take on me, e.williams

one

—first
friend—

————odessa lay in her bed, dark brown eyes staring up at the ceiling. voices could be heard in the kitchen, down the hall from her room. odessa identified these voices as her uncle joel, and his living companion, theresa, or tess. tess had been out all day yesterday, leaving joel worried.

                 the teenage girl climbed out of bed in her pajamas, and shuffled to the kitchen.

                  "it was robert." tess told joel, as odessa rounded the corner. joel was holding a towel to a gash in tess's cheek.

                "the hell?" odessa frowned, her country accent shining through her voice briefly. joel and tess turned in unison to see the sixteen year old girl standing in an old t-shirt of joel's and scrub pants. her hair was a disaster, her blonde white bangs contrasted against her tan skin and the rest of her dark hair. she was born with it, it was odd.

                    "don't worry 'bout it, dess." joel told the girl, tess standing to go the door. the miller man followed her, but stopped in front of odessa. "we're going out. we'll be back tonight." he said to her, giving her a gentle pat on her shoulder. "nice shirt." he remarked.

                  "thanks." odessa let a small smile flicker onto her face. "don't be out too fucking late, i'd rather not have a panic attack." odessa told her uncle, he smiled down softly at her.

                  "okay, mom. be safe. if you need anything, just go to ellen's." joel reminded odessa who nodded.

"c'mon, joel." theresa beckoned the man. joel went to the door. "see you later, kid." tess shut the door behind them. and then odessa was alone. not that she minded.

odessa liked to draw. it was her only other favorite pastime other than beating the living shit out of people. odessa had been in a fight club a bunch of teenagers started, most of them were seventeen or eighteen. she has been one of the youngest, but also the best fighter there was.

at first odessa told joel and tess that she was just clumsy, but they didn't believe her. joel asked if she was getting bullied at the school, and she brushed him off. the man followed her one day and found out that she was in the fight club.

                  joel hadn't played the bad guy parent in more than twenty years, but he was pretty sure grounding her and taking away her sketchbook was a good punishment. he ratted on the group of teens to some soldiers, but left odessa out of it. but because of this conflict, it brought odessa and joel closer together.

                  odessa went to her room, and showered in what her pathetic excuse for a shower was. she dried her hair and found a set of clean clothes. it was a pair of black cargo pants, and an old navy blue band t-shirt of joel's, which was for the band a-ha from the 80's. she paired this with her dark green jacket and her combat boots. most of her clothes cost more than food, and joel just wanted his niece to comfortable and safe.

                  the teenager took her sketchbook and exited the apartment. she walked down the hall and out the window at the end of the hall, onto a metal platform. this platform went up two flights of stairs before taking her to the roof. odessa sat on an air conditioning unit, her legs crossed over the other.

the sun poured down onto her, sketch book. odessa guided her pencil across the yellowing paper. odessa had started a recent drawing of joel, asleep on the couch. it was barely outlined, but she could recall the rest of the details from memory. joel called her creepy for her drawing people that didn't know she was drawing them. but odessa was a people watcher.