Beating For Two

Chapter 1

It was a Monday in the middle of September, the day that would be the day to change my life forever. It was a change that I would never have expected, never have dreamt of, never have thought of. But it happened and the journey that started that day erased everything I'd ever made my mind up about in this world.

Monday, September 13th

The music was loud, way too loud to be good for anyone's hearing. Not that any teenager in their right mind cared about their hearing, though. My heart was beating at the same rhythm as the bass that made the floor underneath my feet vibrate. People around me were drunk - piss drunk - and busy doing everything one should not be doing in a house filled with more or less every student in one's school. They were performing vulgar dance moves, throwing their shirts off, pouring beer over their heads and letting themselves be fingered or jacked off in front of a cheering crowd.

I sighed, wondering why I'd even bothered to go to this party; I wasn't friends with anyone here, no one paid me any attention and in all honesty, I was quite bored. Yet here I was, with a cup of vodka and Sprite in my hand, occasionally sipping on it, while watching my classmates make fools out of themselves.

School started up in two days and the party I was at was the End of Summer-party that one of the school's football team-players threw every year. That was yet another mystery to me: Why had I been invited to a party thrown by a football-player I didn't even know the name of? I was most definitely not a football-player, nor did I know any. I was a boring nobody who lived a boring life; I went to school, I came home, I did my homework and I went to bed, hardly ever socialising with anyone but Eleanor, who was my neighbour and just about the only friend I had. Not that I was bullied, my school was okay like that; no one was bullied, people just minded their own business and lived their lives, not bothering to waste time and energy trashing each other.

I wasn't bullied, I just didn't have any friends either.

It was hard to tell why, though. I was neither shy, stupid, ugly, mean, geeky, a prude, a prick, particularly annoying or socially retarded. Okay, so maybe I was a bit socially retarded, but still. People just didn't pay me any attention unless they had to and it was a very small amount of people that actually knew my name, maybe six or seven people out of the almost thousand students in my school. I didn't necessarily like that things were like they were, it all got rather lonely after a while; having to sit alone in the cafeteria every day seeing as Eleanor went to a private school on the other side of town, always working on group projects alone unless it was the teacher who sat up the groups, never having anyone to walk home with after school, not really having anyone to hang out with when I came home. No, I didn't like it, but it was the way things were and I'd gotten used to it over the five out of six years of high school I'd finished. Only one year to go, no use in trying to make friends now.

I looked down at my cup, which was still half-full, and sighed again. Alcohol had never been my best friend. Every time I drank (which wasn't very often considering I didn't have anyone but Eleanor to drink with) I wound up doing something I lived to regret and woke up with a massive hangover the next day. Nevertheless I emptied the rest of the cup in three large gulps. The liquid burned in my throat and I grimaced a little, swiftly wondering if I'd put a little more vodka than initially planned into the cup.

"Hey," a voice said behind me. I was about to turn around, but then I realised that whoever it was probably wasn't talking to me, so I just rolled my eyes at my own momentary stupidity and continued to watch the mass of people on the dance floor.

"Hello? Aren't you at least gonna turn around?" the voice said, now more persistent.

I wrinkled my forehead and turned my head a little to the side just to see who it was.