His Vice

19

Her friends were worried about her, they had said so, with their bright young faces of concern that just made her feel so broken inside. She wondered if she had done something wrong? to deserve such a life with pain that none of her friends would never understand. Her mother, that morning had greeted her with breakfast before school, telling her how proud she was, what a beautiful young woman she had grown to become.

She stared at herself in the mirror, looking right into the tired dark blue eyes reflecting back at her, the dark, frizzy unbrushed hair on her head. She just didn't feel like looking pretty mattered anymore, she had already been tainted permanently. No one would want her now. She sat in her classes like always, glancing around at the happy faces, feeling herself shrink more, like a turtle disappearing into the comfort of its shell. When the bell finally rang, she breathed in disbelief, getting up and collecting her books into her backpack and her pencils, making sure to not go near any of the boys when she moved through the hall, heading right for the front doors.

"Harmony!" she stopped, turning to face Daisy, hurrying down the hall in her black dress, a black headband holding her light blonde hair from her face, her backpack bouncing against her back. "Are you leaving?"

"Ya, I don't really feel like going to my next class" she responded

"Well, why don't I come with you? I mean, what can my parents actually do?" Harmony smiled sweetly, pushing a hand through her hair.

"I appreciate it Daisy, but I just kind of want to be alone, I hope that's Ok" Daisy looked sadly, letting out a sigh.

"Of course it's ok, I just wish you'd tell me why you've been so down lately" Daisy claimed, grabbing the shoulders of her friend. Harmony felt sort of bad, looking at Daisy's face, for keeping back her secret.

"I promise I'll tell you, one day" she assured, giving her friend a reassuring smile. And with that, Harmony pulled from Daisy's hands, and they fell from her shoulders. She waved goodbye to her friend, pushing through the front doors of the school. She walked down the streets, feeling empty, nowhere really to go where she felt truly safe. But, she listened to her music, clicking her heels, snapping her fingers to the beat in her headphones, giving a twirl, trying to feel free. Anything to have the weight lifted away for at least a single moment of clarity.

Her Mother had been phoning her, leaving her messages, asking where she was, sounding frantic on the other end. But, she just didn't care. She was doing her mother so much by not telling on Donovan, to not ruin her Mother's makeshift family. The least she could do was give Harmony an inch of freedom to run away from the reality of it all for even a single moment. The hours passed and before she even noticed, the sun had started to set, leaving an orange hew in her eyes, across the houses surrounding her as she walked down the sidewalk of an unknown street, not even sure she knew where she was.

Her phone buzzed in her pocket once again and she sighed, partially pulling from the lull of her music, pulling out the small machine from her pocket as it vibrated in her hand, seeing the image of her mother's smiling face flash across the screen. She put it back in her pocket, feeling as the vibrating once again stopped. She crossed the empty street, sitting down on a random engraved bench, next to an empty park with lonely swings and a single colorful slide.

"Would you just leave me the fuck alone?!" she was slightly startled, leaning forward a little to look down the street. There was a boy there, leaning against a slick black porche, sunglasses over his eyes. He was on the phone, holding it up to his ear with one hand and the other tight against his broad chest. "I really don't fucking care what you want! I'm going to do what I want with my life!" he barked into the phone, and with a swing of his hand, he threw it to the ground. It broke apart with contact with the sidewalk, multiple pieces being tossed across the ground. It was strange, he stuck out from the suburb, his clothes entirely black, his ebony hair with shaved sides, pushed back with a slight curl beneath his nape. She looked away suddenly, getting a sudden feeling in her gut. This man, whoever he was, wreaked of danger.