It feels like I've been asleep for days, but at the same time, it feels like I haven't slept at all.
Elizabeth's POV
When I wake up, I expect the day to go by normal, but again, what is normal? Hiding from the world by not sharing my voice? Living in a place where the most normal thing - love - is not accepted?
Love is something that has never really mattered to me until now. That's because I think I might have fallen in it...
Every day, I have come across Isaac Thomas, the boy who I thought was going to remain a near stranger to me. This has been happening for 17 days...for 19 days, I have seen this boy, and I have developed an emotion that is unknown to most of society...what I never realized was how quickly I would fall.
Every day, I have anxiously waited for school to end. After that, I am impatient until the store's closing time. On weekends, I sneak out of the house to see this boy; a boy whom has stolen the part of me that was once broken, and is now fixing the pieces.
I ignore the pairs of eyes that follow me as my feet lead me to my first period classroom. I'm used to all of the stares because they're something I see on basically a daily basis. Honestly, I don't know what the stares are for, but of course I'm not going to open my mouth to ask.
By the end of the school day, I am very anxious and try to rush to get out of the building, but of course, I get stopped by a teacher. "Miss Johnson, may I speak with you for a moment?" I nod my head, knowing I can't just say 'no.' "I've noticed that your grades have been dropping tremendously in the past couple weeks. I everything alright at home?" I nod my head and plant a fake smile on my face, truly annoyed that I'm being held up from seeing Isaac, who has quickly become my best friend.
The teacher continues to talk to me for a few more minutes before she finally gives up from trying to get answers. There's no explanation that I can say without verbally speaking, which I'm not going to do, especially since I don't have a full explanation myself.
Once I finally get outside, however, I sigh in relief when I see Isaac standing across the street, probably looking for me. We make eye contact for a split second, and he sends a smile in my direction. It's become a tradition that he would walk me to work every other day, and we would go out for dinner or ice-cream or something like that before. This makes me happy most of the time, but some days, we have to sit in separate tables near each other because we don't want people to become too suspicious of us. I just have hopes that things will be different some day and people can learn to accept love.
After we eat dinner together, he gives me a small nod and a smile before stepping a few feet away and walking with me to work.
When we get there, I walk in to see a confused and slightly angry-looking boss.
I hurry to get everything situated at the counter and sit down, watching his footsteps inching closer, though they still look so far away. I begin to worry, did I do something wrong? He wouldn't be coming over to me with a look like that on his face if I hadn't done something wrong.
"You've been distracted a lot recently, and I've heard that you've been slacking at school too. Is it because of that boy I've seen you with every day? I can't have someone working here who isn't going to put their focus into what they're doing because they're in an illegal relationship with someone." I am shocked. There's nothing else to say about that. My jaw slightly drops and I wish I knew a way to tell him that we're not together, but I don't know how.
"I'm just going to say this now, I don't want you working here any more. You're not being safe, and it's just a pain with you not being able to communicate with customers." I can feel my eyes beginning to water, and I try my hardest not to cry. I ignore the rest of what he says to me, and instead pack up my things and walk out the door without looking back.
For almost two years, I have worked there in hopes of helping save money so my Aunt doesn't have to completely pay for my college. Now, I'm being fired for not speaking and being seen with a boy?! I'm extremely offended right now and hurt because he knows that I'm mute. He knows that I don't have parents. He knows enough to know that that job is what was keeping me from being completely alone and depressed all of the time. At least now I know that he only hired me in the first place because he felt sorry for me.
Luckily, Isaac is far enough away from the store that I don't have to worry about him seeing me walking home.
Stepping through the front door is the hardest thing I've had to do today. I ignore the confused look from Aunt Maria, which I know she's giving me because usually I'm at the store right now. My feet carry me to my bedroom, where I throw my stuff down and slam the door then lying on my bed face down for I don't even know how long before starting on my homework.
---
(A/N)
I know, I said I was going to try to update, but I went on a two day unplanned trip out of town for a funeral and didn't have any internet, so I couldn't publish anything. I also tried writing a little bit in the car, but ended up writing this chapter three or four different times and not being happy with any of them, so I wrote this when I ran out of ideas, so this chapter probably isn't very good. Sorry about that. It is currently 10:50pm and I spent my entire day in a car, so I promise, I tried, and I barely got this finished before tomorrow.
Also, I know there was a time skip, but I'm trying to move this story along kinda quick right now so I can get to where I want to be in the story and I actually have ideas for, so this is kind of just a filler chapter.
P.S. I almost forgot about writing until about 9:00 tonight because my family went out to eat then we had to make sure we knew what was going to be going on tomorrow because tomorrow is my birthday! I'm turning 12 for the 3rd year in a row...just kidding I'll be 14.
Anyway, I'm going to stop my rambling because it's not really that important, so...whatever.
P.P.S. There is a hidden song reference in this chapter.
Hint: All of my references are going from different songs by the same band, but I'm not going to say who yet because I want to see if anyone can guess. Also, this one may be pretty difficult to find, but it's there.
Hint: Try to check where my writing seems slightly off or different than what it's like throughout the rest of the chapter. It's only a sentence or two.
YOU ARE READING
Forbidden Love
Ficción GeneralMy name is Elizabeth Marie Johnson, and I am 17 years old. My parents lost their lives in a car accident when I was very young, so I was sent to live with my aunt in a town enclosed in a society where freedom is hard to find and love is not acceptab...