‘’That’s impossible,’’ My friend, Emma rolled her eyes, ‘’Amber, you can’t. You really can’t’’

‘’Uh, why not?’’

‘’Because!’’ she threw her hands up in the air, ‘’because…well its stupid! And it sounds like…’’ she made a face, ‘’abstinence…in a weird way’’ she added.

‘’Very nice, Em. You opened my eyes.’’

She pulled her car up to the curb and looked at me. ‘’Okay, I really can’t change your mind’’ she sighed, ‘’you can die alone,’’ she sighed again, a little deeply, looking at me with sympathetic eyes.

I snorted, ‘’Yes. Exactly, I have been dreaming about that day,’’

She rolled her eyes again. I had known Emma Sanders for five years from when she was a short skinny twelve year old who wore braces and had absolutely no self esteem. Fast forward to years later, she was confident, optimist and relatively popular. Emma was pretty at least in my estimation with dirty blonde hair that fell on her back like silk. She almost never tied them back because she thought her face looked too big the other way. Her pale blue eyes looked over my shoulder at the house beside mine. The hope that danced in her eyes a second before disappeared as quickly as it had come.

I smirked, already knowing, ‘’Aw,’’ I cooed, ‘’Little Emmy wants Landon.'’

She scowled, ‘’shut up,’’ she muttered before shouting, ‘’and get out of my car!’’

I got out with my hands up in surrender but the smirk still intact on my face. Emma had the biggest crush on my neighbor, Landon which she vehemently denied the last time I asked her but I doubt she looked at his house every time she dropped me because she was interested in its architecture.

I waved as she pulled out and drove away before whirling around and skipping towards the door. I pulled out my key and opened the door. Silence greeted me, as I stepped inside. It was the same old. I dumped my books on the sofa as soon as I entered the living room. Sunlight filtered in through the curtains, illuminating the dull room. I noticed how the dust was piling up on the coffee table and grimaced.

It wasn’t a smooth ride for my family. Ever since, Dad got laid off from work; things had been tough. My Dad was grumpy all the time and my mother, a nurse, spent most of her time at the hospital, had been furious when she found out that he hadn’t been working as hard for a job as she had expected. They had a strained relationship now which affected my brother and me in a way.

I heard chomping and turned my head over my shoulder to inspect. My brother was leaning on the counter, gorging on a humungous sandwich from which Mayo was dripping down onto the floor.

He caught my gaze and teared his mouth from the sandwich to mumble, ‘’Yo, noob’’

‘’hey stupid,’’ I greeted back. Ian and I looked like twins possibly because both of us had hazel eyes and freckly faces with chestnut hair which was shortly trimmed in his case and falling on my back in mine. The only difference was that he was tall and lanky plus he was rather thin and I was 5 foot and 4 inch-ish with wide hips. I hated how genes could be unfair.

I was stomping on the stairs when Ian called, ‘’hey Mom wants you to go see that crazy old woman at the end to see how’s she’s doing!’’

I frowned, ‘’who? Mrs. Peterson?’’

‘’how am I supposed to know?! She’s old, that’s all I know.’’

‘’why don’t you go ask her?’’

‘’Ha! I’m allergic to old people,’’

I made a face as I slipped down the railing and wordlessly, went for the door. I would have argued with him if I didn’t want to go outside. After a hard academic day, I wanted to relax and maybe listen to some slipknot. Fumbling with the speakers of the I-pod, I strolled down to Mrs. Peterson’s house. The sunlight dazzled brightly. A few younger kids were running around laughing and chasing each other. One of them, I recognized as Lizzie, the cutest five year old with blazing red hair. She stumbled on the asphalt but immediately got up unhurt, a huge grin adorning her face.

I smiled faintly and walked on. The summer breeze blew the strands of my hair on my face, I pushed them away. It was just like another boring day of my life because NOTHING ever happened with me. NOTHING. It was as if fate wanted me to be as normal as possible, while others would term their life as ‘’Tempestuous’’ for some reasons. I would give mine a ‘’LAME’’ tag.

The only thing interesting was that Landon West aka ‘one of the hottest boys in school’ was my neighbor. Pfft.

Throw in the fact that well…I hadn’t dated before and voila! I’m a freak in the zoo. That was the thing Emma had been ranting about before she dropped me off that I needed to date but yeah, I wasn’t interested. I wasn’t waiting for my Prince Charming or whoever. I wanted to complete my studies and go live BIG.

There was nothing wrong being ambitious as I told Emma curtly.

Mrs. Peterson was Alright. She had fallen down the entire flight of steps and broken her ankle, but her maid told me that she was going to be fine. Honestly, I thought she was a sweet old lady whereas Ian was convinced that she was an old Hag who was probably psychotic.

I walked back putting my I-pod back in my pocket as it was empty of battery now. It was quiet and way too peaceful in the neighborhood.

‘’I hate you and you and I hate this day…and the freaking sun. Everything about this world is dipshit!’’

I whirled my head as I heard this.

There was no one there.

I shook my head and looked around in astonishment. I swore I had heard someone but there was no other sound or another person.

There was a clap of smart heels on the pavement. I looked up to find Ms. Marshall hurrying away with her purse pressed against her chest. Her tiny legs clamped tightly in her pencil skirt. She shot me a short smile as she went past me.

‘’whoa…hot chick,’’

My head shot towards the voice had come from. There wasn’t anybody there. It was clear. Just a patch of grass and nothing. Nada.

I rubbed my head and swallowed. My lips moved, ‘’h-hello?’’ I was crazy, talking to nobody. My head was playing tricks with my head.

Was that a schizophrenic attack?

I licked my lips when there was no reply. It was quiet now. I turned away, twisting the thread coming off of my vintage tee.

My imagination was wild.

And then there it was again…

‘’you…you can hear me?’’

My head went numb. Blood rushed to my limbs. My brain whirred into action, taking a step back I gulped. I-I couldn’t be delusional, was I?

I tore down the street, racing as if a thousand dogs were after me. All I could hear was the voice…over and over again. My heart was pounding in my chest and my neck was prickly as if someone that I couldn’t see was watching me.

It could be a Ghost!

Oh my God!

I skidded as I approached the door and pounded my fists on it. My chest was vibrating painfully and I was panting. A turn in the head made me wildly look around for anybody…anysound.

The door opened.

‘’why are you knocking like a –‘’ Ian’s annoyed face vanished when he saw me, ‘’what are you-‘’

I pushed him aside, went in and closed the door firmly behind me.

‘’someone …I don’t know…there was a voice…I swear to God, there was nobody…’’ I closed my eyes as I rubbed my head, gulping in the air.

Ian turned serious, ‘’what are you talking about?’’

Taking a deep breath, I told him about the mysterious voice, the invisible person and the freak-out. When I finished however, Ian was looking at me with a dead pan expression.

‘’Amber Amber Amber’’ he took in a pensive breath, ‘’when are you going to realize that you’re living in the 21st century?’’

‘’huh?’’

‘’it’s a prank, stupid’’ he folded his arms, ‘’probably to freak out anybody who comes in the way. Get it?’’

‘’oh’’ I frowned, contemplating. Now he said it, it made a lot of sense. I started to feel uber stupid.

He folded his arms, turning away, ‘’God.’’ He muttered. ‘’you’re such a pansy.’’

Damn.

I hated those kids.

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Constructive critiscm would be appreciated!.:)

~snow.