The Story Of An Anonymous Girl ✔

Chapter 6

OLIVER

"No. My nerves are acting up. I can't calm down." She says, putting a song that I've heard, but I can not bring myself to shift my eyes away from her. My nerves are acting up more than hers.

"I was wondering... if you'd prefer me to - to show you around the school." I say.

"Sure." She replies immediately. That was easy.

"Cool. Can I play one of my favourite songs now?" I ask.

"It's your car, Ollie." She states. I almost say that it's ours but stop myself and groan and ask, "Ugh. Can you stop calling me that, Amelia?"

"Maybe, if you stop calling me Amelia, Ollie."

"Fine. I will not call you Amelia, but you won't call me Ollie as well, Lia. Deal?"

"Deal. Which song?"

"Sucker by Jonas Brothers, please." She didn't know I had dedicated this song for her. And tons of other ones too.

"Kay."

I have dedicated so many songs to her in my head. But haven't actually ever told her in our friendship of more than a year now. I wonder why? Why am I so scared? I still think about the day when I was about to kiss her. What would have happened if Savannah had not entered the room and started shouting at Mia? Would we be in a relationship? My thoughts are interrupted by her sweet voice, which I thought to be vexatious a year ago. I snap out of my trance when she asks me, "Do you want me to play another song of yours or I can play mine now?"

"You can play yours now."

"Thank you."

No matter how hard I try, I cannot stop replaying that day in my head.

Savannah walks in and gasps, "Mia! What the hell is wrong with you? Did you guys hook up?" She asks angrily.

"No, we didn't." I reply.

"Is he telling the truth, Mia?"

"Yes, he is Savannah." She says.

"Thank God. I do not want your mother or father killing me."

Mia rolls her eyes and huffs in irritation and replies, "You won't get killed." 

"Let's go, Mia." Savannah says, glaring at me. It feels like she would obliterate me right now just with that glare.

"Sure. Bye, Oliver." She says, smiling.

"Bye, Lia." I respond and they leave the room. Wait! Wasn't she supposed to be hungover?

The rest of the day was just a blur. The only incident I remember is Savannah walking into my house - that I'd inherited from my parents, who inherited it from their parents. Savannah asked me to stay away from Mia.

Very few people in Miami knew my parents. My mom was in her freshman year, and he was in senior year when they started dating. They dated through the first year of college as well until they dropped out. The reason being that she was pregnant with Noah. My father was chivalrous enough; to propose to her for marriage. They got married in Las Vegas - the famous Elvis Wedding Chapel. After three years, she got pregnant with me. When I was born, my father was working three jobs and my mother two. To say that we had a difficult childhood would be an understatement. When Noah was nine, he would mow people's lawns and walk their dogs to get a little extra money. I don't remember precisely when things started to go downhill, but it happened after my tenth birthday. My parents would come home wasted and yell at us. They would hurl abuses and beat us up. They would say nasty things like, "You are worthless", "I wish you were never born", etc. I would console myself by assuming that they were just baffled and stymied by their jobs.

But then, one night things.....got out of hand. That's when we realised that they were on drugs. We didn't know where did they get the money. They would only care about two things - how much alcohol and drugs they had and how were they going to get more. One day, they were dropped home by some dealers. They beat the shit out of Noah. They said that our father had created a mess at his place, so we had to pay for that. Noah told me to rush upstairs. I didn't want to go. I was hiding upstairs when they came up. I guess it was sheer dumb luck that Noah called the police and handed the drug dealers and our parents to them. Our parents went to rehab. The drug dealers went to jail while we went to a foster home. None of the families wanted us knowing that we were children of drug addicts.

After coming out of rehab, our parents got us out of the foster home. When we thought that things would be better now, they started to get worse. Our parents would drink till they passed out. At night, when they were sober enough to walk and not get caught, they went to get drugs. They would go to different dealers so that they wouldn't get caught. They would inject themselves and then pass out again.

Now, at sixteen and thirteen, Noah would babysit and mow their lawns while I earned money out of kickboxing competitions. It was easier this way to let off the anger bottled up inside of me rather than getting in random brawls with other children. On my thirteenth birthday, Noah took me out for dinner. Our parents had gone out in the morning and not returned since. When we returned, the sight was truly horrifying. The police had come and were asking if we knew where our parents were. We told them that we didn't. It was customary for them to go out and then not return for hours. What happened after that caused utter relaxation, and we weren't grieving that it happened. We got to know that our parents were dead due to an overdose of heroin. They were sensible enough to leave Noah their car and me their house.

Back to what Savannah said - she said that Mia would be leaving in two weeks. The guy in the pictures with her is her "ex-boyfriend" - Aaron. He had cheated on her during the break before the start of Year 9. She hasn't had a boyfriend since. Little did Savannah know that I had started falling for her ever since I saw her smile in her sleep. She slept so peacefully that she didn't even hear my outcries through and after my nightmares.

Nobody except Noah knew I had nightmares. They were mainly about people appearing near me out of nowhere and making me drink alcohol, and injecting drugs in me. And the worst of all being, I enjoyed it.

Noah tried sending me to therapists many times. But me being me, I did not give in. It had worked for him but didn't work for me. He had had nightmares about someone injecting drugs in our parents, and he laughing about it.

I had liked her ever since she had come down to Miami the first time. But now, I had started falling for her. I feel like beating up that piece of shit Aaron for cheating on her. She is a perfect princess in my head and deserves to be treated like one.

My eyes meet the road leading to our school, and I stop thinking about that day and focus on trying to find a parking spot for my car.