The Adventures of Rey & Prawn

i (unedited)

I suppose I should start at the beginning before we made a mess of everything, before we messed around in a force we didn't understand. Before the quick and silent massacre of all we know, and it all began thanks to two foolish friends, naïve and unwise. In order to comprehend the story fully I need to begin from the start, the start of it all, until you can understand the present. As without the past, how can you truly understand the depth of the hole we dug for ourselves, how can you even begin to fathom the amount of trouble that's closing in on us? The simple answer is that you would not.

A while ago the present was during the time where I was in my last year of college, a couple months from graduating. Of course, I was happy to be almost done with that chapter of my life, except for one small thing: I hated my major. I wasn't the only one though. Steven, my closest friend whom I call Prawn (after his very vocal dislike for the crustacean), was in a similar boat. Due to this lack of interest, we have failed quite a long list of courses. Now how we managed this could be a combination of the multiple essays we didn't hand in or because of the several tests we didn't score more than 30% on. If you were our parents though, you would seem to find yourself blaming our reluctance to do anything but play Mario Carts. They probably do this because, although our failing grades may indicate otherwise, we both are intelligent and they know this. So, they know we're not really applying ourselves. However, they refuse to accept responsibility for sentencing us to a life that held no meaning to us. Where poison wasn't consumed but spread through a tongue-tied battlefield, that infected even the most innocent looking. Choices are what most people battle with, but Prawn and I weren't given any. From the day we were born our lives have been carefully orchestrated, including (but not limited to) our love lives, our jobs and our future houses.

I was reminded of my lack of choice the day I came out to my family, I'm unsure what encouraged such sheer stupidity for me to believe I would be met with anything but distaste. But I digress, I'm sure one must wonder what my friend and I could possibly be studying that can cause such torture. Well, my parents want me to become a doctor and Prawn, he's meant to become some A-list lawyer. The jobs chosen for us were nothing more than soul crushing sentence where all we can look forward to is the sweet release of death. If we had a choice, Prawn would probably go into computer science, and I... well art has always been my calling. However, ever since I can remember my parents have stripped any and all access to art materials from me.

I suppose we could have done something, like runaway or rebel, something along those lines, but after many years any rebellious spark would have died just like my will to fight for what I want. A slow but painful death of all my hope for a different future. But that has never halted my creativity, which is most often sparked by many cases of boredom. Some bouts of boredom were not easily cured, which is where mischief begins and disaster follows. Often our parents tried to blend us into the colourless blur we call society, but there was a problem with our unique ability to stand out. Our vibrancy that not only made us stand out but also attracted attention. Attention isn't necessarily a bad thing but when it came to Prawn and I, it almost always was. Though together it felt less daunting to face such obstacles. Together we could do most anything, however even in the brightest light it seems that shadows lurk and cling to the corners waiting for their opportunity to strike.

Little to say, we got bullied a bit in high school. Prawn more than I, but I suppose that's the privilege of being a girl. Or perhaps it was my daunting aura, maybe even my deceivingly aggressive social interactions, but we'll call it privilege. The privilege of having to watch my best friend get beaten down and broken by a bunch of pansies. Oh how grateful I am for my privilege. Needless to say, we weren't sad leaving high school. However, this does not mean that we weren't privileged to meet more amazing people like our bullies. One person that particularly comes to mind is Mr. Brunt, the person that made many dreams die. I think he was put onto the earth to do just that very thing; make dreams die.