Shuffle

Chapter 2

LAURA P.O.V.:

"Baby loves to dance in the dark, 'cause when he's looking she falls apart..." Lady Gaga, ''Dance in the Dark"

I don't know what it was about him... He made me nervous...

His name was Kyle. He was tall, brown hair, blue eyes, star quarterback... and... my boyfriend! Yes! Let's all give me a round of applause! The freaky music girl got the hot boyfriend! Yay!

He knew all of my secrets-- all of my issues, and every time I was around him... my issues would just pour out to him. He knew about how I was diagnosed with some form of depression where they made me take pills, cause apparently I wasn't able to make my own self happy. He knew that I had a little sister that I hated, a family that I hated, and that I stayed in my bedroom every night with my guitar. He knew that I had smoked weed every day since I was 13, and almost every day since I was 15, I had snorted Oxycotin or Vicodin. He saw through all of my fake smiles in school. He knew I was an absolute wreck.

But it was only because he saw the real me, unlike hundreds of other kids at Compton... he knew what was going on with me, and he understood, or at least seemed to. I just didn't like the fact that he saw it all. I felt weak when he did. He watched me as I would crumple into a pile of pathetic before his eyes. He just picked me back up, brushed me off, and told me to keep going. Metaphorically, of course. However, I still felt like a charity case.

Anyways, I was sitting in my room with Mathai, my guitar, messing around with a new song that I was writing. I was going to sing it to Kyle for our three month anniversary. It was some cutsie-lovey-poppy-acoustic shit that I knew he would love. I was working on the last verse when my mom, oh-so-politely I might add, yelled at me to get the hell downstairs.

I put my guitar down and quickly pulled out my gauges. I checked to make sure my hair covered my ears, and walked downstairs. "Yeah?"

''Someone's on the phone for you."

"Thanks." I walked into the kitchen and picked the phone up off of the table. "Hello?"

I heard a long wail at the other end of the phone. "H-h-h-he really r-really doesn't e-ever want to g-g-get back to-to-together... H-he hung up on m-m-me again!" This almost undecipherable ramble was followed by another long wail. Wonderful. Shyanne was emotional about breakups.

"I'm sorry..."

"D-don't be! It's n-n-not your f-fault that I e-e-end up dating ass-assholes..."

I felt bad... I was the one that told her to date Aaron... I was the one that told her to take a chance since she had been dumped by Sean... and now she was crying her heart out again...

"Why don't you come over to my house tonight?"

"N-no. I already p-p-promised my mom I'd st-st-stay home. She wants me to pick up the p-pizza soon."

"Alright. Well, hey, I got to go, but if you need anything, you come over, okay?"

"Y-yeah..."

"Okay...bye..."

"B-b-bye, Laura."

I hung up the phone and breathed out a sigh of relief. Shyanne was supposed to be my best friend... But I couldn't tolerate her sometimes. She just reminded me of how selfish some teenagers were. I turned and started to walk back up to my room. My sister, Nina, stood at the bottom of the stairs. She was ten, blonde hair, skinny body, pink dress. A soon-to-be popular when she turned 14 and went to high school.

"I'm gonna tell mommy about these!" She said, holding up my black gauges. She looked at them, and then wiggled them in my face.

"Why were you in my room?" I asked, annoyed with her existance.

"Cause! Mommy told me to go in there and see if you were hiding that smelly green stuff in your dresser again. But I found this instead, so I grabbed them. I'm sure mommy will be very upset to know that her beautiful and soon-to-be succesful daughter thinks it's 'propriate to make her ears all... stretched out and ugly 'n' stuff." She sneered.

I hated my family. "What do I have to do to get you to keep your mouth shut?"

"Well... I would really really like a new bear from Build-A-Bear. Kristin now has six, and I only have seven. She's getting really close to beating me, and I don't want that to happen. I have to make sure I stay two ahead of her. Oh! And a new pack of Silly Bandz... And you have to buy me McDonald's."

"Deal." She handed me back my gauges. I walked up to my room, closed to door, sat on the bed, and groaned.

I looked at my TracPhone I wasn't allowed to have. A had a missed call from Kyle and a Voicemail. I listened to it. He wanted me to sneak out tonight so we could hang out...

Tonight wasn't a night for that. I just never answered him. He'd get over it. I shut off my light, and turned up my stereo. I needed to be in the dark for a while.