Esther, Be Tender With My Love

One

The day started off normal - boring, quiet, uneventful. I suffered through my painfully slow biology class and fell asleep during fourth period again. It wasn't until after lunch when things started to get weird. Nothing obscure happened, but the vibe seemed... off. My sixth period class, college algebra, was usually chaotic. Devin, Kyle, and Jace, the star jocks of my high school, were always arguing loudly with each other over dumb things. They would always try to one up each other and talk about sports. It doesn't help that our teacher, Mr. O'Neill is one of the assisstant football coaches. Devin's dad is the head coach so anytime he did anything "bad," Mr. O'Neill would jokingly threaten to tell his dad at football practice. Kyle's dad is also the superintendent of our school district so he'd receive the same threats from all of his teachers.

But today, the class was quiet. Too quiet. None of them had said a word the whole period. It made me eerily uncomfortable. Mr. O'Neill was also acting strange. He was usually full of energy and yelling to hype us all up but he too was calm and quiet. I spent the whole hour pondering over why everyone was so silent but nothing came to mind. Even in my last hour of the day, none of the highly energized people were acting normal.

I quickly forgot about it all as the bell rang to go home. Quickly packing up my books and papers, I made my through the long, wide hallways and down the stairs to the front of the school where my black 1967 Chevy Impala was parked. My grandpa insisted on me keeping it after he sold his house and moved into a nursing home. The popular jock straps and their diva girlfriends always made fun of me for my old car. Sure, it broke down sometimes but I loved it nonetheless. It's special to me. My grandpa is my best friend. He was the one who kickstarted my love for the past. Everytime I spent the weekend at his house, he would show me pictures from his childhood and tell the best stories about his troublemaking with his best pals. He also introduced me to many musical artists from his time. We would sit by the fire place and listen to all of his hundreds of records. Grandma would come in with glasses of milk and a tray of cookies as my grandpa told me random little facts about the song or artists playing.

I set my backpack down in the backseat of my car then hopped in the driver's seat. As I drove out of the parking lot, I saw a group of the jocks giving me a disgusted look - typical. I held back the urge to flip them off as I sped away.

--

As I pulled into my drive, I noticed that neither of my parents' cars were there. Perfect! I'd have the house all too myself. After I parked, I grabbed my bag out of the back seat and walked inside. It was absolutely silent. Making my way over to the stereo, I hooked up my phone and hit shuffle on my Spotify playlist. Instantly, "Eight Days a Week" by The Beatles began playing. I sang along as I dropped my backpack off under the coat rack in the hallway to the garage. The harmonies of John Lennon and Paul McCartney were soon replaced with the sound of my ringtone. Swiftly, I walked over to my phone in the living room. To my surprise, one of my close friends Atticus was calling. He usually ghosts everyone.

"Hello?" I asked into the phone.

"Esther! What's up?" He asked, a little to over enthusiastic.

"What do you want Atticus? You never use your phone. I'm a little concerned."

"Oh nothing. Just wanted to check up on my beautiful best friend who is also funny and smart an-"

"Atty, if you're trying to persuade me into going to a party then just go ahead and forget about it."

"Esther Elaine Ryan. Why would I ever even think of doing something like that?" Sarcasm dripped off his tongue as he said that.

"I'm sorry Atticus, but I really don't want to go tonight. I have a lot of homework to do. In fact, I need to get started right now. Byeeee!" I sang as I hung up on him without ever listening for a response.

Atticus is always trying to get me to go to parties. Homework was always my excuse for not going. He knows how important my grades are to me. I wouldn't mind going if they weren't hosted by the arrogant kids in our school. Who knows what would happen if I ever showed up to one of those parties. Those kids have had it out for me ever since my sophomore year when I caught Jace cheating on his girlfriend, Addison. He and his posse have been tormenting me ever since to try and keep me from telling Addison about it. It's not my fault he was doing it with a girl in the back room of the school library.

I made my way upstairs and turned down the hallway to my bedroom. When I opened the door, my eyes widened in shock. There in front of me stood three men I never thought I'd ever see in my life. My hand went over my mouth as I tried to hold in a scream. My body was shacking and my vision was getting spotty. I soon felt my body begin to fall backwards as everything went black...