A New Life

Chapter One

Chapter 1

A mugging gone wrong says the police.  He never meant to shoot them the filthy scumbag pleaded to the judge, yeah right. How in hell do y’all accidentally shoot two people thirteen times? It still amazes me the lengths he went to too try and prove his innocence. Drumming up some heinous story about how my father attacked him first. It was disgusting. An “accidental” pull of the trigger has now made my twin brother Levi and I orphans, leaving us with no-one.  He only wanted the few dollars from daddy’s wallet to get doped up on crack but daddy fought him, never backed down.

Since that fatal night two short months ago we’ve stayed with my mom’s childhood friend Clara but our time was up, summer was almost over and she’s unable to look after us anymore. We’re getting sent away, to the other side of the country to live with our half-brother, Sam Uley. We’ve met him only once before at our parents funeral. He and his fiancée Emily live on the small Indian Reservation, La Push in the Pacific Northwest. It’s a tiny fishing village right on the coast. I’ve never been to that part of the country but I’ve heard it’s a hell of a lot different than here. Where they have rain, rain and yet more rain, Charleston has glorious, hot sun that gives you golden skin.

I’ve spent the last two weeks packing and re-packing, trying to fit everything in my two matching suitcases, eventually I managed. The night before our flight I couldn’t sleep, I just sat on the window ledge staring out at the quiet cul-de-sac void of people. The moon was full and bright, leeching the colour out of the street.

This is it I thought, I’m finally leaving. I wasn’t really that popular with the local kids; being homeschooled can really put a damper on your social life. I’m not weird, crazily religious or anything of that nature; my Mom just saw flaws in the state school system. The point being is I don’t have many friends, maybe one or two at dance class but that's about it. Despite that I’m sure as hell going to miss this place; the sound of the waves lapping the beach on my way home from dance class, the constant tang of salt and car fumes in the air and of course the mouth watering smell of Mrs Michelson’s bakery at the end of my old block.

Sunrise came soon enough casting a warm, hazy light over the town. At 8am I decided to have a hot shower to relax my stiff muscles. Our flight was at 1pm but we would have to leave Clara’s by 10:30am to get there on time. Once dried, I put on a pair of skinny jeans, a white camisole, a dark green sweater and tied my hair up in a high ponytail. Pulling on my much abused white converse I glanced out the window one last time. Saline tears bubbled up in my eyes threatening to spill down my cheeks but Levi burst through the door and stopped me in my tracks.

“Hey Devon, it’s time to go. Clara’s packing the car.” he announced in an expressionless tone.

“Yeah, okay. I’ll just be a minute.” I muttered, my voice was unsteady.

“Dev, are you okay?” He crossed the room and knelt down beside me. His hand reached under my chin and turned my face towards him.

“Come here.” He opened his arms and pulled me into a hug. I pressed my face into his chest and let a few tears escape.

“No Levi, I’m not okay.” His grip around me tightened and he just held me.

*              *             *

By 1:10pm we were boarding American Airlines flight 2847 bound for Seattle, Yay! Note the heavy sarcasm. The flight was seriously under booked so we had a full row of seats to ourselves. Sitting in the seat closest to the window I buckled up waiting to take off. Levi was putting our things in the overhead locker; in my hand I clutched a packet of fruit Life Savers ready to eat one just before takeoff so my ears wouldn’t pop.

An hour into the flight I had undone my seat belt and curled up into a tight ball. Persistent tears stained my cheeks as I buried my head against the itchy, polyester seat coverings and silent sobs ran through me. Levi’s hand was firmly in my grip, rubbing soothing circles with his thumb. Leaving Charleston meant leaving my parents, leaving my old life behind. I don’t know at what point I fell asleep but the next thing I remember is being gentle shook awake by Levi.

“Dev, we’re about to land.” his olive eyes were bloodshot and ringed in red.

I stretched out my muscles and pulled my converse back on. The pilot’s voice came over the intercom instructing everyone to return to their seats and put their seat belts on. We would be landing at Tacoma International Airport in ten minutes.

Finally after landing here and taxiing to here and oh we have to wait here for 10 minutes all the passengers disembarked the plane. Levi and I strolled off the plane and made bee-line for a rack of luggage trolleys. We we’re kept waiting for twenty minutes at the luggage carousel watching countless suitcases and holdalls circulate unclaimed again and again until ours made an appearance. Once all of our suitcases and my hard- sided guitar case were accounted for we headed for the front of the airport to find our connection.

Just outside the automatic doors a tall, muscular man who was a great likeness of my father stood holding a white sign with our names printed on, Sam. His free arm was tenderly wrapped round a woman’s waist, she had copper skin and her luscious, black hair cascaded over narrow shoulders. Her stomach was round with the late stages of pregnancy. I’m gonna say this is Emily. The right side of her face was pulled down by a collection of deep scars. I wonder how she got them. I let my gaze fall to the floor, it’s rude to stare. But curiosity flamed inside. How did she get those scars? My eyes focussed back to the board with our name on. 

“Why does your name always get put first?”I grumbled, pouting like an angry child.

“Erm? Because I’m awesome and you suck that’s why!” He teased. I playfully shoved him and he chuckled.

Emily waved at us and a huge grin spread across Sam’s face.

“Hey Devon, hey Levi it’s nice to see you two again” His smile was friendly and genuine. He outstretched a long, muscled arm. I took his hand in my own and shook it. Jesus! This guy must be ill or something, his temperature is through the roof! Levi shook his hand too; the expression on his face told me he was thinking the same thing.

“It’s nice to see y’all too” Levi smiled.

Emily closed the few remaining steps between us and wrapped her arms around me, pulling me as close as she could.

"Oh Devon, I'm so sorry to hear about your loss. If you ever and I mean ever need to talk just come and find me. Okay?"

"Sure. Thank you Emily" She released me from her grasp and gave Levi the same treatment. A strange expression flitted onto Sam’s face. If I didn’t know any better I’d say he looked jealous? Jealous of Levi hugging Emily? That’s a bit, Erm, strange?

"Well come on. Let’s get you two back to La Push. It’s about a four hour journey, so I would make sure to have some entertainment on you.” He laughed nervously.

“All in here” I patted the side of my carry-on bag.

He took the cart off Levi started pushing it through the vast parking lot towards a slightly outdated Volkswagen Jetta. I hopped into the back seat while Levi helped Emily into her seat. Darkness had completely consumed the sky from horizon to horizon by the time we reached La Push at 10am. My body was slowly become limp with fatigue, trying to hold off the advances for sleep.

The house was small and quaint from what I could tell and hidden just within the wall of towering red cedar trees. Sam started unloading our luggage into their house as Emily showed us to our rooms. Too tired to even change into my pyjamas I kicked off my converse, wiggled out of my skinny jeans and took my sweater off. With a muffled thump I landed right in the middle of the small double bed and wormed my way under the comforter. Today had been a long and stressful day both physically and mentally. I welcomed sleep like you would a hug from a loved one. This is the start of a new life.

__________________

This is the new edited version, if anyone has any queries please feel free to message me.

Please Comment, Vote, Fan and Tweet :D

Shannon x