Not His

1. 17 and Invincible

I mindlessly kicked a wet rock down the sidewalk as I made my way home from school. I took a deep breath in, letting the fresh after-rain air slip through my lungs. Ahh, I exhaled. I always loved how the world smelled and looked after it rained. Everything just seemed so, fresh.

As I hummed along to Misery Business with Paramore blasting through my worn out headphones, I stopped dead in my tracks by my house. Rolling my eyes, I mentally scoffed as I walked past, yet again, another 'For Sale' sign firmly rooted in our front yard. This was now, what, the eighth time we were (apparently) moving within the past five years?

Now for those of you who actually care about my life, I feel the need to catch you up to speed before I continue.

I'm Haley Parker, 17, senior in high school. Here's where I'd tell you about my best friends, but unfortunately, I don't have many of those worth mentioning since we move before I get too close to anyone. Though I can't complain, having a brother like Dustin.

Now Dustin is like any typical brother: crazy, obnoxious, highly opinionated, ALWAYS hungry, and probably the best bro I could ask for. He's actually my twin, so we're both 17 and invincible, as we like to call it. (Though let's be honest - as twins who got each others' back, we pretty much can do whatever we want when we team up. It's when we're against each other that's a problem, which is known to happen from time to time in our 'loving' brother-sister fights.)

Now I don't come from a poor family. Money isn't the issue of why I move all the time. In fact, the only reason we're able to keep moving so often is because we're rather well off. We don't even always sell our houses after we move. My parents like to keep a few as "back-up" even though we all know we're never going back. I hate it. I mean what's the point? It just seems so wasteful. Why can't that money go to something more worth its use? I mean there are plenty of people who would kill just to have enough money to give a simple piece of bread to their kids...

Now my parents...well, I really can't complain, can I? After all, they provide me with a roof above my head, clothes on my back, and food -oh, glorious food- in the fridge. And although they have their moments, they're pretty loving. I mean they've always been there for me when I needed it, and they seem like they care...But then there are times when they seem like they don't give a flying potato sack about how their decisions affect me or Dustin.

I mean take the whole moving-constantly thing. Do you know how many friends, how many homes, how many lives we've had to leave behind? Just when we think things are finally turning normal and we've finally made a comfortable nest with our new living conditions - BAM. My parents pull another stunt and we're moving again.

The reason why we move? Oh, I'm glad you asked.

-Sense the sarcasm-

My parents have this twisted view that they're gonna arrange my marriage. I mean what is this, a fairy tale? No. If this was a fairy tale, my prince would've come and taken me away by now...At least he better soon, fairy tale or not.

Anyway, so within the past few years my parents have been trying to set me up with every seemingly "eligible" guy they see. And every guy that my parents have tried to "subtly" force me into liking, I, well...let's just say I found away to get rid of them. But rest assured - they're all still living, I swear.

But, eventually word goes around of certain deeds that apparently leave listeners shocked and boys sometimes hospitalized. I never know how practically the whole town always finds out what I do to get rid of them, but they always do. And again, I swear, it's nothing illegal/bad/etc. I don't mean to hurt them - sometimes...they just fall....And it doesn't help that the stories always get blown way out of proportion.