Dana

Chapter One

"Dana! Hey, Dana wait up!"

I kept my head down and walked faster, the rest of the noise in the hallway fading away as that one voice stood out.

Leering.
Mocking me.

"Hey, I just want to talk. Your psycho mom can go a few minutes without killing herself can't she?"

I grit my teeth.

"Oh wait.. never mind. Maybe you should go home after all."

I pushed through the crowd of blissfully ignorant students, fingernails digging into my palm as I clenched my fists.

Connor Adams and his friends have been bullying me about my mother since we were in elementary school. It started on the first day of third grade when Connor found out that my mother was sick, after our teacher Mrs. Applebaum practically announced it to the whole class while going through introductions.

I still remember the day as if it was yesterday, her nasal voice saying,

"and you must be Dana Wolfe, I've heard all about you and your family. Is your mother doing alright? I heard she had quite an episode last week, she almost choked that poor nurse... what was her name? Ah, yes poor Ms. Meryl, first day on the job too. Alright kids enough with the introductions, take out your journals."

I was dumbfounded and angry at Mrs. Applebaum's words. Ms. Meryl had been an extremely irritating and flaky nurse, who had come for only a day in the beginning of September that year, on the orders of Dr. Greg, her doctor. My mother had been getting worse day by day and didn't even protest. And she most certainly did not choke nurse Meryl.

The young and ignorant nurse kept pestering her to take a bath and my mother lashed out verbally, causing Nurse Meryl to retreat and trip on something.

Long story short, Nurse Meryl panicked and was afraid of my mother too, so to cover up her incompetence, she made up the story about mom trying to kill her.

I pushed through the double doors of the school building, and with a heavy heart began my walk home.

The cold winter air was particularly harsh that day and I tugged my old wool coat tighter around myself.

I felt lost... and cold.

Just then I felt my phone vibrate, and flipping it open, I answered my friend Hayley.

"Hi Hayley, what is it?"

"Hey Dana, I forgot to ask you, are you still up for Barry's at six? Sarina can't make it, she has to babysit Robbie."

Damn. It was Wednesday. It was girls' night out every Wednesday at Barry's, the coffee shop across town.

I don't know why, but I had forgotten it today. I wasn't really up for it though, I felt extremely tired for some reason.

"Um, Hayley why don't you take Nathan with you? I'm tired and I have a lot of homework to catch up on. I'm sorry."

Nathan was Hayley's boyfriend and they'd been together for a year.

"It's cool Dana. Are you okay though? Do you want me to come over? We could watch a movie, I don't have to go."

"No it's okay, you should go, I'm not in the mood today. Have fun!"

I didn't have many friends, even though I was in my senior year at Westfield High. My two best friends were Hayley Gibson and Sarina Rose and we had been friends since third grade.

I wasn't very social and even if I was, I doubt people would want to be friends with the girl whose mother was a lunatic.

Hayley and Sarina also had to face a lot of bullying because of me but they still stuck with me and I was extremely grateful for that. But my life was still not as I wanted it to be.

I wasn't happy.

I looked up through the empty tree branches. The sky looked stormy. I quickened my pace and before long reached the local bakery, where I worked. I loved baking and working at the bakery. It was the one place I could think and relax, away from all the responsibilities and chores at home. It was a quaint little building, five minutes from our house, owned by Mr. Wren and his wife Julia.

They were a charismatic and good natured middle aged couple, with no children. Hunter and I had known them since we were kids and they were one of the few people in this town who actually gave a shit about us.

My brother Hunter was twenty four years old and went to NYU. It was hard, living without him, and taking care of my mother. He also had a job at a restaurant as a chef and sent us money whenever he could.

The wind picked up, whipping my hair around my face as I finally came to my house. It was a small, single story house, but big enough for my mother and I. I rummaged through my bag for the keys and unlocking the door, walked in.

It was quiet.

I took off my shoes and coat and made my way to mom's bedroom. The bed was unmade and a bunch of her clothes and shoes were strewn all over the floor, the dresser, and every other surface. There was broken glass on the nightstand and water dripping down and soaking the carpet. A few of the food magazines that she loved perusing through were on the bed, ripped up, their pages pulled out and crumpled.

A shiver went down my spine.

With my mother there were good days and bad days, and then there were those days when I felt like climbing into the bathtub, filling it with water, and just letting go.

Today was going to be one of those days.

I sighed and walked into the bathroom adjoining the room, looking for her. "Mom? Are you in here?" I called apprehensively.

The water was running in the tub and she was nowhere to be found. I turned the tap off and walked back out. I searched the house methodically, checking each room and in all the places she could be. I went out in the tiny backyard and she wasn't there.

A feeling of dread and foreboding began to unfurl in my stomach. It felt like I was sinking and couldn't find anything to hold onto, to stay afloat.

My heart was beating rapidly and I kept thinking about how relaxed she was this morning when I went to school, how she smiled at me crookedly and even let me kiss her goodbye, which was rare.

What the hell happened? It didn't make any sense at all. She knew she wasn't supposed to leave the house unattended, but she knew where the second set of keys was. It crossed my mind briefly that she could have left the house, but I didn't want to dwell on that possibility because it raised the hair on the back of my neck to think about all the ways she could hurt herself.

I came back to her bedroom and sank down on the bed, feeling weak and drained. I had been looking forward to taking a short nap after my long day at school, filled with pop quizzes and lab work, and now I had forgotten all about my plans.

I didn't know where else to look; she had never left the house on her own before and I felt utterly helpless.

It was like she had vanished into thin air.

I took my cell phone out of my pocket, and not knowing what else to do, dialed Hunter's number. He was probably in class but I didn't care. I was on the verge of tears and could feel a huge lump forming in my throat.

As the phone rang for the fourth time, my gaze fell on the pillow beside me. There was a little corner of yellow paper peeking out from under the pillow. Pulling out the post it, my hands shook and the tears flowed freely as I read the squiggly, childish handwriting of my mother.

"DANA DOnt comE aftr me I hAv to go I wil fly away soon AND i lov You and Hunt"

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I hope you guys liked that chapter, I won't update this story unless this chapter gets at least 80 reads.