Adrift

Chapter 1

November sits in the passenger seat of her aunts car. She can't stand to look at her aunt so she stares right out instead. It's been raining steadily. She smiles softly at that. She has always loved it when it rains even if it does scare her a little bit.
The raindrops decorate the car window, racing and playing amongst themselves. She focuses on it since it's easier than focusing on what has come of her life.

But no matter how much she tries to concentrate she can't help with the the strong blanket of self-pity that shrouds over her again and again.
Before she can be paralyzed with memories all over again she shifts her mind to think of the future. But even that seems bleak right now.

She would've much rather preferred to go to a decent college, make new friends, work hard and then apply for placements and see where that would take her. But obviously none of it came through.

After that happened, it was like something had been switched off in November. She couldn't bring herself to do anything. She'd lie down for hours together and cry herself to sleep. She couldn't pull it back to her 'normal self' and it just added on to the frustration along with everything else she felt.
Her friends gave her space, something that she was grateful for. But eventually that space turned to distance and when everything was done and dusted, November lay alone in her bedroom, abandoned and forgotten by the people closest to her and the pain in her chest was so intense she thought she wouldn't survive the night.
She hoped on it, as she heard her mum clatter downstairs through the various empty bottles of alcohol that littered their once homely living room.

Next morning November decided she'd try to move on too. She had already received acceptance letters from the 2 colleges she had applied to and she decided it was about time she responded back to them.
But as she went through her emails, November was so mad at herself and her life she wanted to be done with it right there and then.
Both the universities had reached out to her a couple of times and she hadn't even bothered to check it through. Now their deadlines had passed and the time slot for new enrollments were sealed and the thought of being stuck there with no escape twisted her stomach to knots.

Fast forward when a couple of days later her Aunt Barbara showed up to their doorstep yelling at her mom for pestering her for money after blowing up all that she had.
Barbara decided that she would not leave November alone at the mercy of her grieving and now deranged sister after she caught November passed out in her room out of exhaustion.

And just like that November was asked to pack up her bags, collect her belongings and leave with her aunt whom she was seeing for only the second time in her entire life.
There was no protest from her mom and she wondered if her mom would even notice that she wasn't home anymore amongst the rampant of men and vodka bottles she brought day in and day out.

November had nothing left in her little town of Glendale anymore. All that she loved had left her. The only traces of her father remained now only in her memories and all of her closest friends had conveniently moved on with their lives not bothering to even check how she was holding up.
She always had a strained relationship with her mother and she knew since she was a kid that her mother loved her brother lot more than she loved her. In fact there were days when November felt her mother didn't love her at all, as she'd forget her birthdays or for instance 'forgetting' to show up at her high school graduation. It hurt her to no end initially but overtime she got used to the feeling of being cast away.
Her mother was far beyond reach and reasoning and although November felt guilty as she thought she was abandoning her mother, she also knew it was necessary for her to get a new environment.

She had no plan and no idea what she was to do now that there was no university in the picture she decided she was too exhausted to think of the future while the past still haunted her and left her crippled and paralyzed.

But she wished she had thought of her future. She wished she had something planned, a back up plan, a plan B anything would do.
But she didn't and when her Aunt asked her for her grades, certificates and SAT scores November quietly submitted them to her without thinking of it much.

The next thing she knew her aunt was gushing all about Southside Princeton University. Why she bothered though November had no idea.
Everyone knew what that scandalous place was like. A little ways from New York, SPU was notorious for harboring the rich kids who bore a certain devious reputation.

It's true, that the university has students who were now successful but currently the place was rampant with the wildest kids with the wildest tendencies.
The boys all notorious and bad and the girls all bitchy and skimpy, all of them with big credit cards and even bigger egos.
And when their parents have the bank balance as big as they do, little is said to the young adults who have no respect for anything or anyone whatsoever.

It caught media's attention and to make the picture a little better on their favor the prestigious and elite university that was once completely cut off to students with humble backgrounds now opened spots for 2 scholarship students.
Enter Aunt Barbara who submitted November's near perfect grades and SAT scores, rang up some crucial people and now November had landed her spot at Southside Princeton majoring in English Lit.

Now as aunt and niece drove to the University to drop November there once and for all, November felt her throat closing up.

She knew it was unfair to think of it like that and she knew deep down she was still very much grateful for her aunt showing up at their house she couldn't help but feel like her aunt was abandoning her too.

Barbara on the other hand couldn't bring herself to look at November in the eye. She didn't know what was to be said or what would we appropriate.

And as they drove in through the gates of the high-class establishment, Barbara pretended she didn't notice how November's breath hitched or how she had gone more pale than the day she found her passed out in her room.