Fortuna

1

It was at midnight when I heard a soft rumbling coming from outside. It started as a slow moan and gradually worked its way up to a bellowing roar. I felt my bed vibrate and from beneath my blankets, I covered my ears, hoping the noise would go away, but to no avail. 

Was the earth laughing at my pain? Possibly.

I had just suffered through another impossibly crappy day and now I couldn't even get some decent sleep. Today - no - this week was brutal. I swear it wasn't some teenage phase that had me wondering why the past week was so awful. Of course, it really all started when Mom brought home her new boyfriend, Greg. He was great you know, for about the first two hours before he decided that he didn't really like me. I don't blame him though; I gave him the death glare the entire time. Something about him just didn't quite settle right. 

But what really bothered me was that it felt like Greg's appearance caused a lot of awful things in my life to happen all of a sudden. It was like he was a bad luck charm...if there were such things. The moment he came into my life was the moment when everything started going downhill.

I remember when I woke up the day after meeting Greg and found out that my pet goldfish died. See, Sally was boring and she wasn't really the most interesting pet but she didn't really seem like the type to flip upside down after a month. Besides, I took care of her really well, keeping her well fed and her tank clean. So it was safe to conclude that there was definitely something fishy going on - pun intended.

Even worse, when I arrived at school, I found out that my final essay for English class that I worked so hard to finish, rewarded me with a nice fat 'F'. I knew Mr. Smith didn't have anything against me so what brought him to accuse me of plagiarizing? It didn't make any sense. I'm sorry but this online plagiarism tool says 95% of your essay is similar to works online. Impossible. In all my years in school, there was never a time that I even considered creating something that wasn't my own. 

Now this streak of misfortune didn't stop there though; there was more. Throughout the week, I found myself tripping over randomly misplaced objects on the floor at least once a day and this included things like textbooks, shoes, lunch-bags and even a dog. It chased me down the road for a good half hour.

I also accidentally had dairy (I'm lactose intolerant) twice in the cafeteria which was followed by severe diarrhea at school. Apparently, Mrs. Smush loves adding milk in her spaghetti and meatballs which coincidentally is also my favorite food. She said it makes it "extra creamy."

And let's not forget yesterday when I watched the bus driver drive away without me as I ran after it until my lungs felt like bursting. Most people would say "Oh it's just a bad week for you. It'll get better next week" but that's just a whole bag of bullshit. If there are claims that rabbit foots and four leaf clovers work, then hexes and jinxes probably do as well. And I was unfortunately the number one victim. 

As for today, I decided that I finally couldn't take it anymore so I walked up to Greg and straight up told him that he was the worst thing that happened in my life. Mom was extremely embarrassed but I swore that I saw the slightest smirk on his face when I left fuming. Dammit! His smug face echoed in my brain.

All thoughts on Greg floated away as the shaking intensified. It grew even louder and suddenly, from under the blankets, light poured through the fabric as if the sun decided to casually drop by for a visit. No big deal. Just wanted to wake you up in the middle of the night.

Great. It was the fucking apocalypse. Could the day get any worse? 

I peered up from my blanket and squinted at the source of the brightness. It came from the cracks between the blinds. I wasn't brave but I was too annoyed to stay in my bed so I had to check it out. I slowly climbed out of the bed and felt the floorboards nudge violently against the bottom of my feet. I struggled to take each step, using my arms to shield the light, towards the window.