the puppeteer (a.f.i)

0.0

I'd tell you why, but you wouldn't really care. Just like everyone else. The puppeteer of society tugs the strings, yanking others away from people like me. Leaving us in isolation. And the single, last stroke the delicate hands of the puppeteer would perform on me, would be thrusting my small, broken-down self, Lennox Pines, out of my misery.

I stared down at the blurs of yellow cabs, vying for customers, pigeons fighting over the last crumb. It had just come to mind how competitive the the world was. But that had nothing to do with me. I had nothing worth emulating this competition for.

I wasn't even fighting for my own life.

I sucked in a breath, and closed my eyes trying to imagine death. This was a simulation I had imagined many times before, but this time it felt so real.

My feet shifted, letting the tips of my Converse over the edge.

The puppeteer was ready for the final scene in the life of Lennox Pines.

The ratty old Converse were now inching their way off the edge, and then they tipped off.

There was this movie had I had seen ages ago, made in the eighties, about an autistic boy who wished he could fly. Right now, I was experiencing his wish. I could fly. I was flying. Something all of the human race wishes for at least one time in their lives. And mine was about to end so abruptly. Just like that.

Two Days Earlier

Ashton's POV

I looked over at my friends bullying some girl. Such an undescriptive statement, but that was pretty much what happened. I saw her standing a few rows ahead of me, ascending even closer to the back of the bus. The back of the bus. A living hell for anyone who wasn't a senior football player, or cheerleader. So stereotypical, yet so true. And I played football, and was a senior, so I fit right into the back of the bus. I was a puzzle piece in this crowd. On the other hand, the girl standing up, I think her name was Lennon or Lennox, was an extra piece that the game manufacturers added in by mistake. She didn't belong back here.

When Lennox, or Lennon, stopped at a halt right in front of me, I heard many R rated phrases coming from my friends, somehow puncturing the Nirvana playing on my phone at maximum volume. And then an ear blistering yell saying, "Make her sit with Ash, he's got a seat open!"

My name is Ashton, also known as Ash, therefore I was going to give up the luxury of obtaining my own seat. I looked down at the floor, letting my hair fall into my eyes. I didn't want her thinking that I cared about her, so I obstinately sat there, not getting up to let her sit. She had to scootch her way around my legs. Her backpack brushed up against my head, leaving my hair disheveled. There was an awkward moment of silence.

"So what's your name?" I asked her.

"Lennox Pines," she replied while staring out the plexiglas window.

"Cool name. I'm-"

"I know you're Ashton Irwin. The whole school knows who you are. A dumb jock, with a blonde girlfriend, and is anything but unprecedented. And you just walk around thinking you're better than everybody else, with your weird hipster style, even when you aren't a hipster whatsoever. You're just stupid," she remarked, her eyes still focused on the blur outside the window. I just laughed at her.

"I only play football because my dad made me. I'm single, and I'm not stupid. So why don't you just shut up. Maybe I am hipster, I don't even know, but you should just stop automatically judging people on a higher social level than you. You're the stereotypical one here," I remarked, while staring at the back of her head, and flicking a dirty blonde curl out of my eyes. "No wonder you don't have any friends." That felt so first year Ron and Hermione to me. And Ron was a jerk then, so I must have sounded like one too. But I guess I had the right to say that, since she started it. Now I sounded like I was five years old. Lennox was still being unresponsive, and not even looking at me. I looked at her shirt which had The Clash displayed on it. I loved them.

Before I could say anything about London Calling or Police and Thieves, the bus jerked to a stop, and Lennox climbed over me to leave. Her hair caught a ray of light and turned from brown to a mesmerizing golden color. She seemed... beautiful in a different sort of way.

"Hey Lennox!" I yelled to her as she was jaunting down the aisle. She turned around and looked at me.

"Don't worry, I won't be back on this bus. I'm clearly not wanted here. Or anywhere!" she shouted at me. Lennox turned her head back to the front of the bus, and kept her focus on the door. Then she walked off, without any consideration. I had to talk to her, and I had just realized that what I said was callous. I had to apologize.

Without thinking, I ran after her. I sprinted down the sidewalk until I was inches away from her. She turned around, her hair whipping and glared at me.

"What do you want?" she spitted out. I looked down at her. I have been freakishly tall since the eighth grade, so I pretty much had to look down at everybody.

"I wanted to say sorry." She just looked at me like I was the biggest idiot in the world. A strand of hair was covering one of her eyes, and I wanted so badly to push it to the side. I stretched out my hand to move it behind her ear, but as soon as I made this action, she slapped away my hand. Her eyes were still squinted at me, like I was the Sun.

"What the fuck was that for?" she questioned while scrunching her nose up. I opened my mouth, but nothing came out. "Well?"

"I don't know... but listen I wanted to say... um...." I didn't know what to say, so I just blurted out, "I like your shirt." She just stood there with a blank look on her face, probably pondering about how stupid I was.

"Well this was a total waste of time," she snapped while walking away. I ran after her.

"Lennox. I'm really sorry about anything anybody has ever said about you that made you hurt."

"You can't take back your actions, or anyone else's. So just shut up, and let me go home, and then you can go make out with some girl under the lights at the football field." I just stared at her. her eyes were brown, a color thought to be the plainest, ugliest color of eyes, but her's were alluring.

"Fine. I was trying to help you, but obviously you don't want any. Still shows why you don't have any friends," I said while walking away. I had just blown the opportunity to apologize. And I was to be known as the blonde, freakishly tall, incongruous jock, who could never change. This is what I looked like in her mind.

I wanted to talk to her again, but she wasn't on the bus the next day or at school.

I had planned to talk to her the day after that. But she still hadn't shown up.

I went to the bus driver and asked for the address he dropped her off at. It was an apartment building. And in the directory it said Pines-5C. When I went up to her apartment, I knocked and nobody answered. But the door was unlocked.

I saw a note on the windowsill.

the puppeteer has made the final move

I looked outside the window, and what I saw on the sidewalk below was a lifeless body, with hair that shimmered in the sun.

If only I had done something to fix this. This wouldn't have happened. She wouldn't have a horrible image of me in her mind, as she lept. If only.

***

(a/n) so the song at the beginning might come into the story later on... so I wrote this for school, and of course my teacher doesn't know who the fuck ashton Irwin is so I pretty much handed in a fanfiction, and then she told me to change it into something big so yeah.. wattpad. SORRY IF IM EXTREMELY AWKARD! okay um......... byeeeeeeeeeeee

-Meredith