Essence

Chapter 1: Who Did It?

*Author's Note: Hey everyone! To all my writers out there, happy NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month)! To kick it off, here's Essence! This story bounces around with perspectives (I'm pretty sure all of my stories do), but just to inform everyone, Essence is the main character (hence why the story is called Essence), but yeah! Happy reading! Don't forget to follow my wattpad insta which is the same user as my wattpad: exotic1exther.*

Essence's POV:

"This young life was taken away too early. No child should be taken away from this world so young. Sixteen years old, he was a child of..." The priest began.

I started zoning out as memories of him flooded my brain. My twin brother was murdered two weeks ago. We haven't found the killer yet, but there were a few suspects. My family is one of the highest gang groups in the city. So my parents were sure one of our enemies was to blame. I never really got involved, but my brother was well known for being a part of it. No one at school knew we were related. He was hella popular. I was the shy, quiet girl. He wasn't one of the popular guys that are jerks, though. It was my idea to act like we didn't know each other. I didn't want to be popular. I just wanted to live a regular teenage life outside of the gang.

"Essence, pay attention. Elijah's lying in that casket, and you're dishonoring him." Mom hissed.

I let out a sigh as I wiped my tears. Elijah was my best friend when he wasn't busy with school or sports or friends and shit. Usually, you hear people say that the popular sibling would bully the shy one, but Elijah wasn't like that. He was the sweetest person ever.

"It's not good to act the same way someone acted towards you back to them," Dad whispered.

"W-W-What do you mean?" I asked.

"You know what I mean. Elijah only spent time with you 'cause he felt bad that you were a lonely little girl. You have no friends. You never go out. You have A's in every class. Live a little." He chuckled.

"H-H-He never really liked me?" I gasped.

"Essence, you're boring. You're sixteen and you haven't ever even been on a date yet. You probably wouldn't even know what sex was if you didn't take health or sex-ed in school. You're innocent." He sneered.

I crossed my arms as tears flooded my face. I thought Elijah was the only person who truly understood me. Now I know it's all a lie. All those memories I thought we had together were just a pity party. I couldn't be here. I got up and left the church. I started wandering around town, thinking about what my dad said. I wasn't innocent at all. I was just great at making it seem like it. I've messed around with people before, but I kept it a secret. The best thing you learn about having a gang family is being secretive. I sat down on a bench and started crying, thinking about everything.

"H-H-Hey, are you okay?" A girl gasped as she approached me.

I looked up, and it was Kori, a girl in a few of my classes.

"O-O-Oh, Essence, hey." She stammered as she sat down next to me.

"Hey," I mumbled.

"Why are you crying?" She asked.

"You wouldn't care. No one does." I scoffed.

"Essence, I'll care, just tell me. I wanna help." She begged as she put her hand on mine.

"My dad, he's been practically bullying me. He thinks if you're shy, you're automatically mentally slow. He says I'm boring because I don't like to go out or talk to anyone. I'm just tired of him not understanding me." I sighed.