Xocolantia: The World Made of Candy

Chapter One: "The Time Harper Ran Over a Keebler Elf."

Once upon a time... Wait, wait. No that's not how it should go. This isn't your run of the mill fairy tale, this one is way different than the ordinary fairy tales that you might have heard. So if you think that it's going to be just like any of the Disney fairy tales you've read or seen then you might not want to read this one. This is my fairy tale, and I am not an ordinary princess.

Another day spent in my personal hell. But at least he was asleep and I didn't have to worry about him coming into my room and waking me from my sleep just so he could torment me like he usually does every day. I quietly got out of bed and moved my tangled blue bangs out of my face. Then, I quickly grabbed my phone and turned off the alarm that I had set to go off when it was time for me to get up. Luckily, I had set my phone to vibrate instead of giving off some kind of alarm. I couldn't risk him waking up and seeing me sneak out.

I turned on my phone's flashlight and found some black pants, my Green Day band tee, and my favorite sky blue hoodie that also happened to match my hair. I quickly double checked the contents of the bag that I had made before going to school yesterday morning. I also grabbed my phone charger remembering the last time I snuck out. I cringed at the thought of not having a fully charged phone for a whole weekend.

I'm finally doing it! I'm finally leaving this hell hole! I sent a quick text to my friend letting them know that I'm able to meet them at our rendezvous point. I started to walk to the window but then I accidentally stepped on a shard of glass from a broken beer bottle my father--if he even deserves to be called that--had left in my room the night before.

I clamped my mouth shut to keep myself from cursing in pain. I quietly lifted up my injured foot and ran my hand along it until I found where the shard of glass was stuck in my foot. I grabbed it and quickly pulled it out. I kept my mouth closed, I could feel the tears rolling down my cheeks.

I grabbed one of my old pajama shirts that had been lying on the floor next to my bed and ripped a strip off. I wrapped it around my foot to act as a bandage until I could get a better one. I tried to put some pressure on my foot but almost cried out in pain again. I slung my bag onto one of my shoulders, and hopped the rest of the way to my window and opened it as best I could.

I swung my right leg over the window ledge then I swung over the ledge. Once  I got into a sitting position, I was able to take my bag from my shoulder and drop it below. I found the jutted out pipe that I've used on many occasions when I needed to escape my room before. I shimmied down it until I could gently place a foot on the well-mowed grass. I lifted my bandaged foot to check it and noticed that I was beginning to bleed through my make-shift bandage.

I decided I would try to at least walk halfway to my meeting with Harper, but then I would have to call them and ask them to come and get me from there. I grabbed my bag and began my painful hobble to the gas station that was by my house. Once I reached the gas station I went inside and bought a couple two-liters of Mountain Dew, a box of big Band-Aids, and a couple cartons of cigarettes. I texted Harper to let them know what happened and ask for a ride to their house.

I saw them pull into the parking lot and overheard their blaring music. I recognized the song, it was my favorite All Time Low song, "Somewhere In Neverland" I smiled and opened the passenger side door, sat down and put my bag between my feet. I opened a two-liter of Mountain Dew for Harper and I to share. I also opened my first pack of cigarettes.

I tried to offer one to Harper, knowing that they probably wouldn't take one. They rejected my offer, and I shrugged my shoulders, took out my favorite blue lighter and lit my first cigarette. I grabbed my ash cup out of my bag, then looked at Harper.

They looked different, it took me a minute to finally realize why. It was because they finally got the haircut that they've wanted. They looked good with their long red hair flipped to one side with the other side shaved. They were also wearing the leather jacket I got them for their birthday. I couldn't see the back but I knew it was the one that said "Property of No One" with the rose in the middle. They also had on their favorite red skater dress and some leggings with their black Doc Martens.

I couldn't stop myself from thinking that they looked beautiful. I mentally scolded myself they had a girlfriend. I can't have a crush on them.

Harp looked at me confused I asked, "Hey, why haven't we moved yet?" hoping that they wouldn't get too suspicious.

They said, "I wanted to warn you before we got to the house."

I groaned. I knew exactly what they were going to warn me about. "She's staying too isn't she?"

Harper's eyes rolled in an exasperated way, and they said "If by her you mean my girlfriend, then yes she is staying. I know you don't like her, but she's my girlfriend. It isn't fair for you to stay and for her not to."

"Of course I don't like her! She uses you for your money and she treats you like trash. I'm sorry that I have to have somewhere to escape to. Just to remind you, you're the one who said that whenever I needed to I could always stay with you. I'm sorry if your girlfriend throws a fit over the fact that I stay at your house."

I saw Harper shrink back at me, and I realized that I probably wasn't helping the situation that they were already in.

I shut my eyes, took a breath, and calmly said, "I'm sorry."

"It's fine. I probably shouldn't have been so defensive."

"No. You don't need to apologize. You were just defending your girlfriend which is something that you should do. I shouldn't have yelled at you like that. I'll try to be polite."

Harper smiled. "Thank you."

"Your welcome, now are we going to leave or what? The cashier in there has been staring at us for the last five minutes. It's really creeping me out." They laughed and started the car. We were about halfway to Harper's house, and I was about halfway through my fourth or fifth cigarette.

As I was bending down to get my ash cup, Harper said, "You better not get any ashes in my car."
"Don't worry, mother, I won't." Sitting back up, I felt us go over a bump. "Did we run over something?"
We pulled over and got out of the car to see what we had hit, thinking that it was some kind of small animal. It wasn't a small animal, in fact the closer that we got to it, we noticed that it appeared to look kind of elfish. Only ever seen elves on cookie boxes. I watched as
Harper knelt down to check the person's pulse, and I saw how worried they looked.
I helped Harp pick them up and we carried them back to the car hoping to find a nearby hospital. After getting the very small person buckled into the backseat, and were sitting down again, Harper and I shared a look and I said, "I can't believe we ran over a Keebler Elf." Harper and I laughed.
They said, "Well I guess we won't be allowed to eat any more of their cookies huh?"  We both started laughing again and once the laughter had started to die down we looked at each other and knew that this was going to be a long night.