Shattered

Draw the bowstring

Bzzt bzzt bzzt! My phone starts vibrating with a call. It is unfortunately sitting on the kitchen table, whereas I am sprawled out on the couch reading Twenty-Seven-Miles, by Maria Omley, for the billionth time. I heave a sigh and eye my phone, it's probably Lukas, telling me that he is on his way to pick me up so we can go get coffee. The phone shifts slightly across the glass surface of the table, closer and closer to the edge, it is teetering above the drop to the floor when it stops ringing.

I try to go back to my book, but there is a nagging suspicion in the back of my mind that the call was important, I sigh again and mark the page in my book. Tossing the battered old paperback on the couch, I stand up and slouch across the room to the table, feeling thoroughly irritated that my reading time was interrupted and pick up my phone. The screen reads: one missed call and voicemail-Lukas Yates. I check the voicemail and Lukas' voice comes out of the tiny speaker;

"Uh, hey Lily. Um... I just wanted to, uh, talk to you about, um, something..." There is an extremely long pause, in which I move the phone away from my ear and look at it just to make sure that it hasn't turned off or something. Then, in a rush, Lukas' voice blurts out; "I-want-to-break-up-with-you-'cause-we've-been-together-too-long-and-I've-been- seeing-someone-else-behind-your-back. Uh, that's all. Bye."

I lower the phone from my ear, trying to process what I just heard. Anger slowly fills me, I can feel my hands shaking, my teeth grind together. I slam my phone down on the table and stomp up the stairs to my room, throwing open the door. The first thing that I see is the picture of Lukas and I last Valentine's day, looking so happy with the snow drifting down around us, I rip it down from the wall. Whirling around, I spot the bow and sheath of arrows that Auntie Jen gave me for my sixteenth birthday, at the time I had wondered why on earth Jen had given them to me. I had only used them once; during the training session that Jen made me take on how to handle the weapons, I was dreadful.

I run down the stairs and outside into the back garden. Nobody is here. I pin the picture of Lukas and I to a stack of old crates and move back twelve paces. I yank an arrow from the sheath and notched it onto the bowstring, raising the bow to shoulder height, I draw with difficulty owing to the stiff string and, with a deep breath, I let it fly.

*****

Two weeks later my older sister, Makinna, finds me in the same situation; shooting at the photo in the back garden.

"Hi Lily," she drops her backpack on the back step and comes to stand next to me, "er, what exactly are you doing?"

"Trying to shoot up Lukas without getting arrested." I reply through gritted teeth as the arrow I just fired hit the crate to the left of the photo with a dull thunk. The area around the photo and the edges of it were peppered with little holes but I had yet to actually hit Lukas' face, unfortunately.

"Right."

"Notch the arrow..." I mutter to myself as I prepare to shoot again. Makinna raises her eyebrows at me. I look down at my feet, "...get into the proper stance... "

"I don't mean this in a bad way, but Lily? You're getting obsessed with this archery thing, I've seen you miming shooting a bow when you think that no one is looking and you're even giving up reading time. Are you okay?"

I wasn't listening, "grip the bow and take aim." I line up the arrow with Lukas' face, "now hit that ugly target."

"Stop it for a second will you?" Makinna snaps at me before I can loose the arrow. With an over-exaggerated sigh, I lower my bow, careful not to let go of the bowstring until it was completely un-drawn. "Thank you. If you're going to try and shoot up that photo, you at least need an arm guard to keep you from snapping the bowstring against your arm when you release it."

I ogled at my sister, "how do you know about archery?"

"You're forgetting that Auntie Jen gave me an archery set too," she said with a wink, "here, I'll go and get that guard."

Once I had the leather arm guard strapped snugly in place, I prepared to shoot my arrow again. Makinna is watching my from the steps. I take aim, let out a slow breath and release it. For the first time, it finds it's mark, piercing Lukas' eye. I grin, a true bull's-eye, if ever there was one!

The End