Saving Caroline Reyes

This is based off of Everyday by David Levithan, where the main character wakes up each day as a different person. I performed this at my school as a monologue.

Today, I was a girl named Caroline. Caroline Reyes. She doesn't have a mother or any siblings. The only thing she has is a horrible father. He ignores her almost all the time, and when he's not, well, that's when things get ugly. I could feel it as soon as I woke up as her. I felt like there were weights in my bones. Getting out of bed was extremely difficult: all I wanted to do was sink into it forever... 

I tapped into her memories. This girl's memories taught me that life can really, really hurt. She is in so much pain. I could feel it too. I didn't just feel empty. I felt hollow. I got up to take a shower and all I could hear was her depression telling me that I shouldn't be happy, that I couldn't be happy, that I didn't deserve to be happy. 

After the shower, I changed into some black sweats and walked around her room. A fancy notebook on her desk caught my eye. I opened it to a random page and I saw a date. October 5th, 2017. When I first saw it, I didn't make anything of it. So I flipped through the pages and read some more. 

The things I saw and read were horrifying. 

Today, I lived what it was like to be Caroline Reyes. Struggling to get out of bed, the negative thoughts flooding her brain in the shower, the kids at school calling her a delusional freak, and coming home just for her father to abuse her. Except today it wasn't her. It was me. 

I felt this feeling creeping and crawling from within me. That's when I thought of the date I saw in her notebook. That's when I noticed that today is October 4th and that tomorrow is October 5th and that tomorrow is the day she plans on checking out. I tried to get her dad to realize her feelings, where her mind has gone, and has been going. He wouldn't listen to her. He wouldn't listen to me. 

Is it even my right? I tamper with peoples lives by simply waking up as a different person everyday. Who said I could? Who gave me permission to alter their lives? Especially when I know now what it's like to be Caroline Reyes. I don't necessarily blame her for wanting to die. Still, even though I won't be here tomorrow, I can't help but feel like tomorrow will be better.

At 11:59pm, with only a minute until I would be another person, I called the suicide hotline and explained Caroline's situation. 

I can't help but feel like she has to keep living. 

Will you at least do that much for me Caroline?

Will you at least give life another chance?

Reviews

[Ofie]

This is quite interesting! I want to read more, haha. I feel like the speaker is actually the girl, but as a means to give importance she distances herself. Maybe someone would listen to her story if it came from someone else. I also think this split personality could be a coping mechanism.
I think this would be a good piece to expand!

[Kayla Amaro]

Thanks for the review! It's interesting that you suggest expanding: I actually wrote this as a monologue to perform in my theater class and they told me that I should expand xD I'm not quite sure how I would go about doing that though...

[Ofie]

I think it would make a great short story! You could expand the conversation with the suicide hotline, being at school, and interacting with her father. I would love to see a paragraph dedicated to these topics. Maybe create the diary entry she reads, or some of her memories as well.
:) it's good as a monologue though too.

[Tony Jordan]

Literally walking in someone else's shoes - or figuratively? The blurred lines makes the reader wonder...
Creative piece - empathetic
:)

[Noir Crescent]

I hope Caroline makes a decision that'll favor both sides.
I enjoy the way you wrote the story from a third person perspective, but I have my suspicion that the speaker is Caroline herself.

[Kayla Amaro]

The identity of the speaker is up for interpretation ;)

[Kelsea Dove]

I think this was a really nice piece. Nice writing!