It's no secret that life is hard. But when you find someone who makes it all seem easy, don't let them go.
Daniel thought all he wanted was to make it through his junior year, smoke with his friends, and make art. But everything changes after he mee...
"The statement, 'this is as far as I can go' is code for 'I'm blind, I'm scared', or both."
- Craig D. Lounsbrough
~
If I had to choose between living and dying, I'd chose death. I've thought about it a lot. Dying takes the pain away. Dying sets you free. Life has a way of punishing people
I looked down at my charcoal covered hands.
Everything sucks. My grades are shit, I couldn't trust my girlfriend, my mom is never around anymore, and my dad has never been around.
I can't even talk to my friends about any of it because they wouldn't understand.
My life is falling apart. And to top it off, I really need to smoke right now but I'm all out of cigarettes.
Maybe, I should just put myself out of my misery...
I thought as I scribbled some hair in with a large piece of black charcoal.
Even in all my anger and self-loathing, my thoughts would always drift back to Emma.
She was the warmth of the sun in the darkness of the storm called my life.
But, just as the thought of apologizing to her would come into mind it would be replaced by the memory of us fighting.
Of me at the party.
Of her lying to me.
If that wasn't enough, every time I looked into the mirror I had the lip sized bruise that remained on my neck as a reminder of why I couldn't face her even if I wanted to.
Man, I really need a smoke right now.
The charcoal piece snapped in my hand. I sighed before slamming the now two pieces onto the table.
A few people turned my way, but with a quick shoot of my glare, they all looked away.
I looked down at my drawing.
The bell rang signaling the end of class. As everyone quickly cleaned and left the room, I sat slowly picking up the mess I'd made.
Soon the only people left in the room were Mr.Schindler and me.
He was framing a student's work across the room. His back to me.
"Daniel, the assignment was to make a self-portrait." He said suddenly still facing away from me.
I looked down at my drawing again.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
"I think it captures who I am pretty well actually."
He turned to me with a raised brow.
I picked up the drawing and shoved it into my assigned folder before walking over to the sink to wash my hands.
