On Our Own (gxg)

Chapter 1 - 21 years

A/N: Hey guys and girls who honour me be attempting to read my story! Thank you! Feel free to comment your thoughts and point out any lanuage mistakes, please! The photo shows Rayen Finley, it is from Pinterest, I'll put a link in it. Hope you enjoy reading! :)

My alarm rings shrilly and chases away my dull dreams mercilessly. I open my eyes, letting them adjust to the light that is slowly and automatically brightening my room.

I hurry to put my bare feet on the floor to feel the wakening cold as long as the room temperature has not fully reached my preferred day temperature. I get up and take a shower.

A thought catches my mind. I remember. It's my 21st birthday today. Others would have broken out into enthusiastic shrieks of happiness but I couldn't really care less. Turning 21 on the Alatis means that you become a full legal adult. But that does not really mean much of a change for me. Actually I am far more mature than most of the people of my age, maybe due to the immense pressure my dad puts on on me.

He is not a great dad. Not at all. His duties for the Alatis always come first for him - he can't devide job and private life. Everything is his job. And I don't even complain about him having no time for me. I am actually pretty glad about that. Because when he is home he forces me to live the life he wants me to live. He painfully reminds me of my role as the excellent dauther of the 'unbelievably great Doc. Finley'. When he hears about me sticking out of the role model figure I am supposed to be he punishes me. Like, not only verbally or by grounding me (although I am freaking 20 years old!), but he also threatens and punishes me physically. Beating. Refusing to give me my meals. Electro-shocking me. He is very creative when it comes to that. Sometimes it seems like he has fun. He is cruel. And I hate myself to admit it, but I am afraid of him.

But it won't change with me turning 21 today. It will just go on like that. I will live the life he wants me to because not even in my dreams I would dare doing something else. I will befriend with those superficial people he wants me to be friends with. I will become a doctor, his heir if you will. I will work my whole life obeying to him and I will succeed in a great carreer. Due to my legal age I would theoretically be allowed to move to my own place now. But I don't dare.

So, I think bitterly while exiting the shower, today nothing changes at all. Others are exited to be dismissed from school and allowed to choose a job. I am not. I don't even get to choose anything, so why be excited?

Great. Putting on my sports bra and panties I thank my brain for having such positive thoughts in the morning. I put on my clothes. Well, it's not that anyone on the Alatis had a big wardrobe. It's a basic suit made from one piece. Even the standard edition has several technical functions. The material is soft and comfortable. The shoulder and back part, just as the knees and the belt are consolidated by some high tech plastic like material.

Today I choose mine to be grey. I chuckle as I notice that my clothing colour represents my mood.

After brushing my theeth with my ultrasonic brush I take a look at the huge mirror. The tips of my long dark brown hair are still wet. Green eyes stare back at me. I like my eyes. They are special. And they are a gift from my mother. She died when I was at the age of 7. Looking back she was the only person to ever share warmth and love with me.

I miss her, but I won't admit that to anyone. Why should I? There isn't even anyone close enough to me to open up to. My 'friends' are only those chosen superficial ones, children of the high society my father wants me to connect with.

Finally I put on some light mascara and cover up my freckles. I personally like them, but I am not allowed to show them. My father says, freckles a mistake in my genes to produce the right pigments or something and he doesn't allow his daughter to have such 'flaws'.

I don't care about how I look, anyways. Most of my 'friends' are in relationships, hopping on and off. But I won't let anyone get close to me, so I don't even try to attract anyone in the first place. I mean, I know that the Alatis Laws tell me to give birth and raise at least two children til the age of thirty, but that's something I don't have to worry about. I bet my father is picking 'the right father to his grandchildren', anyways.

Damn it, Rayen. You are very good at ruining the mood. No wonder that you have no real friends, you would piss them off real quick.

I accept my fait and stop wasting time. I lock my room while exiting by swiping my wrist with the implanted ID-chip along the lock pad. The beep-beep sound confirms the locking process. I find myself standing still in the small hallway of my father's and my quarter, to listen if I catch a sign of him being here. The tension disappears when I only hear silence.

I put on my Converses. I am incredibly proud of these shoes. They are privilige and I don't even know how I could convince my father to get them for me for my last birthday. I love them. I can't stand the standard shoes everyone is wearing.

I leave our quarter and draw myself up. I am the girl my father wants me to be as soon as I leave. I have to be. Silently I approach the bridge's conference hall, where due to my father's high social status my formal 21th birthday celebration would take place.