Reaching For Destiny (Unedited)

Year Three

My pancakes laid upon the plate in my hand, cold. Story telling had literally ruined my breakfast, and now I was left to nibble on the cold remains of a once delicious hot food. Trying to ignore it I thought about what was to come. I could already feel eyes of grief burning into me, but I tried to ignore that too, stuffing my face.




"Were you that upset?" Aunt Caroline whispered from across the narrow kitchen, grabbing my attention. "Why didn't you tell me then?" She looked hurt with wetness forming at the rims of her eyes. "If you would have told me I would have been able to do something," her lip trembled.




"It's fine." I managed to half smiled with a mouthful of food. Aunt Caroline looked at me, unsure about how to feel about my response. "It's fine, I swear." Once more trying to reassure her.




The guys weren't phased, for they already knew this part of my life very well. Yet, a few of the people in the room hadn't known what was to come. Gary munched away at his pancakes, waiting for me to go on, but with Aunt Caroline in the room I felt shy. Mitchell and Doug knew why I felt the way I did because they were the ones who had saved me on multiple occasions, but I had hidden the cuts and bruises from my aunt and uncle. Those scars were the something that had remained hidden.




High school wasn't a time of growth for me. It had been more of a time of hide or die. The memories of it haunted me. I could hear the laughter of my peers as I was taunted before them. I could hear the screams I had let out in pain from blows I couldn't prevent. Yet, the one thing I couldn't take out of my head was the memory of a girl, a girl who watched in horror as I was hurt.




"Are you going to continue?" Gary asked, becoming impatient with my silence. "Are you?" He became persistent. "Oliver?" His impatience turned into anger with the not so intentional silent treatment.




"I don't know if I should," I looked to the ground. "It isn't much of a fairy tale, there is only sadness and hurt. It's not what you want to hear."




"Well, I didn't come to hear about Cinderella and how the prince found her slipper, now did I?" He asked like the smart ass he was. "I want to know about you," he mumbled through bites of food. "That's why I'm here this early. I'm not here to learn about some soppy love story."




Rolling my eyes, I stood away from the counter I had been leaning against. My life story wasn't interesting, at least I had never thought it was. It was merely pain sent as a rollercoaster ride. Yet, here I was talking about it. Honestly, I wasn't prepared to tell the dark tale, but being outnumbered six to one I had no choice.




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Nightmares are more than reality..




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I stood before the mirror in the school bathroom with the yearning to escape through the window. No one cared that I was hiding away during class, at least not anyone who pretended they liked me. It was the ending of the school year, but summer would be worse than school ever could be. Splashing my face with water, I turned the faucet off and looked back up into the mirror to find the last person I wanted to see, Mark Richardson. He was your typical movie styled jock, and he was far from nice.