Westedge

Chapter 9: A Mistake Not Regretted

Chapter 9

"You really screwed up this time, huh."

Ruby Valdez

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My mind was clogged along with my sight. I tried to walk straight but I surprisingly couldn't do that without difficulty and all my focus.

What happened to me?

I feel like a scattered cards deck; I'm not together at all. It's like my brain is disconnected from the world and sucked in with my thoughts. Where was I anyway? I woke up at home and everything was normal except..

He did something to me didn't he. 

I only remember when he told that he, well, liked me. Okay, so I remember a bit of the night, but why all of a sudden was everything else such a blur? Did he drug me? Did I get drunk? Did I get knocked out? Did I pass out from shock? I don't know whether to yell in frustration or just shrug it off. Now that you think about it, why shrug off getting possibly drugged?!

Before I could even swear out my frustrations and confusion, I ended up at Roundabout. I shake my head to clear my unorganized thoughts as I hit my converse on the pavement beneath me. I slam the car door and almost run towards the small but busy store.

As I entered, I noticed a grimace on two workers faces, two girls with their arms crossed, almost like they were scanning me. 

"Welcome to Roundabout- Wait. Is this the newbie everyone won't shut up about? About time!" One of the girls laughed off. She had long thin pure black hair  with a strip of purple, along with rectangular glasses. Her ears had many piercings and she had a white ear bud popped in one ear and one ear bud dangling out the other. She held out her hand and put on a small smile. "Names Sam, nice to meet you, Newbie. You already know Amerah." She says as Amerah let out a loud laugh, shaking my hand.

"You know me, but since I haven't properly introduced myself, why not now? My names Amerah, but most people call me Minnie." She exclaims, bringing her dark curls behind her. 

"Nice to meet you both." I say shyly as I plaster on a small smile.

It was weird for me. I've never been that great with people, Hopefully they caught that while they were talking to me.

"Okay, since Reynolds is out, I'll get your uniform for you." Sam says and I nod, trying to be polite. After a minute or two she comes back with a really, really nice uniform that's a dark shade of purple and on the back it had the picture of the earth, with a nice look to it. Then to end it, it had my name plastered on what looked like gold. My mind was blown away with such a simple but nice design. But why does it look so familiar?

"Before you can even ask, Reynolds was a huge fan of the band "Yes." I know, very creative name. Anyway he loved it back in 71, so he decided to make a music shop named after one of their famous albums: "Roundabout." That's when he made a crappy version of one of their album covers on our uniforms, and still to this day, standing since 1977, he has the shop. It's funny because barely anybody knows what it means anymore." Sam exclaims proudly, making me look at her bewildered.

I didn't expect to get a history lesson today.

"Sam, I think you crammed to much info into her head." Amerah said laughing as Sam chuckled. I think that was the first time I seen Sam smile today. 

That's when I began to feel like I fit in with these people. At first, it was strange. My only friends I ever had were Leo, the group, and myself. They were the only ones that made me feel good about myself instead of the other way around. Others always made it seem that I had a huge temper and that I was a jerk, and I soon sculptured that into my personality. The only problem was that no one knew why I had all of this sudden anger. Others didn't understand that I needed comfort and support. They all were in their own little world, ignoring the facts that I always felt like I was about to fall off a cliff. Then came the group, who made me actually feel good about myself for once. Soon they all came pouring into my life and I finally had the ability to smile and keep trying. All through middle school I tried to find friends that will help, that will support. Luckily, I succeeded in finding those friends.

I finally felt like I could be... happy.

That's when a scream came out of nowhere and I was pulled out of my trance. I shake my head quickly to clear my scattered thoughts as I see Sam and Amerah ducked down and started running towards the office. Before I knew it, a man covered in all black was right in front of me, a gun pointed towards my chest, ready to be fired. "Give me what I want and I'll leave you and your filthy store behind." The man says in a deep voice, with a surprising Irish accent, making my hands tremble. My body goes into shock as I suddenly realize: I might not make it out of the shop alive tonight.

I'm going to be brought up into the darkness, surrounded by nothing but skulls and death. My hand shakes uncontrollably as it clenches into a fist, unwilling to do what the man says. Why is my body saying no and my mind is saying yes? "Just give him the money so the three of us can get out of here alive tonight!" I think to myself as the man chuckles to himself, the ugliest laugh I ever heard in my life.

"Fine, go the hard route." He says, and before the pain sunk in, my vision slowly goes to pure black.