I'm not broken

chapter 2

"Ray!" I screamed when I staggered through the door.

"Yep!" my brother's voice screamed back from the bathroom. I exhaled real big and threw my stuff on the half sunken sofa, then walked towards my room.

My room was nothing posh, only a white drawer missing a leg that threatened to collapse whenever I opened it and a full sized bed that creaked under my weight pushed to the side. The walls were cracked and gray, and literally NO air conditioning found it's way into my small room. I threw myself on top of my bed and closed my eyes.

"So, how was graduation?" Ray asked, throwing himself on top of me. I giggled and pushed wrestled him off. Ray looked exactly like me. His black hair was cut short and always gelled it up in spikes which I always tell him looks retarded but he ignores me anyways. His pale skin was hardly ever tan, and his pale green eyes made you jumpy when he started at you. He worked at Mobil gas station near I-21, and he tries to spend time with me as much as he can.

"It was okay. Matt Hanran's sister cried a bit, but that was all." Ray knocked me down and began to tickle my sides, and I almost kicked him off the bed.

"Stop Ray!" I gasped, slapping his hands away. He grinned at me, showing the over lap of his two teeth.

"Where's the diploma?" I got up and went to the living room, got my bag, then walked back, but not before noticing something foul in the air.

"Ray, did you take a shit?" I asked him when I had sat back down on my bed again. He howled with laughter. I shook my head.

"Did you?" he nodded, and I screeched with laughter. We laughed for a while, until I finally took out my diploma and showed it to him. Ray opened it and read out loud:

"Congratulations to Natalie Marks for graduating high school on May 13, 2015. Wow. you had to go to school for twelve years just for this damn paper?" Ray shook his head, but my mind had already begun to wander.

"You didn't come." I whispered, the happy atmosphere turning cold. Ray looked away.

"I had to work extra shift so we could pay rent this month." he said quietly. I nodded.

"Carter broke up with me." I added, and Ray stared at me.

"No way." he said, green eyes narrowing in disbelief. I nodded.

"He said I cheated on him, but I should not worry, because he had already found someone else." Ray looked outraged.

"But you never cheated on him, correct?" I nodded again. Ray's green eyes turned cold.

"No one hurts my little sis."

I closed my eyes, thinking of how I was going to say what was next.

"Also, the challenges start today." Ray gazed at me.

"So..."

"So I'm planning to join." I rushed, pinching myself. Ray sighed.

"You know how dangerous it is, Nat?" he asked me quietly. I jumped up.

"Goddamnit Ray! You joined when you graduated!" I burst out, staring straight at him. He stood up.

"So? I almost fucking died Natalie! I almost died! I don't want you to get hurt too!" I reeled back from his comment, then snapped to my defense.

"Well it's a risk I'm willing to take if it means I can get out of the shithole!" I cried, then blushed and looked away.

"Natalie, once your in Brook, you don't get out. Never." Ray said calmly, then exited my room. I followed him down the hallway.

"Hey, where are you going?" I asked as I watched him get his car keys.

"Over to Avery's house." he mumbled, and I almost fell over.

"What the hell Ray!" I screamed, jumping out in front of him and blocking the door. He gave me an annoyed look.

"Why would you go to your fucking girlfriend's house when I'm about to go and risk my life!" I exclaimed, my hands shaking with anger. Ray inhaled and looked at me through narrowed eyes.

"Nat, I can't watch you risk your life. But it's your life. So let me live my life." he pushed past me and walked out into the now rainy day. I watched his white pickup truck pull away and drive down the road towards Avery's house. I felt hot tears begin to make there way out of my eyes and down my cheeks as I closed the door and sat down on the couch.

"Oh my gosh, I fucked up..." I sobbed, putting my hands over my face and crying. Five minutes into my misery party my phone rang. I sniffed and cleared my throat, then answered it.

"Hello?"

"Nat!" the voice on the other end on the phone said, a voice I recognized as Ashton Smith from my graduate class.

"Yeah?" I asked, thinking it was a bit weird for him to call me, since we have never talked elsewhere.

"Are you joining the challenges?" he asked, voice heavy with anxiety.

"Yeah, why?"

"Then meet me in five minutes at Crazy Chad's front yard."

"Okay."

"Bye." the line went dead, and I sighed. I got up and walked towards the small bathroom and looked straight at the mirror.

"Natalie Amelia Marks, you will join the challenges, you will win the challenges, you will show Ray that it was not a mistake, and then you will leave Brook forever."

After that little pep talk, I went back into my room and took of my damp denim shorts along with my orange tank-top and put on some blue leggings with a white T-shirt that said "I have a problem with you but I can't tell you because I'm nice" in faded letters, then pulled my wet hair into a ponytail. I grabbed Ray's sweater from his room, trying to convince myself that I was doing the right thing. I put on my old white Chuck Taylor's and struggled the sweater, then grabbed my car keys and went out into the miserable rainy day and straight to my 1998 Honda Accord.

I shoved in the key and turned it, and the engine buzzed to life. I pulled the pedal back and pulled out of the drive way and headed down the long road towards Crazy Chad's house.