Out of My Head

Chapter 1: Confusion

       A/N: Hello! Just a warning: this is a pretty long chapter with lots of backstory. The host club makes an appearance next chapter and will be fully introduced in the third chapter!)

        Overbearing. That's the word Christine Benner chose to describe the deafening solitude that invaded her daily life. She had never been the best at making friends: combine social anxiety with a lack of contact with people her own age and typical teenage prejudice, and you've got a recipe for escapism. She shifted on the worn couch in her living room, the support on the front of it digging into her leg, turning her pale skin red for a moment.She sat reading, as she so often did, late into the evening. The apartment was empty around her: her mother was never home unless she was sick or sleeping. Christine sighed, closing her book and standing, her eyes narrowed at the clock.

        "And once again, I've been stood up by my own mother. What a surprise." With a roll of her eyes, she headed down the hall to her room: midnight on a school night was more than generous in waiting for her to get home just to have dinner. She flicked the light on and went over to her desk, turning on the air purifier that sat on top. She picked up the inhaler resting beside it, and turned it over in her hands. How she wanted to be able to chuck the piece of plastic against the wall and never have to see it again... But considering the fact that she could barely make it up a flight of stairs without gasping for breath, she chose not to.

        She changed into her pajamas, tugging the baggy t-shirt on over her leggings and flopping onto her bed facing the ceiling. When Christine was younger, she was always sick. She saw the walls of a hospital and the glint of needles more than her own parents. From the age of eight to eleven, she was more or less stuck in the hospital. None of the doctors really figured out the cause of her sickness, but through trial and error they were able to get her to a point of being able to function as a more or less "normal" child. Unfortunately, by that point she was severely behind in school, and had to spend all her free time studying just to get by.

        Her father had refused to get her a tutor while she was ill, and so within one year, she was moved back three grade levels. To top it all off, the man had disappeared without a word about a month before she was discharged from the hospital.

        "Stop it," she muttered to herself, shaking her head in hopes of shaking off her thoughts of the past. She closed her eyes and sighed, reaching over to turn off the light. As she drifted to sleep, she found herself, once again, wishing for a different life: one where she wasn't the sickly daughter of an absentee single mother. One where she wasn't called "dumb" just because of an unfortunate past (despite the fact that she was now, by far, at the top of her class). One where she would be treated with the love, care and respect she so desperately craved.

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                                                 Annalice Grenalt

        The blonde woman sat beside her husband, fiddling with a small bit of fringe on her bag as she gazed out the window of the moving limo. Something had her on edge lately, but she couldn't quite seem to pinpoint it.

        "What's wrong, dear?" The large man rumbled in worry beside her. He placed a warm hand over hers to stop her fidgeting, brown eyes locking with her blue ones. She sighed, twining her fingers through his.

        "I'm not sure. I feel like something wonderful, yet terrifying is about to happen," she responded, her slim form leaning into his arm. Thomas wrapped her in a comforting embrace, resting his chin on her head.