Tayla

Chapter 3: Tayla

 

Five years.

That's how long it's been since my first drink.

It's hard to believe that I was only 12, but my life spiraled downwards before then. My parents? Divorced. My school? Which one? I've been kicked out every other month for as long as I can remember. Either that, or my mother made us move. I grew up as an only child for most of my life. Then my mom got knocked up. I was about ten. She cleaned up a little for the kid, but as soon as she was born, Louise went back to her party ways. Louise. My mother's name. I can't consider her a mother. How she got parental rights, I'll never know. She's obviously such a great mother.

At twelve, I found her stash. I thought it was gross. Tasted nasty. But the warmth. The liquor felt good working its way to my stomach. I wasn't too much of a drinker until I was fourteen. Eighth grade. It might have been young, but it was a nice escape. I did my local communities theater production that summer. I met older kids. We partied. It was a dream come true for an eighth grader.

Then Louise made me move. I started freshman year at a new school. A new town. A new boyfriend for her. I became an outcast. An outcast with a lot of money. Half of the kids in the school knew me. That half, I supplied everything to them. For a couple months at least. Louise didn't care what I did, when I came home, so I went out. I had two friends. Spent every day with them. I can't remember being sober. We'd raid our parents alcohol cabinets and met up at an old fort in the woods.

I think my life there was my favorite. Me, Natasha, and Corinne would spend every minute together. We stumbled upon this fort while we were trashed and claimed it ours. Everyday, at sunset, we'd meet up with everything we found. Southern Comfort, Jack Daniels, the works. We'd set up camp at our wooden casa and get trashed. I've lost weeks from being so messed up. Then we discovered weed. About a week into the school year. Cori's brother came home stoned one night, she told me, he showed her. She told us about joints and blunts and roaches. How weed came from the earth and made you feel high. So she stole three joints her brother prerolled.

It was heaven.

I cut off liquor. For a while. Learned the ins and outs of Mary Jane. She became my escape. My friend. My enemy. Cori, Tasha, and I all sold. When we weren't selling, we were smoking. It was great.

And then we moved again.

I still stay in touch with Cori and Tasha. Mostly Cori. Tasha's been in and out of rehab. A place my mother wanted to send me. We used to fight about it. Then I told her she needed sex rehab. That was the end of that discussion. Never to be brought up again.

* * *

I think the longest I’ve stayed in one place was about five months. And that was right before we moved to our latest town. Louise has some weird disease. She was prescribed my best friend. Louise never smoked it.

She got some wicked good stuff.

Her new boyfriend? He's a bartender. His goods are always in the house.

Needless to say, that's how I showed up. First day. New school. Totally and completely trashed from the night before. I found a nice quiet place away from people, and smoked a joint. One drag. The hangover disappeared. Another drag. Pure ecstasy.

And then he showed up.

Have I mentioned I hate high school. All b*****s and dicks attend it. The popular girls don't know whether to shut their mouths or their legs. The guys can't keep their dicks out of anything. He was probably the same way. I asked him if he wanted a hit. He said he just usually stood here.

Being high makes the day go faster, I think. Before I knew it, it was the last class. The bell rang as I walked in. The teacher was writing words on the board. As messed up as I can be, English has been a subject I excelled in. It's my junior year and I was placed in a twelfth grade honors class.

As I scanned the room for an empty seat, I saw the teacher nod at me. There were two open. By the snotty, preppy, no good popular crowd, or by the boy who spot I apparently took this morning?

The boy it is.

Reviews

[Gunslingerg000]

im interested to see more about whats going to happen with the boy and girl. The back history did help but seemed super rushed with a pretty dark understanding for someone so young but i def think that some amazing or crazy things can happen to people in these times. You also lead on that the main character isnt straight delinquent giving her credit to some of the opinions she has. Though the character seems largely biased but i expect that to be your tool for causing conflict which in turn i would see as conflicts alter the person from one view to another. where you take that view a she journeys and navigates these conditions i would very much like to see. Set more flesh to the bones to give me an idea of where this is happening instead of stoic scenes i have to implement random places i have been.