The Brighter Side of Life

Prologue

I work in McDonalds.

Yes, I am indeed one of those sweaty teenage employees you see at the back wearing a hairnet that's too small and a T- shirt that's too big. I shovel chips and flip burgers for a living, but at least I can say with pride and indignation:

The smell never really comes out.

You see, life for me isn't very exciting. I spend my days reading and laughing with friends and going to school and not doing homework, then occasionally, I come back to the pits of hell where the fryer doesn't actually turn off til 8pm.

(Oh gosh, I make it sound like a miserable existence.)

Let me elaborate: of course I have the normal everyday drama to keep myself entertained - like basically everyone else in perceivable existence - but somehow I still felt unaccomplished. Like I should have spent the last 16 years of my life doing something. Anything. Maybe I should have been changing the world and filling my diaper at the same time?

Anyway, what I'm saying is that I felt like I hadn't had my moment yet. You know? The defining moment in your life that you're sure you'll remember forever.

See, the way I see it is that every story that has ever been told has had to have had something to come before it, and, naturally, something after it. Why weren't these instances included in the story? Well, because they're not essential. Because they're not something that will later on define the character.

And, people of earth, this is what I desired. My moment in the sun. My time to be the hero, to save the world as I know it. It is maybe what I wanted most in the world. I didn't care how, or who would be involved, but I wanted to experience the part of my life that would be exciting enough to document in a story to be told. Interesting enough to watch as a movie, be emotional enough for me to cry about, to make me feel something other than the boredom of going through the same routine everyday.

Change. That's what I wanted. A drastic change to occur and take me out of the repetitive life that I've grown bored of. The time in my life I'd reflect on when I'm old and my skin is as leathery as the chairs I sit on. I'd call them "The Bright Days", because that's when my life would have been the brightest. Every time I picture them, I smile, partly because I have no idea what they will entail, and partly because they could start tomorrow.

But then, I think. What kind of change can come to a normal boy living in the south of England?

And then I hurriedly flip the burger before it burns on one side.