Zoe awoke the next morning not remembering when or how she had fallen asleep. Glancing at her alarm clock she noted the time being thirty minutes after six o’clock in the morning. Even with a rudimentary estimation she deduced that she had slept for a minimum of thirteen hours. Usually when one sleeps for over half of an entire day they awaken to feel refreshed. However, this failed to be the case for Zoe who immediately felt the weight of her emotional burdens press on her like a heavy boulder.
Further noticing her surroundings Zoe quickly snatched up the pink iPod of Riley’s that had fallen to the floor next to her bed. Swinging her legs over the side of her bed she then stood and stretched as hard and far as she could. A primal moan escaped her lips as almost every muscle, ligament and tendon in her body extend and then constricted. As quickly as she stopped stretching a massive yawn escaped her gaping mouth.
Haggard was the best word to describe how she was feeling, Zoe decided. Worn down. Beat up. Even after what seemed to be an eternity of sleep she still felt as if the world chewed her up and spit her out. It also felt like she had been stepped on by circumstance and stuck to reality’s shoe. Unsure and too confused to understand exactly what feelings caused her to cry the night before, Zoe concluded that even if she had been pulled off reality’s size ten, she was still just a piece of chewed up gum.
Lost in what was more of a case of self actualization than self loathing, Zoe barely heard the knock on her door. A shift of her eyes and her focus landed on the digital digits of her alarm clock. Somehow thirty minutes had passed and the time was now seven o’clock in the morning. Without an utterance of Zoe’s acknowledgement or approval the person behind the door knocking became the intruder opening the door. She didn’t have to see or hear the approaching guest coming through the door frame. As her nose hairs curled, Zoe wondered how her stepmother’s expensive perfume could smell so cheap.
Victoria, wearing a buttercup ruffled sleeveless Liz Collins top and a matching red sleek knee high skirt, strolled into Zoe’s room without a hint of seeking her stepdaughter’s permission. The ‘click clack’ of the suburban wanna be fashionista’s heels echoed in Zoe’s mind. Zoe could hear and see her step mother speaking to her but what was processed as sound in Zoe’s head was much more comparable to a high pitched air horn.
‘I bet she would buy a bottle of cow pee if they called it perfume and put Beyonce’s name on it,’ Zoe couldn’t help but think to herself.
The conversation ended rather abruptly as much of a one sided encounter as it was with Victoria babbling in Zoe’s direction and Zoe attempting to have at least a half hearted look of interest. Through the nodding and polite smiling, Zoe was able to make out that Victoria was informing her that breakfast was on the table. Not very sure what she had said that they were having it wasn’t until Victoria reached the open door to leave that she turned. It was then that Zoe heard her speak a statement so clear and so concise it was like a verbal dagger aimed right at her heart.
“Besides Zoe, fruit and wheat toast is exactly what you need. You need to start working on that extra baby chub anyways. It’s the only way you’ll ever get a boyfriend. Maybe then you’ll finally stop being so depressed and selfish already. We don’t want to end up just like your mother,” her step mother’s words, one by one, came forth from her lips like a guided missile set on the destruction of Zoe’s very spirit.
If it wasn’t for the immediate closing of Zoe’s door behind her stepmother exiting there had been a very good chance Zoe would had leapt at her throat like a rabid pitbull. Instead Zoe found herself barely able to hold in an animalistic scream of rage. The suppression of her fiery emotions ravaged her heart. Bitter anger, hatred, sorrow, and fury flowed through Zoe like the raging waters of the high seas, crashing within her, unable to escape. Physically the powerful, erupting feelings within caused Zoe to grip her left arm with her right hand like a vice. Lost within herself and her emotions, Zoe could not feel the strength in which she grasped her arm. She could not feel her finger nails dig into her own flesh. She could not feel the blood begin to trickle down her arm.
It took the raised voice of her father coming through the bedroom wall to bring Zoe back to reality.
“Zoe, we are all heading out for the day now. Make sure you don’t miss the bus. I lov…,” Her father’s sentiment was cut off by the screeching voice of Zoe’s stepsister Gabriel.
“We are going to be late! I can NOT be late,” the adolescent rant of her step sibling sounded like nails on a chalkboard to Zoe.
Within an instant Zoe could hear the slam of the front door. She was now alone. It was then she felt the warm trail of blood slowly flowing down her arm. Panicking Zoe franticly attempted to wipe the blood away. Instead of cleaning up the plasma that journeyed down her arm, her fingers smeared it across her skin. Zoe quickly removed the same blue hooded sweatshirt she had worn the day before and wiped the blood from her arm. Applying pressure to the two finger nail shaped holes just below her elbow on the underside of the arm she was able to quickly stop the bleeding.
It was then that Zoe noticed the time on her alarm clock and cursed at it for forsaking her. Zoe had exactly fifteen minutes to get dressed, gather her things, and meet the school bus in front of her house. Without hesitation she bolted to the bathroom down the hall. Quickly she scoured the medicine cabinet and located the box of Band-Aids. After using them to cover the marks on her arm she sprinted back to her room where she quickly removed the rest of her clothing.
Reaching into her still packed suitcase she pulled out the first top and bottoms she could find. In a hurry she slid on a pair of faded denim jeans whose fray and rips weren’t a sense of style but simply the actual wear and tear of year old pants. Following her pants she pulled a white tshirt over her head, grabbed her canvass bookbag, Riley’s pink iPod and bolted to the front door.
Just seconds from the bus pulling away from the front of her house Zoe had made it in time. Boarding her giant yellow cab to school she had almost forgotten about the strange enigma that was Riley. But when she saw the glowing massive grin plastered across Riley’s face as their eyes met, she remembered the entire previous day. Pretending that she didn’t see Riley, Zoe took the same bench she chose the first trip to school. And without much hesitation there was a quick plop next to her and Zoe wasn’t alone.
Zoe wanted nothing more than to convince herself that she wasn’t happy to have the beaming smile of Riley next to her. But she knew deep inside that it was just a façade. Feeling a tiny bit of warmth in her gut she pledged to herself to at least not let Riley witness her satisfaction. The body of her seat companion pressed against Zoe and all of the sudden she could feel the bulge of the digital music player in her pocket. Reaching into her pants she pulled out the hot pink iPod, placed a single ear bud in her own ear, placed the other ear bud in Riley’s ear and then handed the device over to the girl next to her. As Riley scrolled through the music and pressed play, alternative rock came through the headphone into both girls ears. Out of the corner of her eye Riley could see Zoe respond with a warm, tiny smile. Zoe’s smile only became bigger when she felt the head of Riley lean against her shoulder.
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The day went by in a blur for Zoe. In the hustle and bustle of schoolwork, droning teachers and the sea of students all she could remember when the final bell rang was every silly, goofy faces Riley made at her during their classes together. It was almost as if Zoe had been lifted from her real life and placed in a time freeze where all that existed was this impractical teenage girl and the ridiculous ways she attempted to make Zoe smile. Happiness had been a stranger to Zoe for so long and at least for today it had been like passing an old friend on the street. That’s what worried Zoe the most as she walked the route to the school bus. The worry that when it came time to return to the den of anguished emotions that she now called home, that old friend would be once again long gone.
Zoe didn’t have much time to think about those thoughts too long. Quickly she was on the bus and even quicker Riley was next to her. Reluctantly Zoe raised her focus to meet Riley’s eyes. Like a volcano trying to hold in its erupting lava, Zoe’s attempt to refrain from smiling failed rather miserably. The grin painted across her face was akin to that which you might find painted on the bust of a cartoon clown. It wasn’t Zoe’s fault. She couldn’t help herself. After spending the day with Riley as the prescription to her morning’s illness she could do nothing to contain the overwhelming happiness she felt when she looked at her new companion.
“So I’ve decided that we can talk again. I mean, I’m surprised I went this long. The last time I went that long without talking I…….I don’t think I’ve ever went that long. Talk about painful. Let’s never go that again,” Riley nodded with strong affirmation.
“Never,” Zoe responded with her own over the top nod that made her hair flop into her face.
“So how was your day today? Tell me all about it. From the time you woke up until this very moment right now. Tell me everything,” Riley fired out her words like a verbal machine gun.
“Ummmmm……,” Zoe murmured while trying to think of a way to not speak of that morning. “I woke up and got ready for school. I went to school and watched this crazy girl make weird faces at me all day and now I’m here.”
“Sounds like such a strange person. To just make faces at someone like that. And during school! What the nerve,” with a sarcastic condemnation Riley replied to Zoe.
Following her playful rant about the ‘strange girl’ Riley’s stern serious face suddenly became a twisted display of squinted eyes, puffed out cheeks and a wagging tongue. A split second passed before both girls burst out laughing. Holding their stomachs the girls leaned into each other and suppressed their giggles.
“Soooo….SOOOOOOO…….soooooo,” Riley started her sentence by elongating the syllable and each word making a different pitch, “Tell me all about you. Where did you used to live? What does your mom do? What does your dad do? Why did they move here?”
If a heavyweight prize fighter were to punch you square in the gut it wouldn’t hurt as much as the heavy brick that now sat in Zoe’s. The questions she was just asked not only brought up the painful memories of her deceased mother and her absentee father but also the sting that she quickly realized she was going to lie to Riley.
“We used to live in Texas. My dad is some computer programmer whiz and we moved here because he got promoted to some big job. My mom works in reality and she’s always showing houses so both of them are gone most of the day,” each word drenched with dishonesty Zoe found herself clinging to the hope that Riley would believe her.
“WOW! That’s awesome! So your dad is like the next Bill Gates or like Tom from Myspace or someone. What kind of stuff does he program? And where does your mom sell houses? Tell me, tell me, tell me,” Riley pleaded with Zoe to let her know more about her.
“Well……….,” Zoe paused in order to manipulate a false tale in her mind. “My dad works for the government so I don’t know anything about what he does exactly and my mom just started selling here so I don’t know either.
“Secret government spy stuff? How cool! I bet your dad is like a complete secret agent man. I bet his watch has a laser in it,” Riley became so intrigued that Zoe realized she wouldn’t have to worry about her not believing the lie.
The loud hydraulic brakes gushed out air and the bus’s door creaked open.
“Shoot! This is my stop. I’ll see you tomorrow morning Ms. Zoe Parker, daughter of the world’s top super undercover ninja government operative,” Riley bounced down the aisle and out of the bus.
Letting her head slump Zoe felt relieved to have that over with but also felt quite guilty that she had to deceive her new cohort. Zoe gathered her things together knowing that her stop was almost there. A minute passed and Zoe was at her stop. She made her way out of the bus and was quickly surprised by the sight in front of her. Not expecting her stepmother to be home until later Zoe was caught off guard seeing Victoria’s car parked in the driveway.
A massive wave of fear and painful remembrance from their encounter that morning had Zoe hesitating to even take a single step towards the house. A mental recap played in her mind of that morning’s unpleasant experience and the malicious words from her stepmother. The dread of facing her stepmother again, twice in one day, had Zoe to the brink of tears.
But then something else crept inside her mind. That of a mangled, abnormal girl’s face. A face that shouldn’t be able to look as goofy and silly as it somehow did. Zoe’s mind eye was now focused on the plethora of animated faces from her day at school. A rush of confidence filled within her and she became certain of one thing. That no matter what her stepmother said or did; she couldn’t take away the next morning’s bus ride. That no matter what happened tonight she would have Riley there tomorrow morning to make her forget it all.
