We Leave At Midnight

29 days before the trip

The next day, Melanie woke up on the floor with pain in her back. She was tangled in her flower blanket. Her music had stopped playing and the early daylight had made its way through her tiny windows. She sat up and brushed the sleep out of her eyes. She looked at the clock, 11.25AM. Her stomach growled. Melanie groaned. Standing up, stretching out her back then made her way to her blue coolbox. Everything inside the coolbox was over expiration date, looking all rotten and gross. "Fuckkkk." She dragged out, dropping herself on the floor again. "I don't wanna go ouuuuutttt!" She hit the floor a couple times with her already bruised fist. By now all the birds that were in the tree, or somewhere around her treehouse, had flown away. For sure.

-

5 minutes later she was standing outside, back on the ground after putting a piece of gum in her mouth cause she hadn't brushed her teeth yesterday. She kicked the dirt and every possible tree or branch on her way home. She didn’t take any money with her so going to the grocery store to get some food wasn't an option. 

When she finally got home, she put up a cigarette and the hood of her sweater over her head. Melanie knocked on the door, slowly inhaling and exhaling the relaxing cigarette. The door was opened by their maid, Mary. She wasn't really a nice maid. She wasn't a maid that you'd see in the movies, the one that made cookies when you felt down or something. No, Mary always chose her parents' side. Not that she or they, for that matter, had anything to say about her. She was a legal adult. Melanie could do whatever she wanted. Whatever legal, that is.

"Put that cigarette out, will ya?" She said, in her dignified, sternly voice. Melanie raised a brow at her. Then blew the smoke in her face, Mary coughed loudly. "No. No I will not." Melanie said, then grinned like the Cheshire Cat. "And don't exaggerate, darlin'," she commented on her loud coughing, in the same tone Mary spoke, "I know you sneak out into the backyard for a smoke." Mary froze on the spot, mouth hanging open. "Close your mouth, would ya darlin'? We don't wanna catch flies, now do we?"

Melanie walked inside, still grinning. While she walked towards the kitchen, she flicked off the ashes of the cigarette. She watched as they fluttered through the air and landed on the floor. She heard Mary coming towards her, heels clicking on the marble floor. "Hey! I've just cleaned the floor!" She yelled. Melanie snorted. "Don't care!" She yelled back.

She looked around the huge kitchen and realised how much she hated this place. Everything was so clean and organised. Knives in a row, spoons and other cutlery in the drawers, glasses and plates rowed up in the glass cupboards. It was just too clean and in shipshape. There were no dishes or dirty napkins. Some people would love this, everything so organised but she didn't. She liked a little chaos. A little messy like the messy buns she would always wear on a lazy day.

She grabbed the orange juice and some jelly, then closed the fridge again. She drank straight from the opening of the jar. She heard Mary mutter something under her breath about her being unhygienic. After she drank half of the orange juice, she wiped her mouth on her sleeve and made herself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. She also made herself toast with some vegemite. When Melanie was done she took her food, including a bag of lays chips, upstairs to her room.

The rest of the house was empty. Her little brother had gone to school and her parents to work. Her parents did the same work and had studied the same subject. That's where they first met in the first place. They both went to University Of San Francisco. They got together at the age of 19 or 20 (who cares) and then there was Melanie. It wasn't planned, of course, and she wasn't wanted. Her mom told her once that she was too late for abortion and that she would've done it if she hadn't been too late. That's pretty fucked up, huh? Anyway, they brought her to her grandparents who took care of her 5 days a week. Only in the weekends she was able to see them, if they didn't go to party's. When they both graduated they took her into their freshly bought home. 3 years later, came little Jack. Melanie's grandpa died a year after Jack was born. And that's the story of her fucked up life with her fucked up parents.