paramour

chapter 1

 Something Unexpected

Shifting in my uncomfortable, tatty, bed sheets, I opened my eyes to another dreary day in Ymir British Columbia. The cold morning and the intense light streaming through my window was what woke me. I stretched out on the bed, wincing slightly as my bruises were still tender. A sad thought came upon me; I used to appreciate the light and cool mornings, because of their ability to wake me up before school started. I rarely appreciated anything anymore. Life meant nothing to me anymore, not that it mattered to me much more before it happened. Before he died; my dad. The only person I could talk to... but even come to think of it, he didn't even really know me. No one did.

Although, my dad had been my savior from many things; including my mother. Life had turned even more horrible than it was before, after he died. And the main reason for my horrible life was my mother- or, as I called her most of the time, Cynthia. She had such a pretty name for such a vile creature. She had abused me since I was five to this very day. Dad was the one to stop it. But now, without him here to stop it...

Sometimes she didn't even have a reason to do it, even though it was wrong to do, in my eyes, anyways. The only person that had actually cared about me had been taken cruelly last year next week in a car crash. I had stopped grieving over dad's death a few months ago. I was just severely depressed now. Well, more depressed then before, anyway. Grieving would do no good. It wouldn't bring him back.

Why couldn't it have been Cynthia? And thinking that would be a cruel idea to anyone else, but if you were me, you wouldn't think it so cruel. The reason she was so evil to me was because I always her "mistake". She had always regretted not getting an abortion when she found out she was pregnant, as she always reminded me. My dad was the one who made her keep me when he found out. And that was why she always beat me without a hint of regret.

My dad had been the only one who I could talk to. I didn't even have one friend at high school. Everyone tended to avoid me. Or they tortured me. I was the freakish klutzy kid to them at school. Oh well. Everything would be fine, I hoped, when I moved out and got an apartment far away from my mother and the other stuck-up kids at school. That wouldn't be a problem, either. I had been saving pretty much all my life for that day.

"Marie! Get up!" Cynthia's screechy voice yelled from behind my door. Her voice pulled me off my train of thought.

I sighed, and yelled back, "Fine!" meanwhile planting my face in my pillow. Great, I had to face another depressing day at the Salmo Secondary School. It was most likely only like that to me.

Everyday for the other students was make-fun-of-the-klutz-day. And the klutz was me.

I sighed in frustration before hoisting myself out of bed to get ready for the day. As I got up, my bruises ached. I ignored it; I was to use too it by now.

My alarm clock read 7:45 AM and school started at 8:05 AM. Cursing under my breath I realized I would have to be really quick, since it took almost ten minutes to get to school. I lived all the way out on the outskirts of town, and everything including the school was inside the town. You could barely see the house from the road. Our house was practically encircled in trees, so it almost seemed like we lived in the forest. It was hard to understand why my mother wanted to live out here. From my understanding, she liked the sun a lot, and the ancient trees around us provided lots of shade; almost blocking the sun out.

I snatched a change of clothes out of my little mahogany dresser that took up half the space in my room, and sprinted to the bathroom. My room had to be the smallest one in the house. Even the kitchen was bigger than my room. It connected with the living room, making it one wide, and open space right when you came in the door. But I never complained about how small my room was; I couldn't with the view I got from my window.