A Vacant Soul

Chapter One

      “Where‘ve you been, you little rascal?” Axton said as he grabbed my head and ruffled my already unruly hair. “Been partying and drinking, squirt?”

      “If I have, it isn’t your rightful business to know,” I replied cockily, jamming my elbow playfully into his gut as I slipped out of his grasp. “Besides, it isn’t like I’m drunk.”

      “Better not be.”

      “Go back to playing poker, cheater.”

      “You’re not the least bit drunk, I expect. After all, what ‘bout Carrie? You were with her tonight, weren’t you? Wouldn’t want to embarrass yourself in front of her, would you, Hugh?” My face glowed, and not from the warm light of the setting sun.

      “Just ‘cause I’m not the high and mighty Axton McKenna doesn’t mean I don’t have any social skills.” I shouted, bashful, as well as Axton knew I’d be.

      I hadn’t been drinking or smoking or doing crack, though. While my brother, who I hadn’t ever called anything other than Axton, was in our kitchen with all his buddies, probably raking the money into his pockets for lack of respect for the rules, I was all crazy being the only man in my pack of friends who didn’t go out getting drunk and end up being put on probation. Well, that’s an interesting way to say it, considering that none of my buddies are older than sixteen, and we’re hardly a pack. However, my dad couldn’t care less that I hung out with a bunch of hoods who get drunk every Friday.

      Our parents had split up so long ago, I don’t even remember my mom. She didn’t want anything to do with my brother and me; she could of already had three different husbands and a handful of kids I’ve never met for all I know.

      My dad on the other hand was hardly around, but when he was-- let’s just say I don’t think he wouldn’t have been half as fun if they had still been together. My parents, I  mean.

      “Get on with what you’re doing, scaredy cat!” He shouted and pushed me onto the couch before running out of the room into the kitchen. I lay there for a minute before slowly but deftly lifting myself off the couch. Might as well stay awake I thought miserably, as a series of shouts emitted from the kitchen.

~~~~~

        Being Hugh Capet McKenna wasn’t hard, but wasn’t easy. My brother was a well known football player at the local high school, as was he the parental figure in my family, mainly due to my dad’s absence in most everyday. We were almost three years apart, and that was close enough in my opinion. We may not be the most chummy of brothers, but we were overdosed on a drug of pure vigilant-like protection for each other. Axton was, aside from a sporty person, very academically successful. He was the most viable candidate for valedictorian, and a ‘social butterfly,’ if I may quote my sister.

        Speaking of my sister, enter Katelyn McKenna. Technically, she’s only my half-sister, but I don’t consider her that way. She’s only eight, and an angel in all respects. It’s amazing how, even in the dystopian-like environment of my neighborhood, she’s remained a innocent little girl, who always covers her ears when Axton’s or my friends come over and use profane language. Amazing, really. Amazing.

        I don’t talk about myself. Unrelated and abrupt, really, but I’m not… well… a ‘social butterfly,’ if you will. I suppose being unconcerned and disconnected from the world is both a blessing and a curse, the meaning being both as literal and as figurative as possible. I suppose it being a literal blessing in the way of not having to worry about the worries and woes of the world that probably wouldn’t affect me in any significant way, or at least it wouldn’t if nobody else cared, or rather didn’t not care, yet didn’t care. It being a figurative blessing in the way that how can a blessing be in existence as a literal blessing without a favorable subject with which to be blessed? Of course, referencing the fact that I don’t think very highly of myself, which if taken too literally, would lead to questions that would question the very meaning of literal thinking, and that just confuses everybody! Now that I’ve sufficiently either baffled, amazed, or annoyed you, I suppose you want to know more about something that builds plot, induces action, or is humorous. Allow me to indulge myself a little further.

        As mentioned, I don’t do well with people that don’t know me, so I mainly avoid them, trying not to be too distinctive. I try to be polite, but not as polite as to be note-worthy. I’m the type of person who, despite my efforts to not be, says something, and, without waiting for confirmation that people understood what I said, walk out of the room, creating an image of myself in their minds, doing something I don’t want to do. Then again, I do a lot of things I don’t want to do.

A/N: I'm trying something new! This story will be written completely on Google Docs, so if you are interested in collaborating with me, or even if you want to view earlier drafts of the chapters before they come out, you can view it at 

http://tinyurl.com/bookgeek001-story-one