Dark Draft

Audrey

Living with my Aunt Caroline and her strict rules and manners became normal. I was used to it by the age of fourteen. For the past five years, I was settled in a new school with new friends and a new home in a gated community that made me feel normal.

However, deep down I knew I wasn't normal. I had never felt the same after the first time I went into the darkness. I had probably tried a hundred more times to try and go back but I never could. Part of me doubted if it even really happened. But around this time something happened that made it so I never again doubted the existence of the darkness and its creatures.

The bus came to a hault and all the excited teenagers around me began quickly running down the middle aisle toward the bus door. I waited for everyone else to go first. I didn't care to run off the bus like everyone seemed to. I hopped onto the hard pavement and looked at the bus parked behind us. The girls started getting off their bus as quick as the boys. Audrey was the eighteenth girl out of the bus.

She was the most beautiful girl that I had ever seen. At that time nothing but black cats, music and video games seemed to interest me. She was the only exception. It wasn't just because she had violet eyes and long taupe colored wavy hair that reached her lower back. It wasn't because she had the prettiest smile I had ever seen. Something about her was captivating. And I had never said a word to her.

Her nose was in a book like usual. She would occasionally glance up as she gracefully made her way home. I followed Audrey everyday trying inconspicuously to watch her as I made my way to my house across the street from hers. I watched the way her hair swayed when she walked. I liked her hair a lot, and her butt.

On this particular day we were three blocks away from our street; Audrey was intoxicated by her book five feet ahead of me. As she began to pass a house with a U-Haul parked out front she stopped dead in her tracks, gasped and dropped her book. I quickened my pace and was next to her in seconds. She was staring very hard at the house her face twisted with fear.

"Are you okay?" I asked. She kept staring at the house as though she hadn't heard me. I stared at the house alarmed and I saw nothing. Confused, I looked back at her. But her expression hadn't changed.

"Audrey?" I said loudly. She ripped her eyes away from the house and looked at me with a sick expression. "Are you okay?" I asked.

"Uh.. Yes... Thank you..." She said softly. She began to sway a little bit looking as though she might fall down. She steadied herself quickly.

"I live across the street from you I could walk you home if you want... You look a little under the weather." I stuttered trying to sound "like a gentleman" as my Aunt Caroline had informed me is preferable when talking to girls.

About a month ago my Aunt Caroline took it upon herself to tell me about the birds and bees, and worst of all about the "changes a young gentleman experiences during puberty". About an hour after her awkward lecture that I had already learned in fifth grade at school, she told me I would have more freedoms for dating. Which surprised me however my Aunt Caroline didn't know what everyone at my school are doing with their girlfriends and what videos I watch on the internet late at night in my room.

"Thank you." Audrey smiled. She started to reach down for her book and I quickly picked it up for her. She smiled at me again. "Thank you." She said again her grin widening slightly. I liked hearing her say that.

"Maybe I should hold your backpack too." I added quickly. She shrugged off her black and pink floral printed backpack. As she handed it to me she our fingers touched. It made my stomach flip. And for a moment we caught each others eyes... she had such pretty eyes. She slowly withdrew her hand, smiled meekly and began walking as I kept pace with her.