A Broken Road

A Broken Road- 7

My tears finally ran out at about five. That meant that I was sitting behind my car in the gravel for about three hours, just crying and hiccuping, and then crying again. Even when I wasn't crying, I still didn't want to leave because I didn't want to go back to Charlie's house. 

When I finally gained the strength to lift myself off of the ground, I was still in the world's worse mood, there was no way I was going back to that house until I had to. And right now, I don't have to. But I do have to get my ass off of this gravel and find someplace else to go.

So I found myself aimlessly driving through the roads of this beach side town. I passed a few interesting stores like antique shops and an art supply store. I decided to check them out some other time, I'd rather be in a happier mood when I go to those places so that I could really give them the chance that they deserved. After ten minutes of driving, I finally decided to stop at a Lowe's that I found further into town. I parked my car and noticed that the sun was just about to set. The sky was beginning to turn a light orange, it should have been pretty. However, the pathetic, depressing cloud over my head was blurring the pretty view.

I trudged into the hardware store and was immediately drawn to the painting section. I might as well get some paint while I'm here, right?

There weren't many people here, except for some old men that I passed in the lumber area and a young couple making decisions on a counter top. When I got to the paint, I stopped in front of the pallet display where there were a bunch of slips of paper that represented each shade of every paint.

My eyes, for some reason, wandered to the oranges. I hate orange as a color.

It doesn't fit your personality.

My mom's voice criticized in my head. A smile quirked the corners of my lips. That's exactly what she would have said. I wondered to the next color- Red.

Red? Really, Pai? Red is so not your color.

I laughed to myself at my mom's voice. She sounded like such a teenager, but she would have acted like one too if she was here. I liked hearing my mom's voice and knowing her opinion, so I moved to the next color. Blue.

Too predictable. C'mon, Pai. Think outside of the box.

I sighed, she was right. Too average. Okay, next color- Pink.

Pink? That's ridiculous. Way too girly for you and you so know it.

Yeah, I've never been a girly girl. I skim through more colors and listen to my mom's opinions in my head. I don't know how long I just stand there, staring at this small wall of display colors.

"Um, excuse me?" Somebody piped. I thought that I was in there way, so I sidestepped and then looked at who it was and paused when I saw that I wasn't in the girl's way, but she was talking to me with a worried look on her face. She looked too young to be a worker, but she had the blue Lowe's apron strapped around her waist, indicating that she was, in fact, an employee. She looked to be about my age, brown-reddish hair with big eyes and light freckles skimmed across her nose and cheek bones. 

"Yeah?" I responded to her after a long delay.

"Are you okay?" She asked timidly.

For a moment, I wondered why she would ask me that, but then I realized that I had tears falling down my face. I quickly wipe them away with the back of my hand and try to put a small smile on my face. I hadn't even realized that I started crying again. I really need to get these tears under control, because it's absolutely exhausting crying so much. "Yeah, I'm fine. So many decisions, it's too overwhelming." I mumbled sarcastically.