Throw Down Your Heart

Chapter One - Oh God, I'm Homeless

~* Chapter One *~

"Hey, baby, guess what?" I called as I opened the door to my apartment. Well, I mean, I share it with my boyfriend and he was here first because he's a senior and I'm only a sophomore, but that's beside the point. Anyways, I'd just found out that there was a really cheap red-eye flight to Mexico. I was going to Mexico with Luke and all of our friends on vacation in two weeks. We have finals the week after this one then we're out for the year. I'm super excited.

What I wouldn't give to be done with school. I mean, I love math, but I would be the happiest person on the planet if I could go the rest of my life without writing another essay. Like really, I get nervous and jittery just thinking about it. Lucky for me, I was always good at math and science and Drew was good at English and History, so we could help each other out. It's weird being in school without him now. Not that he was always around in high school anyways. He's not exactly your normal brother.

He's a pop star.

That's right, pop star. The kind tween girls and grown women alike scream for. He's actually about to go out on his first headlining tour. He's just put out a new album and now he's putting the finishing touches on everything before he leaves for Colorado, the first leg of the tour. He actually leaves the week after I finish finals. He's been trying to get me to come on tour with him, but with the trip to Mexico and everything, I'll probably make a couple shows but that's it. Anyways, Drew and I are really close. We're twins, actually. Until we went our separate ways, him off to stardom and me off to college, we pretty much did everything together.

We only figured out I was dyslexic when I was eight, but by then I was so far behind that even by going to summer school every year I still couldn't catch up. It wasn't even that I wasn't as smart as everyone; I understood the material and the critical thinking stuff, I just couldn't read or write well. People were mean about it too. A lot more people than you'd think are dyslexic and you don't even notice it either because it's not that bad or they can hide it, but especially as a kid, I couldn't. Nobody wants to be the kid that's different or the one that's a step behind everyone else. Even now going out to eat really sucks because unless I'm with people who know about me, I can't really read the menu too well. I usually just end up ordering something someone else has ordered to spare me the reading.

Now I can kind of hide that I'm dyslexic, so most people don't know. I just avoid reading and writing at all costs around other people. After how I was treated in middle school and high school, I didn't want to feel like the person everyone felt sorry for all the time or the person nobody wanted to work with on group projects, so I just kept it a secret. If people know there's something wrong with you, even something as stupid and insignificant as dyslexia, they treat you differently and I'm just sick of it. So when I got to school and I met Luke, I wasn't going to be different. I was going to be normal.

Drew and I are both into music too. I took guitar and voice lessons with him as a little kid, but when my grades started getting bad in language arts, my parents pulled the plug for me. It was actually really sad because I was good at that stuff. I still am, but mom and dad didn't want me to keep getting the lessons until my grades improved. Even after I started doing better they wouldn't let me get back to taking lessons because it was starting to look like Drew was going to try to make a break into the music industry and they didn't want me to get in his way. If I'm being honest I've always thought mom and dad liked Drew better. I kinda understand why though; he's always been easier than I am. Dealing with my dyslexia has been really hard for all of us and so I can understand liking the easy kid better. Not saying it doesn't suck, but I get it.  And at least I managed to do well enough in school that I could get into a college I'm proud of.