Cranial Misfire [ON HOLD]

A Wilting Rose

Disclaimer: I own nothing but Rose's character

Central City 8:30am

Beep! Beep! Beep!

Rose groaned, rolling over in her bed as she heard her phone go off.

It was time.

She grumbled under her breath as she pushed back her sheets and quilt and padded sleepily over to her phone. She rolled her eyes and sighed as she turned the alarm off. She rubbed the sleep from her eyes as she made her way to the kitchen. She opened the first cabinet on the left and began rummaging around inside, looking for a couple bottles, setting them on the counter as she found them. She looked at the labels, making sure she had what she needed. Satisfied she had all of them, she began pouring out pills, counting them out loud to herself as she pushed a few of them to the side.

"One blue, three and a half white, one yellow, one pink..."

She kept counting, stopping when she reached seven. Then she double checked herself; perfection was important. When she was sure she had the dosages right, she scooped the pills up into her hand and headed to another cabinet to find a cup. She filled it with water from the tap, shoved the pills in her mouth, took a big sip from the glass, and swallowed. She set the cup back down on the counter and walked to her room to get ready for the day.
Step one: get dressed. 

She foraged around her mess of a room for anything that looked remotely clean. What she ended up with was an old pair of gym shorts, a grey sports bra, and a baggy black t-shirt. She dug around the piles of clothes scattered all over her room for the cleanest pair of socks she could find and pulled them on, shoving her feet into a disgusting pair of sneakers. She walked over her desk and grabbed a pen and a notepad. She then walked out her room clutching the notepad to her chest. She scribbled out a quick note saying she was going for a jog, then set it down on the dining room table, though she doubted anyone would actually read it. Then she grabbed her phone, a pair of headphones, and the lanyard that held her keys. Just as she reached for the doorknob though, she heard her mother's voice in her head, chiding her.

Where is your bracelet young lady?! Or maybe your necklace? Put one on right now!

She sighed, rolling her eyes, and walked back into her room, opening the drawer of her bedside table. She reached in and fished out the first piece of metal her fingers clasped around. She pulled it out and held it in the palm of her hand, looked to see what she was holding; bracelet or necklace. 

It was a dog tag necklace. It looked fairly pretty; the only thing  ruining it being the ugly, red hexagon in the center. She put the chain around her neck and fastened the clasp behind her. The dog tag lay heavy and cold against her chest. With that done, she made her way toward the front door, checking her appearance in the mirror beside it:

Sad brown eyes that were red, puffy and had heavy, blue bags under them stared back at her. Her long brown hair was sticking out in all directions so she grabbed the band around her wrist and roughly pulled her hair back into a messy ponytail. She straightened out her shirt and pulled her shorts down to cover her thighs a bit better.
Once she was done fixing herself, she opened the door and stepped out, slamming and locking it behind her, and readied herself for the start of the boring hours that were going to be her day. 

She plugged her headphones into her phone and scrolled through her playlists, looking for a good song. Finally finding one she liked, she hit play and headed out.

It was like this every day: wake up to an empty house and a blaring alarm, take a few pills, try to make herself look better than she felt, plaster on a fake a smile, and then go forth and try to live her life. All the while fooling the world into believing she was okay, that everything was fine.
But it wasn't. No, while the rest of the world saw a smile, underneath Rose was dying. She cried herself to sleep almost every night and almost never got enough sleep to function properly the next day. Which was probably why she was barely scraping by in all of her classes.
Her friends had begun to notice how distant she had gotten but never asked her about it, preferring to write it off as nothing. Every day that she decided to show up, she would hear the whispers at school.

Poor Rose. Be careful around her. Stay away from her. Oh bless her heart, she's sick.

And they weren't wrong; she was sick. Sick of living like this. Her life was torture. It took all the strength she had to get out of bed and out the door every morning.
Rose took a deep breath and looked around her, looking to see where her walk of misery had taken her.
She felt a chill wash over her skin; she didn't recognize her surroundings. This wasn't the cushy suburbs she had started from. No, this was the shadier side of town. Suddenly, she felt an aching in her calves. She had walked further than she had intended to. She checked her phone. 9:47am.

Wow long walk. She thought to herself. 

She looked around for a street sign or something to tell her where she was so she could figure out how the hell she was going to get home. This wasn't a part of the city that was safe to get lost in. Rose began to feel scared as she looked around, seeing nothing but rundown apartments and dark alleyways. This wasn't good. She needed to get out of there. Fast.

A/N: This is my first book. Hope you like it!  
Feel free to comment and vote! I will always take suggestions and help fixing any grammatical problems!