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Em’s POV
It’s raining. Is it weird to like the rain? To me, it feels like a second chance. Like the world is washing itself clean. That’s what I needed, a second chance...a chance at the life I could never have.
I sighed and looked around the small, single floor apartment I shared with my best friend Tony. I loved that girl as the sister I never had, but she could be a mess sometimes. And then other times she could be freakishly neat. It was hard to tell with her.
I walked over to a stack of bills sitting on the table. It wasn’t right for a 17-year-old to have to pay rent. Or even a 19-year-old like Tony.
Stop pitying yourself. I hated people who wallowed in self pity. I was not going to become one. I’ll blame it on the rain. It’s depressing me.
“Hola, my lovely chica.” Tony said, walking through the door and pulling off her rain coat. “How are things in the world of those still condemned to high school?”
I laughed. Tony could always cheer me up. “Not terrible. I have a french test tomorrow though.”
Tony made a face. “That’s what you get for taking french. I told you to take spanish.” She said, shaking water out off her hair
“Ya well, I’ll live. The rent came, by the way.” I said, walking over to the fridge to see what we had to cook with. Nothing, it seemed, except some lettuce that had taken on a life of it’s own. “And we need more food.” I picked up the slimy looking lettuce and carried it gingerly over to the trash can.
“Well it’s a good thing it’s pay day tomorrow.” Tony said sighing as she searched through her pockets. “I seem to be low on cash.” Tony worked at the local record store. It didn’t pay much, but enough to get by.
“We can get pizza tonight, that only cost like five bucks.” I said, grabbing the phone to order food.
You might wonder what two teenagers are doing living by themselves in the middle of New Jersey. The answer is simple. We’re escaping. Or more accurately, I’m escaping, and Tony’s watching out for me.
My family life at home was messed up. It was me, brother and my mother.No idea about dad, never met the guy. My brother was into some pretty crazy trash, though. And my mom wasn’t ever home, so she didn’t see it. Hell, she didn’t see anything but the inside of her cubical.
When my brother started to beat me up, I’d had enough. Tony and I packed our stuff and moved in here. She was getting away from her life too, though she was close with her dad. He visited us every weekend. Basically, we both need to start over, to have a chance to live the lives we wanted. So we depended on each other and that was it. I’d been going to this new school for two months now, and I had no friends. I didn’t trust easily.
“Hey, come on Em, your scaring the pizza guy.” Tony said, making me jump. I’d been spacing out, not realizing that the phone had picked up. I quickly ordered the pizza, then hung up. I hated talking on the phone. Actually, I hated talking to strangers at all. It creeped me out. Maybe I need social help.
“Go study.” Tony said, trying to be helpful. I just laughed.
“Ya, right. You’ve never studied a day in your life.” I said, putting the phone back.
“I guess you got me there.” I smiled and flopped down on the couch. As bad as things could be, we actually had it good. We got along, and we got to make our own choices. We were each others family, and that’s all we needed. Or so we thought.
