189 Partout Lane

6

6

Drew, 18, female

This is some pretty jacked up stuff that happened my senior year of high school. These events, my decisions, you may make what you want of it and believe what you wanna believe, judge me, think I'm a crazy person, whatever. But remember this, every name, every action, every word that I tell you, is real. This all happened. These people, Olivia, Carson, Michael, Ashley, everyone, they're all real too. Don't forget that.

I live in a small old scrappy town in the middle of nowhere that has existed since the start of the world. Centralia, Pennsylvania is the exact town, it's rural, it's cold, and it's not a happy place. There is always a heavy grey sky, the roads are always cracked, and it's just plain weird to see people out on streets. But it's home, and home to about 1,000 people. Mostly farmers, truck drivers home for part of the year, nobody special. People know just about everybody in town. His mom knows your cousin's friend's dad. Everybody knows everybody. It's just how it is. So it's completely bizarre when something like this happens.

It was back in December when it started, December 20th 1983. I was sitting in class after finishing my finals. I had just turned in my test and I couldn't have been happier. Honestly, goddamn. Hell it was the last day. It felt so empowering walking away from that test and sitting back down. God I was done. No more school work for a little. Now all I had to do was wait for that bell to ring. Goddamn that bell. The clock couldn't just move fast enough. It really couldn't. But yellow sunlight was streaming. Only blinding light was coming in threw the white blinds. White smiles of eagerness were shown. Golden eyes all very bright. Everyone was just so happy. C'mon, c'mon. Bell. C'mon. People were zipping up backpacks, throwing on jackets, whispering to their friend next to them. Feet were rattling with eagerness. C'mon bell. C'mon. Then the bell rang and each and every one of us all scurried out of class. It was winter break! I was done with class for the next three weeks! The first part of my senior was done! It was such a good feeling. It really was. I was almost done with high school, man, with school in general. It was crazy of a feeling. It was even crazier knowing that I had the next three weeks off. Then it dawned on me. No I didn't have the next three weeks off. I had work and I had to get to work now. Shoot. I watched smiles upon smiles on students who were racing to their cars, making plans for a party later. I couldn't believe I had work. But I knew I had to go. We needed the money even though we didn't live on the good part of the street. And hell I wasn't about to skip and get fired. Either way it wasn't like I had a party to go. Xavier thought they were filled with too many people he didn't like and Vanessa thought they were too loud and overwhelming. Ugh. I could see all the gleaming smiles and bright emotions coming off everybody making plans for later. I felt jealous and little let down. I should just get to work already. So I dashed through the worn out black parking lot and into my shaky blue truck. I shut the loud squeaky door and it rattled the whole truck as I closed it. And everything shoot again as I turned it on. I backed out of the parking space and out of the lot. I went to my good old pizza place, where I worked. It was a little homely place and was the only pizza place in town. We got a lot of calls because of that and a lot of neighboring towns called too. So work for me was always pretty busy. And sometimes that can be a good thing. When I immediately stepped in, my boss lit up, and spent no time getting the pizzas and addresses from the back. He gave me a few to start out with and I would come back for more. I raced out to my truck knowing I couldn't lose anytime or else I'd get a complaint and that's something I clearly didn't want. The sun was still shining and it felt more like the beginning of summer than it did winter break but, either way I still pretty happy to be done with school work for a little. I clicked on the radio and turned out onto the road and drove to the first address. It wasn't that far away. Actually just right down the road. It was Mr. and Mrs. Olson. Like I said, my town was so small I knew almost everybody in it so it wasn't weird at all that I got a call from somebody I knew. And now that it was winter break, a lot of my classmates wanted pizza delivered and some people were off work already. Mr. Olson was still in his work attire and was delighted to see me as I pulled up in his sweet tiny driveway and knocked on his old brown door. "You've grown so much! Oh my gosh!" He was seventy something and had only compassion in his heart. He was a sweet old man and it actually kinda made me happy on what he said about me. "Honey! You gotta get over here! It's Drew from down the road. You won't believe this!" He was hollering at his wife. Mrs. Olson came shuffling over in her apron and in an endearing mood. "Oh my! The last time I saw you you were this big oh my gosh!" She gave me the warmest of hugs. They were family friends of my mom. Mr. Olson owned the place my mom worked at so I've pretty much known them since forever. "You've gotten so big! But have you been eating enough? You look so skinny!" "Oh dear! It's normal for teenagers to be skinny nowadays!" "Look, I'll tell you what. You and your mom come over soon! Let me cook for you! How is your mother doing?" "Ok actually thanks for asking. Well I gotta." I pointed at my truck. "Oh right! Thank you sweetheart! We hope to see you soon!" She gave me a nice hug and then I ran down to my truck. She always said I was so skinny. I thought it was kinda sweet.