Dragon Girl- By Brit- June 5, 2008

Chapter 1: Lies.

“It’s not how things were done in those days! No one stayed with someone else too long unless they were A.) Married or B.) Engaged. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you before.” Mariah paused, listening to the girl on the other side of the call. She was holding her pink cell phone and standing in the middle of her kitchen, leaning up against the center island. Her dark brown hair was tied back in a messy ponytail and her face was painted with make-up. She was wearing long flared jeans and light pink button-down shirt. She tapped her long nails on the counter before saying, “Jaiden, come home, now.”

In a few moments, a black Mustang drove up and parked in the driveway. A pretty blonde girl stepped out of it. Unlike Mariah, Jaiden was wearing black skinny jeans and a black and blue skull t-shirt. She jingled the keys on their key ring rhythmically. As she opened the door and entered the kitchen, Mariah broke down in tears.

“Mom, you lied to me. So my dad isn’t my father?” Jaiden jumped to the first question she could think of as soon as Mariah started to cry. Looking at her mother she noted that she didn’t look like the other mothers she knew. Mariah was younger-looking, even there at 42. But the thought was shaken away as Mariah began to speak.

“Jaiden, I told you. It wasn’t-“ But Mariah was cut off when the doorbell rang. Jaiden ran off to her room, leaving Mariah alone to answer the door. Up in her room, Jaiden felt at home.

Black, electric blue, hot pink, red, and neon green guitars hung on the black walls. They were bass, electric, and acoustic guitars. Near them hung photographs of rock bands and some of Jaiden and her boyfriend. Jaiden jumped onto her bed, which was covered in sheets the same colors as her guitars. The canopy was ripped in certain places to give it an older feeling. It was placed, angled, in a corner opposing a baby grand piano. A black entertainment center was up against the other wall and held CDs, videos, DVDs, and a television. Next to that was a drum set that matched the rest of the room. Jaiden took out her phone, dialed some quick numbers, and then grabbed a laptop that was sitting next to her bed.

“Hey Jaiden,” a boy’s voice sounded, bored, over the phone. Jaiden smiled hearing it and they went into conversation. She shook her head and nodded as she spoke, all the while typing something into her computer.

“I don’t know, honestly. She didn’t give me a name of my father… I don’t know the doorbell rang and then I ran up here.” The call kept on going, and her typing stopped. “Tanner, I think I found it! I found out where she was married! It’s the church we went to! Oh, mom’s calling me, got to go!” Jaiden snapped her phone shut and shut off her laptop. She pushed it to the side of her bed and walked to the door of her bedroom. Eyeing it restlessly, she opened the door and walked out into the hallway. Trying to go as slowly as possible, Jaiden walked to the head of the stairs and stepped down. One step at a time she descended into the abyss she called her living room, and then walked even further and into the kitchen.

There stood a man, about her mother’s age. He had a perfect complexion and a chiseled face. Perfect. It seemed to be the first word that came into Jaiden’s mind. Her mind was mixing, thinking so many things that it was possible that she would explode. Her mother was sitting on a stool against the island and looked almost drunk. Her eye make-up was smudged, an obvious sign of her crying.

“Jaiden, Joshua. Joshua, Jaiden.” That was all that Mariah said. At first, she looked longingly at the man, and then at her daughter. She nodded as if for someone else to talk.

“Wow, Mariah. She looks just like you did at seventeen.” Joshua said, breaking the silence, a few moments later. Jaiden shook her head, biting her bottom lip. She bit harder and harder until she tasted blood in her mouth and her eyes bled tears. She looked away, not wanting the stranger to notice, and walked towards the front door. Before exiting, she grabbed a black sweatshirt from the wooden coat rack on the left of the doorknob. Jaiden checked to make sure she had her phone and then, once sure she had it with her, she rushed out the door.

Finally she was free. Jaiden pulled her sweatshirt on, looking at the forming clouds in the sky. She looked around happily, thinking to herself all the joys she had in her little neighborhood. Row after row were houses and streets and then a little park and a school that bordered either side. Jaiden remembered going to that school when she was younger, and then walking over to the park on the other side, and then again across the street to be at home with her parents. Her parents. Her dad, whom had died before she started second grade, and her mother, who prefered lying to her about her real father.

Jaiden slowly walked across the empty street. There were some woods on the other side that had grown around the park: her sanctuary. Stepping through the trees and roots like an expert, she picked her way through to the park: a set of swings and a little clearing. Jaiden looked around to make sure she was alone and then sat on the center swing, looking up to the now-raining sky and closing her eyes. She breathed slowly, hearing only the beat of her own heart. She sat liked this for some time before subconciously pulling her hair out of the ponytail it had been thrown into that morning.

Putting her hand back on her lap, she heard cars screeching and running and shouting. She pinched her eyes tighter, not wanting anyone to find her. Jaiden could disappear into her mind, but her body would remain. She grasped the ropes to the swing she was on and told herself she was just hearing things. It worked until something was up behind her.

She could feel the presence of a body, a person. She could feel his breathing against her back, his voice soft as he whispered her name in her ear, his arms around her as he told her she would be fine. Jaiden felt the warmth of love shoot through her as she realized who it was: Tanner.