Have you ever sat down and wondered about your importance? Specifically, what it's like to be important? I have. I fantasize about being like all these celebrities. Having people follow me around because I'm so important. Having people take time out of their day to look me up on the internet because I'm so important. Having people pay a lot of money to see me because I'm just that freaking important.
My name is Aliana Colette. I like to think I'm important, but importance is just an opinion. The desperate truth is; I'm as ordinary as a girl can get.
...
I stepped out of the front door, folding my arms over my body in attempt to keep warm. I was still tired and groggy from staying up late last night. The cold definitely woke me up a little bit. I walked down the road towards the bus stop. It was still partially dark outside although far off in the horizon, I could see the sun peeking out to say hello. It's as if it were asking permission to come out. The sky faded from a pale navy blue where a few stars still shone to a dark orange where the rays of the sun were struggling to emerge. I got to the bus stop and checked the time. 7:17am. The bus was due in three more minutes. I rested my head against the stop sign and closed my eyes for a second. My mind began to swim, thoughts of visiting space clouding my brain. How cool would it be? It would literally be out of this world.
"Alianaaaa" a voice drawled my name. My eyes suddenly snapped open as my brain recognized the owner of the voice, and the dangers that came with him.
Ryan Hernandez.
He is never good news.
Never.
Him and danger are a package deal. Just like in those infomercials where they're advertising a toy and the lady goes "batteries not included". Except Ryan is the exact opposite. With him danger isn't just included. It's guaranteed.
On his bad days, which is almost every day, every syllable that escapes his mouth is absolute and complete nonsense, rubbish, it never benefits anyone. The sight of him simply depresses me. I didn't think the intelligence of humanity would plummet so low, so quickly. I expected us to go that daft in at least 2030. All that leaves his mouth is talk about the false drugs he was doing, the nonexistent girlfriend that palmed him last night, and how his mother completely encouraged his lifestyle. The only thoughts that cloud his mind are thoughts about impressing people with false tales about his life. Indulging them the way I would if I were telling someone about the book I just read. The fact that no one saw through his mighty façade and endless lies made me lose hope for all of us.
God forgive me, but Ryan Hernandez is a sorry excuse for a human being. A waste of space. Of course I know God created him for a reason. He's definitely not useless. However, I'm sure even God shakes his head in disappointment whenever Ryan opens his mouth to speak.
To be completely fair though, he has had a few good days. Just a few. As in 'I could count them on one hand' few. There were some classes where a teacher would bring up a specific topic and he'd start asking intelligent questions and listing all these amazing facts that sometimes, even the teacher didn't know. Those classes usually ended up with us in a charismatic conversation or an over-heated debate that would most likely end in him screaming "Gee, you're so argumentative!" and me grinning like an idiot, taking that as a sign of my victory.
Those were the days when Ryan Hernandez was my favourite person on earth.
"Aliana," he repeated.
"Hi."
