Elizabeth's book
Chapter 1) Little Town Big Dreams
I needed to tell someone, to tell anyone. I am tired of hiding my papers in my sock dowers so nobody could ever find them.i want some one to know the real me, anyone, everyone. I don't want to have to hide this from my best friend, i don't want to get teased at school, but i don't want to hide any longer. I want people to know me, the real me.
I want my voice heard, no i need it heard. I have been living in secret for 12 long painful years, its time to break free. I turn over in bed and look at my clock, its 12:03am. Silent hour has just began. If i did it now everyone would know. I surely would be grounded, not for my actions i have partook in but for the words that were about to spew out of my mouth like water rushing out of its spout.
Silent hour was to be silent, nobody talked, television and radio volumes turned way down. As a kid i used to call it nap hour because it would be the only time our small ghetto neighborhood filled with drugs, alcohol, and violence was ever quiet enough to get sleep. Now i am 17 years old and can sleep through most anything. I looked over at my dresser, it was dark in my room and i couldn't see the dresser at all, yet my eyes knew exactly where they were, all my papers, thousands of them, all mine, never seen by anyones eyes but mine, my life on paper, 2nd dower down to the left. My heart ached, and my gut turned. It was now or never.
I got out of bed, i felt the goose bumps rise on my smooth tan skin. It was hard to believe how cold it was, it was the middle of the summer, and i was cold, it is usually the opposite. I felt for the knob on the dresser. It was cold to the touch. I slowly opened it, i grasped the thick stack of white paper, holding it tightly against my chest, i walked over to the window, slowly unlatching the latch and swung it oven easily. I easily scaled the side of our house onto our roof, standing there looking out on our neighborhood in the dark looked like a scene in a horror story. The houses all looked like beet up shacks, garbage littered every lawn, over grown grass and weeds in every plot and growing inside the side walk cracks. I wanted to throw up just looking at it, i look down at my feet. A cold breeze picked up some of my hair, i suddenly felt naked, i was in black spandex and a skimpy old beet up T shirt that i had cut into an off the shoulder shirt.
"WAKE UP!!!! Everyone! I need you to listen! I will not be ignored!!!!" Out of nowhere i screamed.
I could see lights turning on and people walking outside. "This better be good!" I heard one of my neighbors yelling
"I want to design clothing!" I screamed. Laughter broke out among the crowd of people.
"Yeah well I want to get a job! I guess we are both out of luck! Get your head out of the clouds and grow up!" A neighbor angrily yelled. I didn't even care. He doesn't control me and he will not tell me what I can and can't do. He is not important to me so I will not give him the satisfaction of a reaction.
I held the stack of paper up high in the air. "This is who I am and I will no longer hide! This is what I love and you will not hold me back!" With this I threw the papers into the wind, making it snow onto the crowd of angry neighbors.
Out of no where I felt a warm body tangled in with mine, he smelt of fabric softener and peppermint gum, before he even said a word I knew who it was. "What has gotten into you Bae?" His voice was raspy deep and relaxing. "Let's get you off of this."
Daunte is my best friend. He knows me better than anyone and has been there for me sense I was four years old. He has helped me with everything from break ups to detentions, drama to hysterics, family fights to sneaking out to crash "rich people" parties in which we were strictly forbidden to step foot in. We did everything together, I don't know where I would be without him, we were connected for life.
I looked over to the crowd of people. My eyes found my father's angry face and my mother's cold deadly eyes staring at me in hatred. I looked into Daunte's eyes and he led me to the side of the house. He slowly released his grip and climbed off the roof onto the shed, man did I want to be in his strong warm arms again. I followed his lead onto the shed then onto the hood of my fathers old beet up rusted truck. I walked into my cold dark house, My hands trembled with fear for the consequence that I was sure to receive, and my feet were numb for I wasn't wearing shoes.
we were both sitting on opposite couches looking at each other. I couldn't help but notice how beautiful he looked, his dark rich skin was smooth like butter and his eyes a perfect shade of hazel. He had a strong jaw line and he was built, slender and tall. His teeth were perfectly strait and he never needed braces. He was wearing a cut up mussel shirt that showed off his tone biceps and triceps, and a pair of soft grey sweatpants that hung nicely on his hips, he too was barefoot. It was weird seeing him without a hat, with his curly locks it made him look almost untamed and daring, I liked it. The front door began to open and Daunte jumped behind the couch out of my parents' sight.
"Baeley Marie! You are a disgrace! You ain't gotta live here no more! I do not support traitors!" My father yelled. He reeked of whiskey and tobacco.
I stood up, he made a mistake, I had to point it out. "Um I believe you mean 'you don't have to live here anymore' or 'you don't get to live here anym" my vision blurred and fire spread across my cheek. I clutched my cheek in agony, tears started to appear in my eyes.
"You a cryer too! Stop crying you good for nothing child!" He yelled. He was face to face with me, his breath a stench so horrid I had to look away. Big mistake. "God dammit! Look at me when I speak to you!" He was holding my face now with one hand and his other was held high ready to attack.
Everything went black as I was pushed into the couch and hurried my head in a pillow. I heard a loud bang, then I remembered that Daunte had been there the whole time. I forced myself to take my head out of the pillow. I didn't see Daunte on the floor like I feared, but instead my dad was sitting with a mouth of blood and Daunte clutching is hand. Did he really just do that? My dad has easily a full 4 inches on him and 100+ pounds.
"Go pack your bags, you are getting picked up tomorrow and moving in with your aunt Livi." My father slurred as he wiped a bead of blood from the corner of his mouth.
I ran off into my room with Daunte following close behind. I'm moving in with aunt Livi! Finally, my life will go somewhere in a good direction. I will be going to NYC, fashion capital! Suddenly my happiness turned into sadness. I lived in Oregon. My friends lived in Oregon. Daunte lived in Oregon. I ran to my already open window. I couldn't breath, or think, or talk. How could I leave Daunte. Tears started to stream down my face as if they were rivers, my nose got Rudolf red and my skin blotchy. I began to feel sick, as if I was going to vomit. How am I going to tell him?
