The Untouchables

Chapter 6 -- Unfulfilling

I was brutally awakened from my nap by the sound of my phone ringing. I forced myself to get up, almost missing the call. "Hello?" I mumbled groggily, too lazy to check the caller ID.

"Hey kiddo!" At the sound of my dad's voice, I instantly perked up. I hadn't seen him since graduation day. He was on a business trip in Australia. If only I had gone with him; I wouldn't have been stuck wallowing in self pity.

"Hey dad," I said, still trying to wake up. I had sounded much more energetic in my head.

"Are you okay Taryn?"

"Yeah, I'm good, I just woke up from a nap." I sat up in my bed and looked over to the clock. 4:17. Shit, I had slept for three hours. Somehow naps were simultaneously the worst and best thing ever. I wanted to sleep for a short fifteen minutes, knowing that any longer would leave me with a poor demeanor, but I kept snoozing my alarm until I got annoyed that my rest was constantly being interrupted. The result was waking up with the strange urge to have to stab everyone and everything with a fork.

"Oh, sorry honey. I just woke up as well. I've got a big day today."

We spent close to half an hour on the phone. I missed him a lot, especially this time. Dad went on several business trips a year, but it wasn't as if he was abandoning my mother and me. He spent plenty of time at home and made sure to call whenever he left. He was the CEO of my grandpa's company. Grandpa and an old friend invented some really revolutionary product, which I honestly didn't know anything about. That's the short story of how we came to be a part of the notorious one percent.

When the conversation ended, I hung up with a smile, but the silence that followed reminded me of reality. A picture of Zach's face had sunk itself into my memory. It was associated with so many emotions. I really liked talking to him, getting to understand his puzzling outer shell, but he reminded me of all that I stood to lose. Somehow he reminded me of Gabe, though they had absolutely nothing in common.

A knock on the door interrupted my thoughts. "Come in," I automatically said. The door eased open, creaking quietly.

"Hey," a voice greeted me. I shot up at the word. It was Zach, the last person I ever expected to walk into my bedroom. I was completely unprepared; pieces of my hair had come out of my already messy bun in my sleep and I was under the covers of my bed. Who knows what he could have thought was under here. I had at least fallen asleep still wearing my bra, though I was somewhat uncomfortable waking up. I had to try and play it cool, for my reputation's sake.

"Yeah?" I replied calmly.

"Well, erm, I guess I was wondering if you were okay. I dunno, it sounds stupid." Fuck. He was being sweet and adorably awkward. How the hell was I supposed to respond to that. My brain had basically turned to mush by that point. Everything had to be so complicated all the time.

"Why?" my freshly awake alter-ego snapped. How could he possibly know that something was wrong? He hadn't seen his mother's judge-y eyes, staring me up and down, calling me a slut with a capital S.

"You haven't left your room since breakfast. Aren't you hungry?" I had totally forgotten about the outside world. Sleeping didn't help with my perception of time and reality, but it sure was a great escape. Right after the fiasco with Gabe, all I ever wanted to do was sleep. My mom eventually made me go to a therapist and I was diagnosed with situational depression. It was a pretty big word at the time, but it didn't really change much. Since then, I had gotten back on track, but the stress of having Zach around made some of the old feelings bubble up again.

"I'm fine," I lied. "I was just taking a nap, but I could really go for a something to eat, now that I think about it." Anything to help get my mind of the past. I had to keep reminding myself that Zach wasn't Gabe. What happened before was because of some stupid high school guy that didn't give a shit about me, not because I was a stupid whore, or at least, that's what my therapist always told me.