short story

Suddenly a rush of desperation swept over her like a swift breeze. She needed to get out and fast, before she lost control of everything she had known, before her whole world came to a crashing halt.

“How the hell did I get to this stage?” she thought to herself. She shut her eyes as tight as she could, hoping for a miracle, hoping for time to change back, to rewind back to when she was only five years old. Back then she was an innocent child, no clue of the big bad world that lay ahead for her, waiting like a hungry creature for its prey to attack upon. Back to when she was five and the safest place she knew was in her mother’s lap where she would be protected from all forever. But then “BANG” no more being five and no more protection in her mother’s lap, she had to grow up, alone.

Kate opened her eyes very slowly hoping maybe her miracle had come true. She looked around but she was not in her family home, the safest place she once knew instead she was out on the street where she had been before, standing alone under the dim of the street light. She heard a shuffle to her right and glanced over, a harmless drunk was attempting to stumble on by without a bother in the world. She turned her back from the vibration of the music from the party and walked on down the street. As she got to the bottom she slowly turned, not too sure why, maybe she hoped someone had followed her maybe she hoped that they had come running out sorry for everything, doing anything to keep their friendship going but as she gazed back up the street all she could see was that street light weakly shining down at her giving her the answer that she searched for, no one was going to come.

She had no idea where she was headed, she didn’t know this town very clearly plus it was nighttime but she kept on walking with millions of thoughts racing through her mind. “How could they do that? How could SHE do that to me? I thought we were friends, last I heard that is defiantly not what friends do. No no stop thinking about it” she thought to herself “think of anything but it” but as hard as she tried the images kept coming back into her mind as clear as the night sky. “NO” she told herself “umm birds and rainbows and I wonder if anyone is home, where the hell am I? …She looked right into my eyes she had seen me so clearly, so why the hell hadn’t she come after me?” A car tooted its horn at her bringing her back to earth. Kate looked up, some how she was at a set of traffic lights; the green man clicked on telling her it was safe to cross now, so she did, with no idea where she actually was. Suddenly she felt sick, her stomach was tying knots throughout her body, she couldn’t stand and her legs unexpectedly gave way as she toppled over, half landing on a wall half on the hard cold cement. A hot rush of pain creped into her arm and leg but she ignored it. As Kate tried to stand she felt her stomach give way and threw up all over someone’s front wall.

After what seemed like hours Kate was able to stand up again. She checked her phone, which flashed 12:45 at her with no new messages and no missed calls. She headed down the street pausing for a minute “was this the street I just walked down?” she thought to herself. “No no it was that other one” as she continued walking. She felt queasy again but this time she didn’t throw up. She felt like a natural disaster had swept threw her life destroying everything in her way, like an unwanted guest. She thought about Rachel, she had to sooner or later, she’d prefer later but she still couldn’t get her image out of her mind. She was the one that had begged me to come out tonight “Come on Kate” she had pleaded “I’ll know hardly anyone there!” so Kate had agreed to go but as usual Rachel knew everyone at the party. She also knew that Kate’s boyfriend Aaron whom she was on a break with at the moment was going to be there, but somehow had forgotten to mention that to Kate, all this she discovered on her own when they arrived there and Rachel disappeared straight away. Kate had grown bored of the party, it wasn’t her scene, and the music was bad rap music that only a few people were attempting to dance to and failing miserably plus she wasn’t in the mood for drinking, she still had a sore head from going out the night before. Therefore she decided to find Rachel as soon as possible and head on home. That’s when her world fell apart, that’s when she saw before her eyes her best friend in bed with her boyfriend. Sure they were on a break but she was supposed to be her best friend! That was when those striking blue eyes looked up at her with nothing behind them, it was then that Kate decided Rachel was soulless; she didn’t care about anyone but herself. Aaron lay drunkenly sprawled out under Rachel with no clue of what was going on, typical Kate had thought.

As Kate kept walking she noticed a train station ahead of her in the distance so she quickened her pace and headed for it. As she got there the sign read “Summer Hill”, “where the hell is Summer Hill?” she thought. She walked over to the timetable across from here; the next train wasn’t until 6am. And she didn’t have enough money for a taxi. All of a sudden she remembered the conversation she had had with her Dad the other morning. They were having a fight, she couldn’t remember what about exactly something about how he was never home and they were running out of food, which one of them was going to do the shopping, nothing drastic. At the end he had apologized but being as stubborn as she was she didn’t give in. When she was leaving the house with Rachel she noticed he had left some money for her but she just walked out, still not wanting to give in. “I should have taken that money’ she said. All she could do was wait so she sat down.

She thought about Rachel again. She had always told her that she was here for her and she loved her and cared. But then she had turned her back. She had only said those things to make herself feel better, so she would gain more sleep at night believing that she had honestly been a true friend but all she had really done was create more worry. As Kate thought more and more about it she had most likely been the worst friend. Where had she been when her mum got cancer or where had she been when Kate was fighting with her Dad? All the times Kate had needed her most she wasn’t there.