• ~Leigh~
    1




    “So everyone, one week from today will be the launch of the newest Harry Potter film; Harry Potter and the order of the phoenix. The premier will be next Monday in the great Theatre of London, so buy your tickets before they run out.
    Actors such as Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson will also be attending the premier next Monday, so get your pen and paper out, because here comes the details for this weeks Competition. Winners will attend the premier and get to meet the actors…”

    I rolled my eyes back; I was so sick and tired of hearing about how great Emma Watson was, or about how much success she has had in life, I bet, if we took all of her preppy clothes away and stole her makeup she would be just like the rest of us. I was just so tired of all these movie stars, it’s just another way to bore our minds and steal our souls.
    “Stupid…TV...To loud…” Slurred my older brother, Joe, half asleep on the sofa.
    The ticking of the clock made me feel ever so slightly agitated. “5pm, great,” sardonically I grumbled getting off the couch and proceeded to turn off the TV, but was interrupted by my mother.
    “If you’re going out, take your keys,” She scolded, and handed me my keys and my feathery black jacket. Glancing at me she sighed deeply, “I don’t—”
    “I know you don’t like Vincent mum…but I do, he’s never done anything to hurt me and he nev—”
    “But Leigh honey…he isn’t a good influence on you…you’ve missed numerous college classes this month…and his mother…she isn’t the nicest of people, and he’s bound to pick up something from her…”
    Trying to sympathise with me, she ran her hand down my long silky black hair. Intensely looking into her cobalt tinted eyes; I groaned angrily “He isn’t like his mother!”
    As if I had had this argument many times before, I swiftly swiped my keys and slammed the door shut behind me.


    I walked down the long narrow pathway, and looked at all the houses at either sides of me, nothing was different though; Mrs Jackson still had her bright crimson curtains up in her kitchen, Mr Cain still hadn’t finished replanting the daffodils bulls in his front garden, which he was supposed to have done 4 months ago, Mr and Mrs Lee’s dog still jumped up and down at the letterbox, even though no one was there and Ms Kin still had her thousands of cats wondering around her front garden. Nothing ever seemed to change. This evening however, was much colder than usual.
    “Guess who?” Whispered a delicate male voice, as he put his hands over my eyes.
    “I don’t know…the boogie man?” I laughed and put my hands over his.
    “ Try again,” He said, as I felt his body move much closer to mine.
    “Umm… Santa Claus? The Easter Bunny?” I giggled, “How about the tooth fairy?”
    He slowly removed his hands from my eyes and slid them all the way down to my waist where he began to very lightly, rock be from side to side.
    “The Tooth Fairy? Really? Do I look like a Fairy to you?” he laughed so gracefully that at first, I didn’t want to reply to his comment; I simply wanted to savour the softness in his voice, “Leigh?” he asked.
    I still kept my eyes closed, “ I know who you are,” my eyes burst open and I turned to face the guy that had stolen my heart, and given me his in return.
    Before me stood an angel, the most beautiful human being I had ever seen, that sometimes, I wondered to myself, how can a human be this graceful and elegant. He stood before me like always; of course over the years, he had grown much taller than me, and now reached an immense 6’2, and compared to my petite 5’6, he seemed like a giant. Long strands of brown and blond hair floated stylishly down to his chin, yet at the back, it remained untamed and messy. Thick pink lips, which had adopted the pouting manner, slowly kissed my head tenderly, and as he did, a powerful smell of vanilla and jasmine, that I longed for so much, overtook all my other senses and left me momentarily disorientated. A smile spread across his face as he pulled away.
    “So, guess who?” He repeated.
    I smiled back at him and gazed right into his profound grey eyes.
    “Come on, you don’t remember me?” He whispered playfully as he wrapped his arms around my waist, and drew me in closer to him.
    “What? Have you forgotten who you are again?” I laughed, still slightly bewildered.
    “Come on…don’t you remember me?” he repeated as he playfully picked me up.
    Giggling rather loudly, I made quite a few people give us both some weird looks, but I didn’t care. “Oh I remember you, you’re that crazy guy from school that had a nervous break down and managed to get stuck in the air vent system!”
    “He—hey! Now that’s not fair!” He began to spin me around, “You’re gonna get it! This ain’t over until the fat lady sings!”
    “VINCENT!!!!! PUT THAT GIRL DOWN!!!!” Shouted a robust woman from across the street, which I guessed, could only be his mother.
    “I guess the fat lady has sung…” He muttered has he put me down ever so delicately.
    From across the street, I saw his mum run towards us with about 3 shopping bags in her left hand, and 2 others in her right hand. Traipsing not far behind her, was Jake, Vincent’s younger brother, who I went to school with. Like always, he didn’t look very amused.
    “Ah Shi—” Vincent began, but his mother smacked him around the back of the head.
    “What have I told you about hanging around with people like her!” she screeched and proceeded to give me a nasty look.
    Growling viciously, he argued, “Mum, I don’t care, I’m 19 years old, I get to do what I want, when I want, with who I want!”
    Even in the heat of an argument, I couldn’t stop looking at him; his brown and blond shoulder length hair, moved slightly in the breeze as the wind became more intense. His face structure just reminded me of his father, Kai, who had unfortunately died 2 years earlier in a terrible car accident.
    Jake suddenly looked at me; his shadowy blue eyes fiercely fixated on me as if I had committed some sort of a crime, then again, when ever Jake saw me with his brother, he would always give me the same ‘I-can’t-believe-you-chose-him-over-me’ look, which I must say did work at first.
    Losing her temper, his mother reached out to him and grabbed his arm, “I don’t care how old you are, you are MY son and I tell you what you do and who with!” She looked at Jake and also grabbed his arm “Come on, we’re going home!”
    Dragging Jake and Vincent away from me, I found myself standing in a crowd of unfamiliar people. Vincent leaned forward to grab my arm, but he just didn’t reach, and within seconds, him nor his brother were visible to me anymore.
    “Vincent…” Sadly I turned in the opposite direction and gradually began to walk home, slowly but surely, losing myself in the crowd of unknown strangers.


    “Anyway, That’s what Melissa told Sam Right? And Sam told Hannah about Mike and his affair with the dance instructor, and if that wasn’t bad enough, the dance instructor was a man!” There was a moment of silence, “You serious? You didn’t know he was gay? Oh yes Darling, so gay he makes a circle look straight!” Gossiped my mother on the phone to her new found friend, Jessica Harold’s.
    I quietly walked through the front door and took my jacket off, but tried to keep it as close to me as possible, as if it was a protective blanket of some sort. Deep down, I knew it wasn’t, but I needed something to comfort me.
    “Oh hi sweetheart!” my mother squeaked ecstatically as if she hadn’t seen my in years, “Just putting dinner on, wont be long”
    I didn’t want dinner, I didn’t want to eat, I just wanted to sleep. So I slowly trotted down the hallway and walked past Joe, who was still wondering around in his underwear, and just because I felt like being mean to someone, I smacked him across the back of the head.
    “Ouch! What was that for!” he asked as he began to stretch.
    “Get dressed…” I mumbled just as I walked into my room and slammed the door shut.
    “Wonder what’s pissed her off…” He grumbled and walked off.


    I leaned my head against the door and progressively slid down to the floor.
    My life was a mess.
    Mess.
    1 word, 4 letters, 1 vowel and 3 consonants; a mess can be a state of confusion or disorder which in some cases summarises my life.
    My brother was 20 and he was a good-for-nothing layabout, didn’t work, didn’t go to college, didn’t help out around the house, nothing. Just sat there on his butt all day doing nothing.
    Nothing.
    1 word, 7 letters, 2 vowels and 5 consonants; Nothing is a concept that would describe a lack or absence of anything at all, I could use that definition to describe my brother, however I chose to stick with the ‘Quantity of no importance’ portrayal.
    My father ran away with his secretary from work, Kate, about 3 years ago. I was 14 at the time. It wasn’t the 1st time he had cheated on my mum though, he’d done it twice before, but she always took him back. I wasn’t that close to him anyway, so I didn’t miss him when he went gallivanting off with his new missus. My brother quickly took his place as the slob of the house, I guess that’s why Joe is the way he is. My father was nothing but a goddamn Cheat.
    Cheat
    1 word, 5 letters, 2 vowels and 3 consonants; an act of deception, fraud, lying, imposture, imposition, trickery, whatever, take your pick, I have a long list.
    It was my mother that I was really worried about. She seemed to have lost that spark in her eyes, the thing that made her my mother, was stolen from her; it was like she gave up caring.
    Giving up
    2 words 8 letters 3 vowels and 5 consonants; the admittance of defeat.
    What can I say about my life? I’m 17, I go to college, I don’t have many real friends, and the only 2 people I can really talk to, are Jake and Vincent. However Jake wont talk to me when I’m with Vincent, and Vincent gets distracted way to easily, so talking to him, is like talking to a brick wall. But I adore him; he is…my torch in the dim light that we call our world.
    I got back up, sluggishly walked over to my bed and just collapsed on it.
    I turned to look at some of the photos of Vincent and me that were neatly placed on my bedside cabinet. Picking up the one closest to me, I began to examine it; this was when we 1st started dating, back then, Vincent had short brown hair and was a bit clumsy. I can remember that day as if it was yesterday; we was at the park, It was a lovely, hot, sunny summers day, and he had an ice cream in his hand, which if I remember clearly he never did finish because he tripped over and got it all down my blue dress, he was so embarrassed bless him.
    I softly touched the picture and just lost myself in his eyes. Those grey eyes that every time I looked at them, I found myself daydreaming about him, about us 2, no one else, just us; no more raging mother, no butt-crack scratching slob of a brother, and certainly no more gibberish about that actor and her blinking movies. I simply sighed and looked at my blank ceiling.
    “I wish I was important…”


    I must of dozed off at some point, because when I woke up, I found my silky black hair all intertwined like a bramble bush, that hadn’t been looked after for about 20 odd years. I heard my mum and Joe talking about Vincent and me, but I didn’t care, I really didn’t care what she had to say about us. I painlessly lifted myself from the bed, and sluggishly turned the doorknob, which led to the hallway.
    My mum smiled as she saw me walk out, “Hello there sleepy head,”
    “Hi mum,” I mumbled, and sat on the sofa next to Joe.
    “So, little miss sleeping beauty, I think you should go back to sleep cause you still look ugly to me,” My brother teased as he poked me.
    “Go away!” I moaned smacking his finger away.
    Sighing, my mother rolled her eyes and walked into the kitchen, “You hungry?”
    “No…I’m fine…I’m gonna go back to bed though…” I mumbled as I walked back to the hallway.
    “Hey, I didn’t mean it literally little sis…”
    I shrugged my shoulders and just simply walked into the bathroom.
    “I worry about her sometimes Joe…I really do,” Whispered my mum, thinking I couldn’t hear her.
    Ignoring the gossip between Joe and my mum, I went into the bathroom, where I brushed my teeth, combed my hair, took off my make up, and got changed into my pyjamas. All in 20 minutes.
    Lazily walking out of the bathroom, I waved goodnight to Joe and my mum.
    “Night honey,”
    “Yeah, Night honey bunny,” Joe mimicked my mum.
    I stuck my tongue out at him and before he could reply with one of his rude comments, I shut the door in his face.
    Like I do every night, I turn to face the door, lock it, and then proceed to bang my head against it numerous times. After causing a substantial amount of pain to my head, I turned to face my room.
    Darkness.
    1 word, 8 letters, 2 vowels and 6 consonants; The Absence of something.
    I sighed unhappily. My life was dull; my life was boring…my life was…what’s another word for boring…. Mind-numbing? Everything is my life was so repetitive, nothing new ever happened, nothing cool has ever happened to me. Its not like I expect to win the lottery or get abducted my aliens or something, just something, anything that would make my life a little different. Give it some ‘flavour’.
    Closing my eyes I tried to picture my life differently, I would imagine stuff like; ‘Me locked in a big tower and my knight in shinning armour slaying the great dragon, which had imprisoned me since I was a child,’ or ‘how about living in the wilderness with no one but the animals?’ However, no matter how hard I tried to escape reality, I knew deep down, that I would always come back to my real life.
    I opened my eyes. Darkness once again, but I didn’t care, I was so used to seeing the darkness. I guess I was no longer afraid of it, unlike when I was a child.
    Guided by the small amount of light that had entered my room via the un-drawn curtains, I gradually made my way to the window.
    The moon. How I longed to be up there with her, just gracefully looking down upon us all, calmly living her life.
    Sorrowfully, I turned away.
    Tap
    I stood there for a moment and listened.
    Tap
    There it was again, the same noise, but where is it coming from? I looked wildly around the room, but I couldn’t hear or see where the tapping noise was coming from.
    Tap
    I turned and faced the window.
    Tap
    What is going on here?
    Intrigued, yet somewhat scared, I opened the window and looked downwards to the front garden. Nothing.
    “Strange…”
    Just as I was about to stick my head back in, a pebble came flying at me, and hit the window seal.
    “What the?” I asked looking up to the huge Oak tree, which dangled over my house.
    “VINCENT! Get down from there!” I panicked.
    He shook his head.
    “Vincent! Go home!”
    Again, he shook his head.
    “Okay, what do you want?”
    He carefully climbed down to my window seal, “I wanted to see you so badly,” He whispered giving me a naughty smile.
    “No, go away!” I scolded.
    Something told me, that tonight, Vincent wasn’t going to leave without a fight, “Why?” he asked moving closer.
    “Because my mother could walk in any moment and you know she doesn’t like you,”
    He shrugged his shoulders, “I’m willing to take the risk if you are,” he winked.
    I stood my ground. “No, go home,” I insisted.
    Again he shook his head and begun to push his way into my room, “I’m coming, ready or not,” he joked.
    I tried to push him back but he was just to strong “Vincent!” I urged him. He smiled and sat on the window seal, his feet dangling into my room “Harrow,” he smiled.
    I sighed and put my hands on my hips, trying not to smile and laugh, trying to show him, I was serious about him going. “G-o H-o-m-e,” I laughed, “Don’t you understand simple English?” I queried him.
    He simply sat there and smiled, not saying anything at all.
    As if I had had this argument before, I turned away, sighed and decided to ignore him, which usually worked, however tonight, Vincent seemed rather different; As I turned and walked towards my bed, he slowly walked up behind me and wrapped his arms around my waist, slowly beginning to rock me from side to side. “Do you weally weally want Wincent to go?” he whispered sweetly in my ear.
    I went weak at the knees, just hearing his voice so close to me, it made me tingle all over and smile ever so slightly. “You know what my mum will do if she was to find you here,” I whispered letting him sway me from side to side.
    He smiled, “Like I said…I’m willing to take that risk,” he whispered darkly as he tightly grabbed my waist and stopped swaying it.
    Something didn’t seem right. “Vincent?” I asked as he started to kiss my neck.
    “What?” he asked angrily as he pulled away.
    I didn’t say anything; I just stood there, “What?” he asked again, now much calmer, obviously realising how harsh his tone of voice had just sounded.
    Sighing, I quickly turned around and faced him, “What is it you want?” I asked, wondering if he wanted what I thought he wanted, what all teenage boys wanted.
    He looked down expressionlessly, “You…I want you,” he muttered under his breath.
    I exhaled loudly, making sure Vincent could hear me “I want you too…But…I…I ain’t ready Vin…” I mumbled hoping he wouldn’t get mad.
    Vincent let out a fake, forced, and somewhat strained laugh, “Me neither,” he stressed pushing himself away from me; I could no longer feel his warmth. “I was only joking,” he muttered turning to the window and proceeding to jump out of it, like he had done many a times before.
    “Vincent…” I whispered grabbing hold on his hand just as he put his foot up on the window ledge; He let out a loud sigh and turned slightly to look at me, “Yesum?” he asked and smiled.
    A smile spread across my face, “I am sorry Vincent…But…I just ain’t ready yet,”
    He turned completely and gave me a naughty smile, “It’s alright Leigh…I’m sorry for…you know,” he looked down to the floor, “I just…we’ve been together…nearly 2 years now…I’m just wondering ‘how much longer do I have to wait’ you know?” he smiled walking closer and kissing my forehead.
    I giggled as he kissed my forehead, then nose and then my lips.
    As he pulled away, there was sadness in his eyes, “I don’t wanna go—” he complained but had a smile on his face. Feeling like I knew what he wanted, I guided him to the bed and pushed him onto it. “I think I might get used to this,” he joked as he fell backwards and put both hands behind his head, waiting for me to join him. I smiled and sat on the end of the bed.
    “Get used to what?” I asked acting like I didn’t know.
    He raised his eyebrows and sat up, “Come on…you know what I want,” he muttered kissing my lips and guided my hand towards his trousers.
    I bit my bottom lip and started to unbuckle his trousers, “I know what you want…but that’s not what I asked,” I muttered seriously now as I took off his belt and threw it towards the end of the bed.
    “Oh…” he whispered in-between kisses, “Well…I could get used to—”
    “Leigh honey, are you okay?” Asked my mother knocking on the door.


    My eyes widened as I heard my mothers voice and I pulled back, unaware that I had a firm grip on Vincent’s underwear. As I pulled back, I heard a small squeak sound, which turned my attention back to Vincent who was rolling around on my bed in great pain.
    “Leigh?” My mother desperately asked trying to open the door, but couldn’t because I had locked it earlier on.
    “I’m coming, hold on a sec,” I replied dragging Vincent off the bed and pulling him towards the closest, “Shhh,” I mouthed to him and swiftly slammed the door in his face.