Aubrey’s P.O.V
“Friends?” I ask my ‘therapist’, “You want to know about my friends?”
“Yes, what are they like?” she confirms with that horrible therapist tone.
“Well…Uh, I don’t actually have friends.” I say scratching the back of my neck.
“Why? And how does that make you feel?”
I check my wrist-watch. 5, 4,3,2,1. “I would love to tell you but, our time is up.” I say enthusiastically while getting up and rushing out the door and out of that crazy house. I don’t need therapy. The only reason I was here was because my guidance counselor recommended it. I don’t need help. I don’t need medicine. I don’t need my mother. I don’t need friends. I don’t need anybody! All I need is me, myself, and Netflix…and food, too.
I get back in my car and drive back my house and spend the rest of my Sunday like any other teenager. That includes food, Netflix, and last minute homework. Yes, I do live alone. Why live with anyone else? I don’t get lonely. And if I do I just go and sleep and dream of “friends”. Why get attached to anyone? All they will do is leave and never return.
That’s what both my parents did. I was 5 when my father left. He didn’t love us. He doesn’t even know what love is! He left so he could continue sleeping around with every other desperate woman in the neighborhood. At age 15 my mother started to drink, I think it was because my father fell in ‘love’ with her sister and got married. Drinking usually comes with a side of abuse. And the spilling of secrets. Like, the only reason my mom stayed with me was because she felt pity of me.
I ran away after one night of brutal beating and went to my formal best friend’s house. She let me stay for about a year and a half before kicking me out for ‘not being a polite house guest’. That was at age 16. I’m 18 now and I’ve been alone ever since. Not that I care though. I have my own apartment and all my own money. I’m also in my last year of high school and I’m going to the University of Florida on a full scholarship. So, I don’t need anybody.
