Oblivious Hearts (Luke Hemmings)

Chapter 1

       I stared at the poster on my wall. It was a picture of four boys standing side by side, all making different impressions. A huge X was sprayed across them in red color. On top, it read: 5 seconds of summer. Added at the bottom was their signature logo.

        “Are you nervous?” Gracie, my best friend, asked from across the room. She was laying sideways on my bed with a magazine over her head and her blonde hair almost touching the floor.

        I turned to my mirror and stared at myself. I don’t find myself beautiful like Gracie is. I am an average girl with brown hair and green eyes with freckles all over my cheek. I have chubby cheeks and a chubby nose. I have a chubby stomach as well. And arms, legs…you get the idea.

        “Why should I be? It’s not like I’m going to meet them anyway.” I said. It was true.

        It’s my 18th birthday and for a present my mother had gotten me a couple of tickets to see my favorite band. It was a very nice gesture especially considering she lived miles and miles away. What sucked is that I don’t know where she is because she refused to tell me anything. I still talk to her over email and tell her stuff that’s been going on but not about my dad. She and my dad split up 3 years ago. I haven’t seen her since.

        Ever since the divorce, I’ve been living with my dad. It’s my worst nightmare. Every night when he comes home from work, he drinks for an hour. Right after his happy hour, he grabs me by my hair and beats me up. In other words, he physically abuses me. A normal person would call authorities to arrest him and I’ll be safe with my mom, wherever she is. If she even wanted to take care of me. Or I could be by myself. I am 18 now and legally, I can live alone.

        That’s the problem. I’m not like other people. My dad and I had one of the best relationships when I was growing up. Like every night without fail, ever since I was born, he would come into my bedroom and kiss me goodnight. Even that one time when he broke his leg and I was 12, he hopped into my room and did it. As figured, he doesn’t do it anymore. We used to cycle together. I told him everything that was happening in school. We were the best of friends. Now he’s too drunk to hear anyone’s words but his own.

        I have a theory that the only reason he’s beating me up is because he’s releasing all his anger from work. Not only that but he’s very upset about my mom leaving him and he takes his hurt out on me too. Maybe he’s scared that I’ll leave him too. There’s a part of me that doesn’t want to give up, that the father I knew for almost all my life is still there and that he still loves me.

        Gracie would never stand for it. She’s threatened to tell authorities when she sees bruises on my body or cuts on my face. I take almost a full night to try and reason with her. I haven’t given up hope just yet. Although she’s never happy about it, she lets it go and brings me medication the next day.

        Whenever she treats to my wounds, she has a face sour like lemon. She isn’t me and she doesn’t know my father like I do. She’s certain he’s insane and uncontrollable. I only half agree. I think he can be controlled, if I tried hard enough.

        “You are quietly observing them from a safe distance. Front row seats, I mean come on.” Gracie winked at me and I couldn’t help but smile. She snapped me back to reality. I glanced at the clock and it was four o’clock.

        “We’ve gotta go. Let’s go before…” I say without finishing my sentence. She knows what I mean. Before he gets home.

        We gather our stuff and head out the door. I lock the door behind me and we grab a cab to the concert. On the way there we constantly talk about what songs they are going to play and how incredible this concert would be. It was my first concert and I had front row tickets. It was perfect.