Chapter 1
Kinsley
“No Dad, I haven’t seen your keys,” I call as I run around my room, trying to find my perfect blue and white floral top to wear with my favorite low-rise jeans with the cute white design on the bottom hem.
“Did you check on the floor, beside the table where you usually put them?”
I am in the middle of trying to get dressed and ready, because my boyfriend Cole is on the way to pick me up for a date. I have been dating Cole for almost two years, and he would never pick me up. I always had to be the one to drive. He is a few months younger than me, but he always seemed too busy to want to get his license and a car. When he finally did, he wouldn’t settle on just any car. It had to be the car. He told me 100 times that this was his dream car and all I knew about it was that it was a Corvette. Cole is 6ft, he has light brown hair, an almost dirty blonde cut in a crew cut with gray eyes. He is handsome but his personality was not always pleasant.
I am still running around my room, trying to move from straightening my sandy blonde hair to putting on my mascara, when I hear a honk outside. I rolled my eyes because I hate that he just honks instead of coming inside and waiting for me. I began to do everything a little slower now, annoyed that he thought he could just honk at me and I would obey.
The truth is that I wasn’t very happy. He was not the best boyfriend, but he had some sort of power over me. I turn 18 in a few weeks and I have been dating him since I was 16. He would very often bring me down so that he was all I would depend on. When he brought me low he would bring me up again, but he would often remind me that the only reason I had anything was because of him. That no one else would’ve wanted me. Most of the time I believed him. Whatever spark or fire I had had had been almost completely diminished because of him. The worst part was that I didn’t even know it.
It was only in little moments like this, that I could see my fire, and he wasn’t around me to snuff it out. My phone started to buzz on the table. I glanced over and saw it was him.
Cole: Are you coming?
Kinsley: I’m almost ready. Just give me a minute
Cole: I don’t have a minute, Hurry up, or I’m leaving you here
Kinsley: If it’s a date why would you leave me? Where are we going?
Cole: Just hurry up!
I roll my eyes again and look at myself one last time in the mirror. I grin to myself. It’s one of those rare moments that I actually feel pretty. I have long sandy blonde hair and dark brown eyes. I am about 5’8”. An average height, but I have curves to make up for it. Right now those curves look good. I grabbed my purse from my closet door knob and pulled out my favorite lip gloss. After I applied it I smacked my lips together, smiled again in the mirror while giving myself a wink, and then ran out my bedroom door. I skipped down the stairs two by two and when I got to the kitchen I saw my Dad loading up his laptop, keys in hand.
“Going to work today?”
“Yes, my boss needs me today. Where are you off to?” he asked with his eyebrows raised. My dad works for a prominent company in Orion, the next town over. He works in finance for a company called RIGAL. That's all I really know, I don’t think he likes to talk about work that much, and I never cared enough to ask.
“Going out with Cole. He has a date plan, and he is picking me up. I’ll probably be late,” I say as I grab a water bottle from the fridge.
“Ok just let me know when you think you will be home, I'm certain I will be home late,” He shrugged.
I was adopted at a young age and never knew my birth parents. We lost my mom a couple of years ago. He said she was in the woods and some wolves attacked her. It made me a little more cautious about going into the woods. The town of Adam had so many woods around us, so I just stuck around the non-woods parts. Now, my Dad finds his comfort in work. It isn’t so bad, he lets me come and go, and provides what I need
“Ok, Dad, see you later,” I say as I make my way out of the back door. I can’t wait to see Cole’s reaction to my outfit.
Cole is sitting in his car and I come up to it. He is on his phone and doesn’t bother to look up. I stand for a few moments waiting for him to notice me. I shift to make him notice me out of his peripheral vision. He looks up and narrows his eyes at me, he takes a moment an
d then gives
me a well, get in look.
I am deflated. I slump my shoulders and open the door to lower myself in, and I try to bring myself to smile.
“Finally,” he says as he puts his parked car into reverse.
I slump a little more in my seat. I thought he would have noticed how hard I tried to impress him today. Sometimes I wouldn’t do much, and he would complain, now that I made a conscious effort, it still went unnoticed.
“Well, what do you think?” I ask him as I turn in my seat to face him.
“About you being late?”
“Ummm no,” I say. I hate fishing for compliments. . I swipe my hand over myself to indicate how I look.
“You look fine.” He said unimpressed and annoyed.
Well, that’s about right. It was absolutely the best I was going to get, but it stung a lot. I didn’t come to expect kind words from him but when I did, and I was denied them, that hurt worse. I feel pressure in my chest as I try hard to swallow back his harsh words. Not only that, but I am not going to let my 45 minutes of makeup go to waste, even though I can feel the tears pricking at the sides of my eyes threatening to fall. I swallowed again as I felt a lump growing in my throat.
“So…. where are we going for our date?” I ask, trying to be positive.
“Where do you think?” He responded more annoyed at my ridiculous question. I look around for any clues, and then I see them. His pool cues case. I know what that meant.
“The pool hall?” I ask, completely upset now.
“Yes, you know I have a tournament today. The reward is $1,000. I win, then you get your date.”
“Won’t it take all day?” I ask.
“Yeah, probably.” He said as he dismissed me. Just for good measure he turns up his music. He turns it up so loud I can't even hear myself think. I tried to turn it down, but he only moves my hand away and turns it up louder if it is possible. I look out the window and try to plug my ears with my hands. My whole body is rumbling around inside me. I hate being here with him.
These are the moments when I wish I could be a little bird and fly far away. All I would hear was the wind in the air or if I could perch high in a tree, I could listen to the soft sounds of the forest. The crackling of the leaves and faraway bird calls. I really loved being in nature, and since I had to start avoiding going to the forest, I suddenly felt at that moment that that’s the only place I wanted to be. Even at that moment, I would risk a wolf attack, anywhere but being stuck in that car with him. Any sounds at that point I would’ve preferred hearing other than the rolling sounds of whatever hard rock song was ringing in my ears.
It would be around 30 minutes that I would have to endure this torture, and then I would be stuck at the pool hall until he decided to take me home. My whole afternoon and evening were wasted. There was no way we would be done before time to grab a bite to eat and then get home.
I started to think back on getting ready in my room and how meticulous I had been picking out my clothes and doing my hair and makeup only to have it go to waste and go home smelling like an old ashtray. I can’t help but roll my eyes again
It was times like these that I often thought to myself perhaps being alone would be better than being with someone who kept bringing me down. I would mull over these thoughts in my head, but in the end, I never wanted to go through with it. I didn’t really want to be alone.
Perhaps I am just being overly dramatic like Cole often says. I wouldn't really be surprised if that was the case. I can sometimes be dramatic.
We’re coming close to the pool hall and I know that I would have to put on a happy face when going in to see his friends. I didn’t want to ruin a perfectly good afternoon, even if it felt perfectly ruined already.
