Lover Dearest

Chapter 1

I don't know who I am. I mean, who really does? I don't search deep within my plethora of emotions to realize I'm just another pathetic excuse for a human being.  So, when my geometry teacher pierces that insufferable glare at me, I answer the question he just asked with a blank stare without giving a single thought to the monotonous daily tasks I have to suffer through and turn to look out the large bank window. The dreary clouds outside are spitting rain like they disapprove of the society the world breeds. I don't flinch when a clap of thunder sends waves of light cascading across the sky.

I wish I lived in the sky. It is wild and unpredictable, just like my life. I can relate to the sky. I wonder if I can live there when I die. Where do people go when they die? I doubt I'll ever find out until the bitter end.

My name is Kristen, named after the streets I live on. I suppose my parents were too busy with their other child to pick a name for me but it still remains the family joke. I live with both of my parents. My other two siblings. It's a bearable life. Until something, usually referred to as, 'The Incident', happens. My life is a giant melting pot of irony and coincidence. As soon as my life is quiet and calm, the storm brews, and I can always feel it coming.

I feel it today, stronger than I've ever felt anything before. My bones ache with the approaching weather. The rain falls slack, like the silence before the madness. The entire class around me, oblivious to the blackened nightmare outside the classroom. The entire building is rocked gently from a mountainous slap of thunder and the lights in the room flicker three ominous times and dissipate as the room fills with darkness. The girls in the class shriek and giggle as a haunting and eerie electronic woman's voice booms over the intercom system, "A tornado has been detected. Please proceed to designated areas."

The voice rings in my ears as the two teachers in the classroom try calming the paranoid students, but they shouldn't be the ones who are worried. The storm is after me.

Taylor yanks on my arm and waves her arms dramatically in front of my face, saying bluntly,

"Come on! Get out the door!"

"Sorry I was getting my stuff", I say absentmindedly, half accepting my fate, half convincing myself I'm insane. Oh God, please just let me be insane.

We meet up with other classes as we enter the darkened hallway and I search for a familiar face until I find it on my boyfriend, Devin. I discreetly edge away from Taylor to grab his arm and sink into the safety of his body. When he is by my side I instantly relax. Devin and I have been together for a little over eight months and his personality is by far the best I have ever encountered in a boyfriend.

"This is crazy, we haven't had a tornado come this close to the school since eighth grade." His words are barely audible in the over crowded hallway, students rushing to get to the stairs and crying out when they find out that they can't see the stairs since, oh yeah, the lights are out.

"I know right? My mom was at home when it passed right over our house. She said it sounded like a freight train going over her head." The easiness of our conversation eases my racing mind. I try to calm down before I have a total panic attack in front of the entire student body. Breathe.

"If it goes anywhere near my house, mom's screwed." His tone is light with his usual manner of dark humor and the familiarity of it comforts me.

His long deep chestnut brown hair is illuminated by a streak of light that jumps and bounces around the already jumpy hallway. The students find a rhythm, finally, and we begin to descend to the second floor of the building. Once in our 'designated spots', Devin and I sit next to each other and play thumb war. I cheat, naturally, but he still wins by twisting his arm. I cry out in unfairness, but he reminds me that I was the one who started cheating so I go quiet.