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CHAPTER ONE. ━━━━ WITH BRUISES ON MY CHIN. BEFORE THE EVENTS OF THE SHOW. EP. 0
ATLANTA, GEORGIA. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 9TH. YEAR 2010
DAY 1. TESS
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. . .
—— IF TESS KNEW her life was going to end up this way, she'd have swallowed a bullet a long time ago.
How dull. How plain. An easy to digest sludge of repetition. Being fed the same slop over and over, like a dog that was just grateful to be fed. The life of a twenty-year-old girl shouldn't be this boring.
As a born and bred American citizen, Tess Ledger knew what her place in society was. She knew what rules she needed to abide by. She knew her roles, and she knew that the society she so desperately wanted to fit in with, would sooner chew her up and spit her out rather than give her a fighting chance. And like the good little obedient dog she was, she did as she was told with a smile on her face. She got paid, she paid her bills, she starved herself to fit into a new pair of trendy jeans, lathered her face in questionable oils, and makeup routines. She contributed to the machine that made up everyone's livelihoods. She survived. Day by day. In a soul-crushing environment that did nothing but make her yearn for that bullet.
That was her way of life —— mostly. It was comfortable, or at least familiar, but, then again, if it was all she really knew, how could she really tell if she was comfortable with it if she was never given a taste of a life outside of what she was permitted to bite?
It was all routine.
She knew her alarm would scream at approximately 5:30 AM, ripping her out of a peaceful dream untainted by the constraints of her daily life. She'll spend an extra ten minutes staring up at the cracks in the ceiling of her bedroom, just hoping for the old plaster to collapse and crush her beneath its weight. Debating quitting her job at the local cafe had become her only source of comfort in the hour she spent throwing on her uniform, and slathering on a layer of make-up to mask the darkness settled underneath her brown eyes. Not that the comfort went that far, given that, no matter how many times she cursed at the sky, and debated hexing her work establishment, she always found herself crawling back with her tail between her legs and a meek little smile.
