Betrayed By Yourself

Prologue (Part I)

I sprung out of bed to the sound of my blaring alarm clock. I struggled to press the snooze button, as I flailed my arm around. Finally, the noise came to a sudden stop. I stopped and froze, making sure that I didn't wake up Grammy. I sighed. I knew I shouldn't have stayed up so late reading the collection of books that my teacher gave to me. After getting out of what seemed to be a sarlac pit of a bed, I followed my usual schedule. Shower, get dressed, brush my teeth, get ready, then eat breakfast. Momma waved goodbye to me as she helped Grammy up the stairs. Momma. The greatest person you'll ever meet. Her name is Charleen. I've never called her mom. It's always been momma. When my dad disappears most nights, he comes home drunk as a monkey, and throws a fit to her. Most were about me, and how I was never supposed to be here. I was the reason he was never here with his family. But truthfully, they both weren't exactly in a happy relationship before I came into the picture. My dad used to beat my mom. They used to always fight, and they lived in a crappy apartment building.

I thought about that as I strolled over to my bus stop. All of this didn't bother me. Cause I knew that I'll always have my friends to come back to. Eddy ran over to me. We did our usual squad handshake, then we both sat on the bench next to Christina, Eden, Steve, and Phil, who was standing cause there wasn't any space left. We were all grade nine students at Saint-Cathleen's. As we waited for the bus, Eden asked me a question that caught me off guard.
"So... What's on your mind Carl? You got somethin' you wanna tell us?" She asked, with her light fluffy voice, and her loose attitude. No one usually asks what I'm thinking about. I panicked a bit inside, before answering.
"No, but do still have that ginormous crush on this Ashten dude?" Right after, everyone chimed in, and gave her her fill of embarrassment. See, Eden knew how to read everyone's expressions, and mold it into something they were thinking about. Sometimes, I felt like she belonged in doctor Xavier's mutant school. Although, she was very attentive to what people had to say, whether it was personal, or school related. She was the one you could count on. Christina is shy but not around her friends. She does amazing in school though. Eddy is the kinda guy you just want to slap and call an idiot. He actually needs that once in a while. He can get pretty chatty, and really, really annoying, but he's my best friend. Steve is a stand up comedian no doubt. Now, he is the guy who everyone likes, who shouts out during class and makes weird comments sometimes. And Phil... Well he doesn't talk much. He just hangs out with all of us because he has no one else to hang with. We except him as part of the squad though.

As we talked and roasted each other, the bus was coming down the road. I couldn't wait to get away from home.