fucking obvious,” she huffed. Tommy just smiled slightly. “I know I'm annoyed. You ask me to tell you things about myself and I don't like most things about myself so therefore I would get annoyed over it.”

He seemed to be thinking about her words for a long time. Abi noticed that he had a thoughtful expression on his face so instead of speaking she just shifted her eyes to look on the ground as her feet scrapped across the tarmac that was under the swings.

“Being angry doesn't help when it comes to being beautiful.” This had Abi rolling her eyes which made Tommy shake his head at her. Despite how compliant she was, sometimes he wondered whether he should even still bother with helping her. Her attitude was not helping herself.

“Tell me something about you then, Tommy,” Abi said before they could lapse into silence again. She wanted to know things about him. All she knew was his name, how old he was, where he lived and little bits and pieces of information that she had picked up from being around him a lot. It was probably the same amount he knew about her.

“I haven't been living here all my life. Some people think I have but I know I haven't been here for that long. Maybe just over eighteen months but not for almost twenty years.” The way he spoke sounded just so nonchalant which did have Abi a bit confused, yes, but also a bit wary of him. Of course she didn't have any reason to be wary of him – at least none that had surfaced – but she was a little bit now.

Plus the fact that she had thought that he did live here all his life. She couldn't remember anyone new coming to this town in a while. The again, she reasoned, it wasn't like she would know if someone new had come because it wasn't like everything got around. Sure, between teenagers mostly everything did but that was mostly to do with who was jumping who and who shagged who. Though Abi rarely participated in anything like that she was glad that it didn't go around that she had easy access to weed. That would have been really bad for her.

Not so much about the fact that Mel probably would have found out – Abi could care less about that – but more so the fact that she'd have people pestering her for cheap weed. Of course other people had easy access to weed too but they got hassled from people wanting cheap weed and basically they were never left alone by people willing to buy from them.

It wasn't so much that everyone loved weed but it was more so the fact that they liked smoking and wanted to rebel a bit in school. Or if it was someone who was out of school, they just wanted to have a good night. Most good nights involved drinking and smoking weed. It was rare that there was a night that was deemed good that didn't involve one or the other.

“Where you from then? I can't decipher your accent.”

“It doesn't matter. Well, to you it doesn't matter,” Tommy concluded before standing up. Abi watched him curiously. He stretched before looking towards her. “I have to get going now. I'll see you next time we're at the pool.” With that he walked away from her.

Abi was confused over the fact that they had literally just got there and now he was going. Sighing, she shook her head before standing up. People confused her at times.