Moonless

Chapter 1

AN; Well turns out I am not an online learner, so I have just deferred grad school for a year. So join me on this adventure, while I lose myself in this world. Actually, why don't we all just come and lose ourselves in this story? Enjoy!

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If the first eight years of my life hadn't been taken, I wondered what I would have remembered from them. Would I have remembered a favorite toy? What about what used to scared me, or what it was like to feel safe?

"Aurelia," I looked up to see Annie walking towards me across the white and red checkered floors. Can you take that table?" she jerked her curly blond head towards a group of boys sitting in one of the diner's mint green booths. I recognized some of group as seniors from the high school I had been allowed to attend this year.

Outside the large windows of the cafe, the sun had retired to the horizon, and snowflakes were beginning to drift down from the sky. This would be my last table before I would have to return to Pine Ridge for the night.

I adjusted my short white and red striped skirt and tight white button-down top.

I stopped at the booth and my nose was aster with the strong smell of alcohol. Still, I forced a smile onto my face. "Hi, my name is Aurelia, I'll be your waitress today. Can I take your order?"

One of the boys at the edge of the booth, a pale boy with blonde hair looked up at me in a drunken daze. "Yeah sure, we'll have an order of chili cheese fries, extra-large, and my virginity."

The boys around him instantly erupted into a chorus of laughter. I stared down coldly at the boy, who instantly turned red under my gaze.

"Sorry," he mumbled and turned his eyes down. "It was a dare, I lost a bet..."

"Anything else?" I asked, with the hope the answer was no.

"Yeah actually one more thing," a muscular boy, sitting on the other end of the booth said. He picked up one of the menus laying on the white table. "Where are the milkshake flavors listed?"

I stepped closer to him and tapped my finger against the lamented surface. "All the flavors are-"

"Sorry, I also lost a bet," the boy whispered. The red and white fabric of my skirt stirred while the boy's fingers sailed through the air.

I caught his hand a centimeter away from my rear end.

I gave his hand a squeeze and the boy's fingers crunched under my grip.  He let out a gasp of pain and the table grew silent. I released the boy and he withdrew his hand and cradled it close to his chest.

"She-she just broke my fingers... I think..!?"

I hadn't although I felt like it.

All the boys turned to start up at me with wide eyes.

I stared down at them, my face hiding my boiling anger under my passive expression.

I placed my palms flat on the smooth clean surface of the table, and my brown ponytail slipped over the side of my shoulder while I leaned over their table.

"Anything else ?" I repeated although the phrase now held a different meaning.

The boys exchanged wide-eyed looks with each other before they got up and scampered out the door.

Before the door swung shut behind them I heard one of the boys say, "I told you, people from Pine Ridge are freaks!"

I turned to see Annie standing behind the counter of the soda bar, trying to hide her giggles beneath her hand. Her blue eyes glistened with laughter. I joined her there and chose to ignore the stares I was getting from the other customers.