Chapter One

It always started the same; I couldn’t run fast enough. My bare feet ached, my lungs on fire, my head pounding. Every breath felt like I had swallowed a million razors. The wooden arms grabbed at my hair and tattered white dress, tickling me with their tiny green fingers. I could feel my legs giving out for just a second, before my brain gave out the orders to keep going. I glanced behind me seeing just a shadowed figure, the weak moonlight concealing their identity. Suddenly, I was blinded by a white light and blindly tripped forward until I felt coolness on the bottom of my soles. Breathing hard I stood in a long hallway lit with fluorescent lights that momentarily blinded me. I raised my hand to cast a shadow over my eyes to discover a hospital band on my wrist. My legs began to move on their own as if they knew where to go and I let them. Panic began to overwhelm me. Clinging onto my paper thin hospital gown I broke out into a sprint. I ran past open doors upon open doors that looked like they led to nowhere, until finally I came to a screeching halt in front a single closed one. Breathing hard I reached for the nob but came short when I heard sobbing. Suddenly the door swung open and I stood in front of my own sister. Her dyed red hair pulled back into a ponytail and her eyes puffy and red while her nose dripped. She brushed right past me, as if I wasn’t standing right there. I watched her disappear around a corner and returned my attention back to the door left ajar. Resting my fingertips on the door I put slight pressure onto them to see a body lying in the hospital bed.  With the door open I could hear the heart monitor flat lining. Finally I stepped into the room and nearly jumped out of my skin. The body on the bed no longer looked like a person. Their skin was a pale gray and their cheeks sunken in as if they hadn’t eaten a proper meal in months. When I approached the bed my breath caught in my throat. There I was flat lining on a hospital bed.

 

I woke up with my heart hammering in my chest. I blinked a couple of times before pushing myself into a sitting position. Taking a deep breath I let my eyes drink in my surroundings. With just a sliver of light peeking from my curtains I could make out all my boxes I never got around to unpacking. Shifting in bed I let my legs hang off the side of my bed before letting my painted toenails touch the ugly red carpet. Just as I stood my door swung open, to reveal my sister standing in the doorway.

“Oh! Good you awake.” She said to me while crossing my room to yank open the curtains. I shielded my eyes with my hand and glanced at my wall clock that read 7:30 AM. I let my hand drop to my side and groaned.

“It’s not going to be that bad. You’ll live.” She said to me patting my shoulder as she stepped around me to exit my room. Reaching behind her she grabbed the door knob and said “If you don’t dress yourself I’ll do it. Then I’ll drag you all the way to your school and embarrass you in front of everyone,”  She looked over her shoulder just long enough to smile at me before closing the door leaving me once again alone. I picked up a pair of jeans from the floor and shimmed into them before throwing on a shirt from a pile on clothes that rested on what was supposed to be a desk top without a computer.  The scent of bacon tickled my nose causing me to put on my shoes in record time before bee lining to the kitchen where my sister stood with a pan in one hand and a fork pushing pieces of bacon onto two different plates in another. I dropped myself in a chair and looked up at my sister. She looked just like our mother. The same strong jaw line and the same crystal blue eyes. Her skin a golden tan and her right nostril pierced with a silver hoop. I closed my eyes and remembered the night my mother decided to leave, the way I stared at my sister feeling sick to my stomach because I was staring at the spitting image of the woman who decided she no longer loved us. I remembered coming home from school three days later to find my sister standing in the bathroom with scissors in one hand and her jet black hair in another.

“Here,” She handed me a red bottle “Help me dye it.”

I opened my eyes to see her black roots showing. Catching me staring she said “I need to re dye it, I know.” She turned to set the pan back onto the stove before dropping into the chair across from me. I took a bite of my bacon and watched my sister watch me.

“You better go to school today.” She said to me crossing her arms. “I know you’ve been waiting for me to leave for work and coming back home. Your school called.”

I sighed and leaned back into my chair. “I don’t want to go.”

“No s**t. You think I want to go to my s****y job as a s****y waitress with a s****y boss and s****y customers? Well, the answer is no. But mom split and it’s up to me to provide for you and it’s on you to get an education so you’re not stuck as a waitress like me.” Pushing her plate aside she leaned forward onto the table “You have a choice. I didn’t. Don’t just throw it all away. I moved us here into this new town so we can have a fresh start. So no one would look at us as ‘Ivory’s daughters’. They’ll look at us as Sapphire and Harley.” Sapphire slammed her hand down onto the table. “Look at me d****t! I’m serious. I left everything for you, Harley!”

I narrowed my eyes and starred at my sister. “Yea, you left everything me. Your boyfriend, your job, your friends, all for me, right?” I scoffed “No, you did it to run from your problems. Just like mom! I guess you have more in common than just your looks.” Grabbing my keys and book bag I stormed out of the house, slamming the door behind me. I walked down to the end of the block before turning around to see my sister out on our porch with her arms crossed, watching me.

Well, looks like I’m going to school.