The Perks of Being a Side Effect.

Prologue

Prologue:

I wanted to lie there for an eternity. Lie there for the rest of the supposed sunny morning, into the daze of an afternoon and onto the dark, nightmarish night. Lie there and let the day fade away from me. But instead, my eyes flickered open to the sunlight filtering in through the window. I groggily leave the comfort of my bed, brush my teeth in the slightly dingy bathroom and plod to the door - which always seems excruciatingly far away at seven o'clock in the morning - letting the bitter cold enter the apartment, and hurriedly grab the newspaper.

I don't know why I bother with the newspaper. I frankly don't care for the dog that someone named Tokou Kiyoji found dead, or the robbery at the corner store near school. It doesn't really concern me if a representative from Fukui spent a ton of money constructing a golden statue of himself. It really doesn't. Perhaps, I'm unconsciously preparing myself for the average life of a salaryman that I will no doubt inherit.

After busying myself with the task of making breakfast - a mundane activity that most teenage boys don't engage in, but that I've adapted into a habit. It consisted of dull scrambled eggs that probably needed more salt, a few strips of bacon and a glass of orange juice that might have been expired. I took a sip to confirm my suspicions. It wasn't.

I flipped through the local news section, which was filled with the typical small town, "nobody really cares but it's the best we got," sort of news, past the sports section that was brimming with articles about big shot baseball players that nobody in the area will ever witness in action, with the exception of on the TV screen, and finally, I landed myself in the obituaries - a section most regard as heart wrenchingly depressing but read anyways. And there It was.

It was Her obituary, sandwiched in between one summarizing the life of a middle aged doctor who died of cardiac arrest and one summarizing the life of an 80 year old woman with six "loving" kids and two cats, and making note of the death I had been aware of for far too long.

But once it was documented into one slim, compact column, gray foreground, black text and all - it seemed to be shockingly real. It was sickening how Her entire life - composed of all her inexplicable beauty, childlike wonder and unmistakeable charisma - was able to be condensed and belittled to a short mortuary "tribute" of 300 words and maybe even less. It was clear that the reporter didn't put much thought into it and I wondered how much he was paid for his prosaic prose. He obviously just called Her mom and asked the basics - how old was she, how did she die, where did she go to school, and how many pets did she have. It was like they disarmed, dislegged and disappendaged Her of all the phenomenal charm She possessed, all the while declaring Her officially dead, revoking any longing presence of life that She still held in our hearts.

Author's Note: Hi guys! My name's Anna, and this is my first story/novel/book/novella on Wattpad. I'm still questioning what to do about the title so I might change it later on. This is only a prologue, which is VERY open to critique so please comment!<3 Okay, thank you and I hope you stay tuned with (temporarily) The Perks of Being a Side Effect.