Vision Quest

..a lil something old.. that i might have posted previously...

1: How to Deal

            He ran his fingers though his long black hair for the millionth time that morning.  Why did everything always fall apart all at once? He lit another cigarette, it was the last one in the pack, and it had been a brand new pack when he woke up. Not that he'd actually slept much last night. He knew that chain smoking and smoking in general was bad for him. But he was 17 and should have been carefree. It was a bad habit he couldn't help; he sat staring into space for a while.

            "Put it out!" He heard and glanced back even though he'd known who was yelling at him. It was his grandmother, and she seemed to be coping fine. His sisters both cried themselves to sleep last night. He just kept smoking, he'd gone through a half pack and hadn't gotten any sleep. "Are you deaf boy? I said put it out, now!" She yelled at him, she wasn't he realized. You could hear it in her voice, no matter how much she tried to hide it, she was miserable.

"I'm almost done," he replied.

            "Outside!" She yelled in response, not wanting to see her burst into tears, which he knew she would, he got up. He pulled open the sliding glass door and started down off the deck. He figured he'd go to the store and buy some more cigarettes, so that he could wallow in self pity.  The corner store was always open and the owner really didn't care how old he was if he had money.

"Spirit," he turned hearing his name. It was Stacie; he didn't really wanna talk to her but there was no way around it.

            "Hey Stace," he greeted holding the door open for her and as she gracefully glided in, he tried not to notice her blue jean miniskirt and tight white tube top.

"So how are things?" She asked him trying to avoid the real subject here.

"Don't worry 'bout that," he said as if reading her mind.

            "Oh Spirit," she said throwing her arms around his neck. He loved the feeling of her soft tan skin, it brought back memories, and this really wasn't the time for all this. He held her around the waist, like old times and she kissed his cheek.

            "It ain't that bad," he shrugged wanting to get away from her. It had taken forever to break up with her and he didn't wanna beak her heart again.

            "You're so brave, I'd just die if-"She stopped herself quickly, he knew he should've expected people to be like this. But then again only the predictable can be truly surprising, as the saying went. "I'm so sorry Spirit, I didn't mean-"

            "Shhh, look Stacie everything is fine with me I can deal, ya know? Don't be like that with me, ok?" She nodded slowly, there had to be something she could do.

            "How is it that you're always so void of emotion?" She asked; normal people or just non-Spirit people would at least be almost sad when a member of their family died.

            "It's a gift," he shrugged grabbing a bag of Cheetos and a Coke. She followed him to the counter and picked up a pack of gum while he got his cigarettes.

            "You wouldn't want me to have bad breath, would you?" She asked and he rolled his eyes knowingly.

            "Of course not," he said then he paid for his stuff and her gum. When they got outside he immediately lit up again.

"You know those things'll kill ya?" Stacie said and he shrugged.

"So what?" He asked as they start walking.

            "Nothing, never mind, you're impossible, so you walkin' me home?" She asked she knew him and how he was so she knew the answer.

            "Sure," he said, he felt bad. Once upon a time he'd had some kind of feelings for her, but now he didn't. He'd broken her heart and she'd hated him, gone through a depression period and was setting herself up for it all over again. Now a days Spirit hated 'once upon a times', he hated everything, but mostly he hated everything about his life past, present and future. What he wondered was why she was doing this and why his life sucked so badly. One thing he knew for sure was that no matter what he did, she'd end up getting hurt.

            "Em, are you up yet?" Her mother asked when she opened the door to her room. She laid still and didn't answer her mother, hoping she'd just leave. "Ok then, I'll go check on Ruby and the baby," she said waiting a moment before leaving, closing the door behind her.

            "Ruby," she said after a while sitting up. Finally she got out of bed and wiped her eyes. Ruby had to be worse off and their bother, he'd been there when it happened. She knew Spirit, he'd refuse to deal or he'd smoke himself to death or both. Looking in the mirror she realized how pale she'd become in just 24hrs and her black hair only seemed to make it worse and the fact that it was going everywhere. Her appearance was the least of her worries, but she did pull her hair into ponytail quickly. She pulled her door open and walked across the hall, the door to Ruby's room was half open, she went in. " Ruby?" She slowly approached the bed where her sister laid staring up at the ceiling, she was holding her sleeping baby.

"Emma, you know what's sad?" Ruby said without turning to her, she sat down on the bed.

"What?" She asked her grieving sister.

            "Mimi will never know him, we won't have other kids, we won't go away like we planned, and we won't get to move into our own place. We won't ever do anything ever again, there is no "we" anymore; it's just me and Mimi. Robbie's gone and he's never coming back, that's what's sad." She said with tears in her eyes.

            "There is a "we", we will help you, we will be there for you and we know that things'll get better someday. Me and Spirit are always here for you Ruby, you and Mimi." She tried to reassure her sister and hoped it would comfort her at least a little.

            "Spirit's probably out killing himself, he doesn't have time for us. I bet he's probably messin' around with some girl and is 'bout to break HER POOR LITTLE HEART. That's Spirit; he's self-centered and probably already has lung cancer for as much as he smokes. And because he's Spirit he doesn't care he's killing himself and the rest of us." Emma hadn't known her sister would be this spiteful. "Oh and he killed my husband," Ruby said finally turning to her.

            "Ruby you can't keep blaming Spirit, it wasn't his fault. Besides he's already in major guilt mode over it anyway." She had to defend him; it was just one of the things she had to do. Especially since every girl she knew had something bad to say about him.

"Well when Mimi grows up you and maybe Spirit can explain why she's father-less," Ruby said.

            "Do you always have to be such a drama queen? I mean yeah you lost Robbie, but did it ever occur to you that other people did too?" She was silent, so Emma went on. "And you call Spirit self-centered but honey all you think about is yourself and how you feel. Sorry Ruby but being a b***h isn't gonna bring Robbie back." Ruby was speechless, she couldn't believe Emma would say such awful things, especially now.

            "Get out Emma," was all she said. Emma listened and she went downstairs, she needed to be away from her sister.

            "Mom," she called looking around, it was silent, "Grandma?" There was no answered, she went into the kitchen; the sliding glass door was open. She stepped out onto the deck, no one was out there. She went back in and closed the door, and then she went to the drawer and pulled a few things out. After that she picked the lock on the liquor cabinet, which only had a lock on it because Spirit had a thing with drinking before too. There always seemed to be something with somebody when it came to her family. She grabbed a bottle and poured some of whatever it was into a glass. She never bothered to read the bottles, she felt that it was a waste of her time. When she finished she locked the cabinet back and went back upstairs. She pushed the door to her brother's room open; it was like walking into a cloud of smoke. It was so obvious that he'd been chain smoking, again. He wasn't there, which she knew when she'd come in. She picked up the phone and dialed his cell phone. "Where are you?" She asked when he picked up before he could say a word.

"I'm over Stacie's house," he said. "Why?"

            "I just wondered since you ain't here, but why are you with Stacie?" She asked, there was a noise coming from down the hall in Ruby's room and Mimi start crying. She went into Ruby's room, Mimi was on the bed, Ruby however wasn't around, and she picked up the baby.

"It ain't what you think, she wanted to cheer me up," he said.

            "Well we both know what you're idea of cheering up is, why do you wanna hurt her, again?" She asked, Mimi stopped crying and she saw that something was knocked over near the window. She went to the window and when she looked out she saw Ruby disappear around the side of the house.

"I'm not doing anything Emma," he said.

            "Yeah whatever, Spirit you gotta get home," she said laying Mimi back down then trying to find where on the roof Ruby was.

"Why? Did somethin' happen?"

"Ruby's gonna jump off the roof," she said as she headed up to the attic to find her. Today was just not a good day and it obviously wasn't going to get any better.

"On my way," he said.

            "Hurry," she said then hung up. She found Ruby outside of one of the windows, she'd climbed up higher. "Ruby," she called to her sister.

"Emma go way, Mimi needs you," she said turning to look at her little sister.

            "Mimi is your daughter she needs you." She said annoyed, of all the times for her sister's suicide attempts, this wasn't a good time for it. Several times before Ruby had tried to kill herself for attention or just depression or for whatever reason she saw fit to do it.  

            "I love you Emma and I love Mimi and even Spirit, make sure Mimi knows." She told her little sister, who she was leaving her daughter to. But Emma was very responsible for a 16 year old and she could handle Mimi. And there was Spirit, who was 17 and would be next to go. She peered over the edge, it was a long way down, and surely she'd die. Then she could be with Robbie, nothing else mattered if she could be with him.

            "Ruby, Robbie loves you and Mimi; I know he wants you to live. Mimi can't lose both of her parents, please Ruby! Do it for Robbie and Mimi!" She pleaded leaning out the window, hopefully Spirit would be back soon and he could help. Otherwise she was quite sure that Ruby would jump this time, because this wasn't like all the other times. This time Robbie died and he had been Ruby's only sanity. It had been only 2 days and already Ruby was breaking down, Emma wasn't sure she'd wanna see what Ruby would do if they kept her from jumping. She climbed out the window, "Ruby." she called.

            "Why are you out here? Emma get back in, you'll get hurt," she told her annoyingly persistent sister.

            "No, not unless you come with me," she said. Ruby was almost temped to go, but she needed to be with Robbie.

            "You're wrong, what you said, Robbie would want this. Me and him will be together and he loved you Em, he'd want you to have Mimi." She said she was worried that Emma might slip and as if on cue, she did. Quickly Ruby grabbed her so she wouldn't fall, then she pulled her back over to the window. "Emma you can't die, Mimi and Spirit need you here, so does mom and grandma," she said pushing her back inside.

            "Ruby please don't, think about it, please Ruby," Emma tried to get her last pleas in, but Ruby shook her head and closed the window. She then took a deep breathe and walked forward to the edge.

"I love you Robbie," she said and then she jumped...

 

Reviews

[Yann Eigen]

The blue is burning my eyes. D:

Aside from that, I liked it. You have a knack for characterization, and your dialogue shows it. My only complaint would be that there were some odd sentences here and there, and a couple of cliches.(But I'm towards them, so ignore me.)