Time Is Now

The feeling I get from staring at the sun too long, is the worst. Spots blur my vision, while a headache pounds at the back of my skull. But, right now, sitting in the middle of class heaving my guts up gave me that feeling. My third period teacher sat her desk staring, with a horrified look on her face. It was like she thought that if she moved everything would magically become worse. After a few minutes I stood up with all of my stuff in my arms. One look around the classroom made my face heat up from embarrassment. I ran out of the classroom trying to escape all of the faces that were staring at me. Security guards and teachers yelled at me to slow down. They all were ignored. There was no stopping me when I had my mind set on something. When I got to my car I stood there breathing before fumbling with my keys trying to unlock the doors. My efforts were spoiled when my keys fell to the ground. I went to bend over to pick them up, but a tanned hand grasped them first. A familiar blonde haired guy handed them to me. I smiled and got into my car. I shut my eyes suddenly exhausted. My hand found its way to the bulge under my shirt, and rubbed. I sat there remembering the night that changed my life. Somehow I fell asleep.

December 31st, (Three months ago).

There had been a New year’s Eve party that night. My best friend Lisa insisted that we’d go. So she was at my house helping me to get ready. “Honestly, I don’t want to go.” I mumbled to her, as she was curling my hair. She paused looking at me through the mirror.

“Trust me; you’re going to love it.” Lisa simply replied, and went back to doing my hair. I shrugged my shoulders in defeat. When Lisa was done she put the hair products away. I had slipped my dress over my head and stood in front of the mirror. My brown hair just barley ticked my shoulder blades, while black eyeliner lined my sparkling light green eyes. A smile sneaked onto my face. I never knew I could look so pretty. I turned around to look at my best friend to see a smile that matched my own.

I grabbed my car keys, and took a look at Lisa. She smiled obviously excited to go. “Are you ready?” I asked. She nodded. I led the way to my car.

The whole street was packed with cars. It had taken awhile, but we found a parking spot near the house. Right when I was about to step out of the car butterfly’s started to fly in my stomach. I sat back down closing my eyes, and taking a deep breathe. I was trying to calm the butterflies.

“Scarlett, are you coming?” Lisa asked. Nodding my head, I stepped out of the car. One look at the house made me want to go back into my car and drive home. Pink, blue, and white lights flashed to the beat of the music. Never ceasing to miss a single moment. A buff man had stood at the front door checking people to see if they were invited. But that didn’t stop my best friend from grabbing my hand and dragging me to the door.

“Hello there.” The bouncer winked at us. “What are your names?”

“I’m Lisa and this here is Scar.” My brilliant best friend said. Knowing I was terrible with talking to people I didn’t know. He opened the door to let us in. Slowly I walked through the crowd of dancing people with Lisa’s arm entwined with my own. We started to dance right in the middle of the living room. People joined in with us. No one cared who we were just that we were having a good time. Suddenly, My step brother Sean broke through the crowd and gave me a beer. Then he started dancing with me. I swayed my hips to the music not realizing it.

After a while I had enough, and went to find the kitchen. The counters were filled with bottles of beer. I grabbed a few, and started to drink. My parents had always warned me of alcohol. But I never listened. To me it was always just another lecture.

The buzz from the alcohol had started to appear out of nowhere. My walking had become sloppy. Somehow I ended up in the living room again. The beat of the music found its way into my veins causing me to dance.

Strong hands grabbed my waist encouraging my body to move in different ways. Moving my hips in a circular, I turned around to look into devilish dark green eyes. Blonde hair fell perfectly over his eyebrows. I smiled when I realized who it was. It just so happened to be the guy I had a crush on. His name was Bryce. My drunk arms snaked their way around his neck. Before I knew it, my lips were on his, and he was carrying me up the stairs. He laid me on the bed with a smirk upon his face.

**

Sunlight flickered through a window, waking me up. I groaned form the pain that was shooting up from between my legs. I had opened my eyes only to learn that I was naked. Suddenly, I stood up collecting my clothes. The blue walls had looked unfamiliar, but the boy sleeping in the bed wasn’t.

Hurriedly, I slipped my dress back on, and looked in the closet. I grabbed a hoodie. A smile formed as I slipped it on over my head. Then I went to find my best friend. She was passed out in the middle of the living room floor. I shook her with my foot, trying to wake her up.

She stretched, and then stood up smiling. I rolled my eyes. I walked out of the destroyed house, and into my fresh clean car. We both had got in trying to remember the night before. All that I got was blank. No memory of Bryce. I started my car in defeat.

“So you and Bryce huh?” Lisa asked breaking the silence of my car. I had started driving towards my house.

“I guess my drunken mind has taste.” Lisa laughed at my joke. As soon as my car was on the driveway, I bolted into my house. A headache was already starting to form, and it had been unbearable. I grabbed a bottle of Tylenol. My shaking hands dropped half of the bottle on the floor. I bent down and picked up three small red pills. Then I popped them into my mouth, and swallowed them dry. My feet felt like they were ten pounds each as I walked up the stairs to my room.

After what seemed like forever, I finally made it, and fell down onto my bed. As I drifted to sleep I forgot all about Lisa, who had fallen asleep in my car.

**

For some reason someone was banging on my bedroom door. I rolled out of my bed, and opened the door. Red hair flared past me, and ran into my bathroom. I closed the door then followed Lisa.

She was on my bathroom floor crying. By instinct, I sat down next to her, and hugged. Her sobs echoed through the house. “What’s wrong?” I asked.

“I haven’t gotten my period in two months. And recently I’ve been throwing up for no reason.” Her swollen eyes looked tired. I reached under the sink, and grabbed my one and only pregnancy test.

I handed it to Lisa. “Here, use this.” Then I walked out of the bathroom. Without realizing it I ended up in the kitchen. I poured myself a glass of wine, and took a couple of sips. Screams made themselves heard through my house. My older step brother Sean walked into the kitchen.

“What the hell was that?” He asked, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.

“Lisa’s pregnant.” I muttered, while taking another sip of my drink. He sighed and sat at the table with me.

“That sucks.” I smiled at Sean’s bland response. He’ll never change. Lisa joined us at the table. She took my wine, and drank it all.

“My parents are going to kill Me.”: Came from her mouth after she swallowed my wine.

“Well, I don’t know what to tell you.” I replied. She stood up, gave me a sad smile, and left. I looked at Sean. His brown almost black hair was falling in front of his brilliant blue eyes. “Want to go shopping?” I asked.

He smiled. “Yeah.” I got up, and ran to my room. Sighing, I turned on the light in my closet, and grabbed a pair of white skinnies, and a red baseball styled shirt. Then went to my bathroom. I started the shower, and got undressed. Slowly I stepped into the shower. The water felt like heaven massaging my shoulders as it fell from the faucet. For once in the past two days I relaxed.

Once I was done getting ready, I hopped into Sean’s mustang. He smiled at me, and started the car. Shivers ran through my body from the feel of the engine running. He pulled out of the garage and into the street. Sadly, he was a crazy driver. We sat in silence, while I kept myself from sliding all over the car. As I stared out of the window, I started to count each tree that zoomed by. It was a habit from my childhood. My mom and I would do it each time she took me somewhere. The car came to a stop in the parking lot. I got out of the vehicle, and started walking into the mall. Sean wasn’t too far behind.

“Let’s get something to eat.” He said one he caught up to me.

“That’s a good idea.” I smiled. We walked to the food court, and decided on Chick-fil-A. After we got our food we chose a table to sit down at. It was ironic how just an hour ago we were sitting at our kitchen table listening to Lisa’s agonizing screams. The blue of Sean’s eyes happened to look brighter than ever under the bright lights. It stung my eyes forcing me to look away. Then I heard a voice.

“Scar, we need to talk.” Bryce’s deep voice echoed to my ears.

“What do you want?” Sean growled. I looked up and saw his face was of a bright red. What was wrong with him?

“Um, what is there to talk about?” I asked, totally ignoring my step brothers dumb founded expression.

“We sort of had sex, and you ran off before I could explain.” It was my turn to turn a blush. I felt it go up to my ears. Right before my eyes, I realized how pissed Sean could get. He jumped up from the table, and punched Bryce in the jaw.

For a second Sean looked surprised and wiped blood off his lip. And out of nowhere he too started throwing punches. It was like watching things in slow motion as I saw Sean put Bryce on the floor, and straddle his waist. Punch after punch was echoing through my ears. And without thinking I interfered, and pulled Sean off of the bloodied blonde boy.

“Stop it!” I screamed. Tears started streaming down my face. “Right now! That’s enough.” He kept going. “Sean!” Suddenly he finally stopped. His fist still hung in the air. He let it fall, and got off of Bryce.

Sean ran away. Then I looked at Bryce. His face was already swelling from the damage. “How could you?” From the look on his face I knew he was upset. I threw my arms up in the air, and followed Sean. He was sitting in his car messing with his nose. I sat in the passenger seat examining his wounds. His right eye was swollen, and bruised while his nose was broken. Slowly, trying not to startle him, I reached over and used my hand to make him face me.

I gently placed my hand over his nose. He looked at me scared of what I’ll do. My hand jerked, snapping his nose back into place. I heard him growl under his breath. As realization hit him and he screamed. The scream made my ear drums ache.

I couldn’t help but giggle. The boy was stupid enough to get his nose broke; he should’ve known there would be consequences. I looked into his eyes. And the world seemed to stop. He started leaning into me. My head snapped to the side. This was wrong.

“Can you take me home now?” I asked. The car jerked forward letting me know that Sean was pissed. He had absolutely no excuse to be mad. If I slept with Bryce, that was my business not his! All he is, is my step brother. There’s nothing he can do about it.

As soon as we got home I hopped out of his car. Trying to escape from him, I ran into the house. My mother was sitting in the living room watching TV. While my one year old brother played with his toys on the floor. When she saw me a smile appeared on her face.

“Hey Mom.” I muttered. Her smile disappeared. As if magically she could sense something was wrong. But I didn’t want to deal with her right then and there. So, I walked past her, and went to my room.

I continued to do my own thing when a knock sounded at my door. I automatically lay down on my bed, and blasted The Maine through my stereo. My foot moved to the beat while I shut my eyes. After a few minutes the banging stopped, and I shut off the music. Nobody learns that when I’m upset I want to be left alone.

Suddenly, I bolted upright in my bed. I had a brilliant idea. Quickly I grabbed my purse which contained of my wallet, car keys, and fake id. My mom looked like she was panicking, as I ran past her. I got into my car, and drove back to the mall.

I parked the car, and started walking. Before I could reach my destination in the mall Sara, Bryce’s girlfriend, stepped in front of me. Forcing me to stop. Sadly, it was the worst moment in time for her to do that.

“What do you want?” I snapped, crossing my arms over my chest.

“For you to hop off my boyfriend’s penis, and stay off.” She responded.

“Why? Are you jealous that he’ll fuck me all night, and through New Year’s? But he won’t do you?” I smirked. “Woops.” I laughed. She started coming at me, My laughs still echoed off the walls, as I punched her before she reached me. Her legs slipped out from under her, and she fell. Everyone started laughing. As If nothing happened, I started walking to the tattoo, and piercing shop. The place was bare. No one was in there except for the man who was at the cash register. His bald head reflected the dim lights.

“Can I help you?” The man asked.

“Yes. I wanted to get a tattoo, and maybe possibly a piercing?”

“Um, what do you want a tattoo of?” He responded.

“I want ‘Forever Strong’ tattooed on my fore arm.” I smiled.

“I’ll go sketch that up. Meanwhile Sammie can do your piercing, and get the paper work done.” A blonde girl sat in his place. Her face had multiple piercings covering it.

“Can I see your Id?” She asked. I handed her my fake one. She looked at it, and typed something on the computer in front of her. “Alright Kara, What’s your date of birth?”

“May 21st 1990.” I responded, as if it actually were true.

“Seeing that your 21 you will not need a parental consent. So. What do you want pierced?” She asked handing me back my fake Id.

“I want my naval pierced.” I chose a belly ring, and then she took me to the back.