Trapped

Chapter One

Joel

I'm sitting in a transit van, outside Sarah's house, with Luke and Michael. We've been here for nine hours. We're taking it in turns watching over her house at three hour intervals. I was up first, then Michael was, then it was Luke's go and now it was my go once again. I've known Luke and Michael from childhood, and it must be said, my dislike of their idiocy has not lessened one bit. They're both dead to the world.

Luke almost ripped my arm from its socket when he woke me. I wanted to punch him but remembered what a psychotic prick he was, and decided not to push my fraying luck. I don't even know why my uncle Andrew let them come. They're imbeciles.

Sarah and I used to be friends with one another until a Christmas seven years ago. That day my family, Luke's family, Michael's family and Sarah's dad were killed by Sarah's satanic mother. I have no-one now nd no-one can understand the intensity of those jarring words.

Sarah, Leah (my half-sister), Charlie (Luke's brother) and I were all friends as children. We met through our parents. They were all friends too. It obviously wasn't a good thing, Sarah's mum was a disaster in a warzone, bound to make a bad situation even worse.

I remember when Sarah and I used to talk everyday and how I had to dance around my words for worry that she'd realize how I felt for her. I thought I was in love with her but love is like a dying man screaming in Sweden, alone and echoed. Sarah and I were not meant to be. We had the consistency of sand and water, it could be good but it would always slip through your fingers, no matter what.

The day of my families joint funeral, I found out she didn't care enough about me or my mum and Leah to be there. I tried to speak to her everyday until I had to move to Reading but she was nowhere to be found. Back then, I would have done anything to see her toothless smile. Now I wished I never saw it again. After that excruciatingly awful week, I moved in with Andrew (my uncle). I don't even know if we were ever friends. I was just one of her mothers toys, neglected but always within reach.

+++

At school I was the weird kid who was scarily silent and always alone. People barely spoke to me because they thought I was stuck up but at least I didn't get much hassle from other people. Some people spoke to me but when they realized I was a boring person, who read books, they would walk away and quickly, like I was a blazing flame.

I spent my time around other anxiety-filled boys and girls who barely made it past the loner distinction. I tried to talk but I wasn't outspoken like Leah, I had no idea what to say.

I never did the homework, which got me loads of detentions and glares from teachers. People thought that loners wanted to do homework. That's geeks, loners like to be alone, hence the 'lone.' Unless the people we were friends with didn't like us, then it was forced.

Today, I got my mock exam results. I looked down in disappointment. I failed Humanities, achieving a D. I got the same in Math, even though I was good at Math. A C student, at least. In the rest of my mock exams, I got B's, except for PE, I got an ungraded in that. Ha. That was bound to happen. I missed my mock Science exams and didn't go to the re-sits. I didn't want to think freely. What was the point? Technically I didn't need a GCSE in Science. I didn't want to be a Scientist or Chemist, so who cared about the subject? I definitely didn't.

I was the type who'd carry a book in my blazer pocket. I had short, curly hair and a pudgy face. Teachers assumed I didn't answer questions because I was a social loafer. The truth is that I was afraid of getting the answer wrong. So in Science, I answered as many questions as I could. It's better to be a social loafer in most of your lessons, not all of them. And I owed my teacher for lowering his GPA. It was only right of me.