Observe The Night

• Hannah Collins, Grade 11
• Short Story
• 2019

The first time was an excitement as it was happiness but the very last time I had ever felt emotion in my own life and all I could feel was sadness. My whole life was nothing but darkness and depression. I mean, my father went and ran-off when I turned 5 and my 26 year old sister was a nut-head who beat me every day when she was drunk or with a new lover. My mother tried her best to raise us and I made it easier for her. Since kindergarten, I’ve had no friends and no life. I’ve had no actual emotions and no parts of me that had feeling. You could kill me and I wouldn’t cry or show any sign of recognition. Amy and Jessie kept saying I should do something with my life but who’d care if I disappeared? No one would notice my disappearance at all and I’d feel no pity towards anyone for feeling that.
Then one day came Eustace. Holly and her friends were just calling me the usual names and knocking everything out of my locker, being daddy’s little girls when he came and roasted them while helping me with my stuff. I said he didn’t have to but he insisted on helping. After that he wouldn’t leave me alone, he just followed me around everywhere and talked to me about what I should look into. Despite having no interest, I kind of got used to having him around. Not just at school but outside of school, he took me to shopping malls, movies and parks. He never gave a care if people picked on us and in some way, I kind of like him. But then one day, something happened to me and him that changed me. He took me to a park and told me that he loved me because I was like no other girl he had known.
My heart had never beat that fast before and my face was hot. When he touched my face, he just looked deeper into my eyes and said I was an incredible woman and he was the only person who’d ever confessed to me. He was also flushed in the face but it didn’t stop him from taking my first and only kiss. When his cool lips touched mine, my heart was beating even faster and tears fell from my eyes for the first time. It was the first time ever that I’d a good and happy emotion. But it couldn’t last and it was very obvious by the way he had left me as fast as he had entered it. To make matters worse, it happened right in front of me. On the way home, when he was walking me home, I watched him die by a speeding car. He looked right at me and all I felt was shock. I was all alone again and I’ve been alone since. I miss him and no one’s ever changed me like he did.