Prophecy in the Stars

A Path Through the Woods

Hey guys! I hope you enjoy this story! I'm always looking for feedback, so feel free to leave a comment and let me know what you like, and don't like! Thanks for your time! ~ xo Kai

I can't do this again, it's easier just to sneak out. I pull my hood over my head as I throw some makeup back into a drawer. I always end up going places through my window these days. It's so much easier than trying to convince my Dad that I'm not going out to screw anyone. Rock shows just require a certain attire if you know what I mean.

I pull my pleated skirt down and inspect my converse, kicking off a piece of fluff from the cheap carpet. I look in the mirror to check my hair, blonde with a bright pink highlights, and make sure my makeup didn't run. I tend to wear heavy eyeliner at shows, and I can never afford waterproof stuff, so it tends to run a lot. For this particular show, I went all out with glitter and giant lashes. I can barely recognize myself when I go to shows.

Shows are the only place I get to actually be myself these days. Around home, I have to tone everything down, and I can't listen to music without headphones anymore without causing a problem with my father. Dad tends to get upset at every little thing. Mostly when he is drinking, which these days is honestly most of the time. I've just learned to do whatever I can to avoid confrontation with him, even if that means doing things that fit the "troubled teen" stereotype. Though I don't really consider myself troubled. I think that considering the circumstances I find myself in, I'm doing pretty okay. With a dead mom, a drunk dad, one friend from school, and a gang of assholes that like to push me around, I'd say I'm doing the best I could be. My anxiety can be a real problem sometimes, but I've been getting a lot better at handling it.

I dip out my window and climb down the side of my house, looking much like a ninja to bystanders I'd like to imagine. The trellis and I have become good friends the past year or so. It's been my escape to the real world ever since things have been getting bad with my dad, and I actually started hanging out with Tyler. My finger-less gloves shield my hands from being hurt by the thorns on the vines growing against my bone white house. I learned that lesson the first time I decided to sneak out through my window and cut my hands to shreds. That was a difficult way to explain, thank god for cats I guess.

I pulled my phone out of a pouch I have strapped to my thigh. I navigate to the correct screen and type "Be there in 5. Just left." I lock the screen and head over to the open garage and squeeze my body between the car and the dusty snow-blower and grab my backpack that I always keep there. If I don't end up back here by morning, Dad will just end up sleeping through the morning hours anyway, tonight was a liquor night.

Then I put on my over ear headphones and start blasting music as I make my way down the road. I always meet my friend Tyler down there. It's always safer to meet him away from the house. Dad would think we were sleeping together, while completely blind to the fact that Tyler is 100% gay. He tells me about all of his weird sexual encounters. Tyler isn't super promiscuous, but he is definitely open about it when he does meet someone.

It's darker than I thought, it's only 6pm. The dried crunching beneath my feet was drowned out by the music blaring into my ears, but I could feel them. Somehow the cool fresh air, the soft terrain of the path through the woods, and the music always ended up working me into a trance of sorts. It's always been the best way to make time fly. I was very comfortable in these woods, sometimes I even come out here just so I don't have to be home. Nobody ever comes through here. The only people I've seen are a bunch of kids that come out here to smoke weed and chill in the trees, but that's usually later in the night. I think they actually just all text each other and meet out here so their parents don't find out they are smoking, because they never come together.

The trees here just brought me back to earth. It was my place. I never even told anybody that I come out here so if I want to disappear for a few hours, this is the place. It's the only place I can ever really escape. The world gets to me sometimes, and I just need somewhere to go to think you know? Without any input from anyone, and no distractions. This place just allows me the peace that I can't find anywhere else. It's a little bit of magic in my anxiety filled world.

Eventually I come out the other side of the woods and head toward the 4 way where I meet with Tyler. He's parked next to the basketball park as usual. I swear one of these days the people that live around here are going to call the cops on us, saying I'm selling him drugs or something. Like does he really need to park directly under the streetlight, like a complete creep?