Harsh Realities

I grew up reading. I read books of fantasy worlds, with wizards and princes. I read romance books with the perfect guy at the wrong time, and the bad boy we all wished would change just for us. While reading is a favorite pastime and escapes from our cruel reality, it infects our minds with unrealistic ideals of romance, friendship, and family ties. At a young age, I found myself very much infected by these unrealistic ideas and had dreams of the worlds I read about becoming a reality. But now I know the truth. Now I know what fools we are to believe in the facade of literature. It is my 18th birthday and I am finished with false hopes and untrue realities.

My name is Nora, my mom named me after her favorite book Hush Hush. She was who kick-started my love for books and built up the false world around me as I foolishly kept my nose in a book. My mom like me had dreamed of worlds and worldly love that would stretch on for eternity no matter what hardships are thrown their way. My father on the other hand, was not one for dreams and was certainly o prince charming to me or my mother.

He was abusive and a dark man. More of a villain per-say, and certainly not the man my mom gushes about as we cower away in the coat closet when he comes home wasted and out for blood. She says he will change, that he will change for us and right his wrongs but my mother is stuck in her own untrue reality that she built for herself while she hides from the truth staring her right in the eyes.

Today is the day I finally break away from the hell of a reality I live in. And my reality is sadly one that cannot be hidden by magic spells nor am I able to be rescued by a noble prince. There is nobody in this world you can rely on but yourself and I am going to get myself out of here.

I groaned as the light seeped through the blinds and shined directly on my eyes practically forcing them to open wide. I hopped out of bed and dragged myself to the bathroom to take a shower. As soon as the warm water hit my back I instantly relaxed a sigh leaving my lips. I got out wrung out my hair and began to mentally prepare myself for the journey I faced ahead.

My plan was simply to go to school and drag out my last day of high school in this town, and split. I would never have to see my hair-brained mother or abusive father ever again. As I pulled up to the secondary hell in my life my stomach flipped, I never liked the place but I’ve gone to school in this town and grew up with these people for the majority of my life and it still causes an ache in my chest no matter how much I need this change.

I walked into the bleach white hallway and almost flinched as the harshness of the lights struck me, I barely had time to recognize what was happening before my best friend Sarah launched her arms around me shouting something about her missing me and a boy she ran into in the hallway. I laughed and hugged her back

“Nora!! I missed you!” She exclaimed. Almost choking the life out of me.

“I missed you too” I choked out, “It’s only been one day.”

“I know,” she said coolly. “But what kind of best friend am I if I don’t greet you with a hug whenever I see you” she laughed.

I would miss her. She's the only one in this town that took the time to figure me out and befriend me. For that I will be eternally grateful but this is something I have to do, and I will not be convinced otherwise. I had gotten too lost in thought as Sarah dragged me to our creative writing class, and ran into something hard. I ricocheted back and fell to the ground. I rubbed my forehead trying to regain my composure as I looked up to see what I had run into.

I looked up and locked eyes with a pair of chocolate brown eyes. They weren’t your typical run of the mill brown eyes though. They were different, like if you stared long enough you would see the secrets of the beholder. They had specs of blue, and green in them and had a golden tint to them. It felt as if I could stare into those eyes for hours on end.

“Watch where you’re going next time” A deep-voiced snarled.

She snapped out of the hold the man's eyes had trapped her in, allowing her to take in the rest of the features that made up his face. He had dark curly hair and perfectly toned skin. He was the epitome of Nora's "Dream-man". He looked down at her on the floor with a look of rage, stepped over her papers strewn all over the floor and continued on his way down the hall.

Sarah ran up to me with a look of concern but as soon as she saw that I was okay she squealed.

"He was so HOT" She exclaimed while fanning her face pretending his hotness had actually changed the temperature of the room.

"He wasn't that hot," I said matter of factly. She started laughing at my terrible attempt at lying and picked up my notes from the floor.

"Come on let's go, Mr.B will kill us if we're late again" She called, ushering out of the small crowd that had formed around us. We walked into the classroom, and everyone had already been seated so naturally, they all turned to look at the newcomers. One face stuck out to me though. The boy from the hallway, his eyes boring into the side of my head with dark intent.

I turned to look at him and our eyes connected. He visibly stiffened in his seat and his eyes darkened by at least two-fold. I sent him a confused look. But had no time to see his reaction because of a slamming sound coming from the front of the class. Mr.B had slammed his coffee cup down and was glaring at me and Sarah. We rushed to our seats and sat down as he began his lesson.

----------

a/n: this is my first time writing something like this, leave me feedback<3