Savor the Night by Grell Sutcliffe (beginner reading books for adults txt) 📕

First Encounter ~ Camilla


I was never a problematic child. Sure, I told a few white lies, but I didn't do anything other than that. My family had problems and I didn't want to push it. My mother and father fought often, my little brother was forever sick, and my sister suffered from depression and the likes, and my school fee was way past our budget. I told those white lies to protect my family from the stuff that caused all this unhappiness.

I could list a lot of the bad stuff about my mother, father, and sister that would destroy them. My father was cheating on my mother with a colleague, my mother was creeping with her boss for extra cash, and my sister was hooking up with random guys and her friends' boyfriends. I was never sure why I kept all these secrets, but I knew it was wrong. I actually thought about telling these secrets, but thought about the consequences. I didn't like them very much. My parents would divorce and my sister would die of loneliness due to lack of friends. They would blame me for all the misery that would occur.

I never had many friends and don't intend to make any more. I used sarcasm and rudeness to repel them. Any friend I had ever had stopped being morons and left me alone when they learned their lesson: I was not friend material. Friends, in my opinion, just use you for their personal gain. They'll tell you that you're cool or whatever and then rip you to shreds behind your back. I learned that the hard way in elementary school. My friend at the time, Elise, was throwing a party. I wasn't invited. When I heard them talking about it, I asked, "What party? Why wasn't I invited?" Elise looked at Courtney, my other friend, and lied through her teeth. "We tried calling you on Friday, but your mom said you weren't home, Camilla," she said calmly. I knew that was a lie instantly. I had been home all Friday.

Another time had been when we had I class pet. It was a bunny named Peaches, named that because it was round and fuzzy. My friends had decided to feed it some weird looking grass, saying, "It'll eat anything we feed it," to silence my protests. The next day, the teacher told us that Peaches had died. Someone had fed it grass that it was not supposed to eat. Elise, once again, lied through her teeth and blamed me. She said, "Camilla was feeding Peaches some grass. We tried to stop her, but she didn't listen." I was shocked silent. Why would they blame me? I didn't do anything wrong. The teacher reprimanded me fiercely and told me to clean up the classroom and Peaches' cage. When I left to go home, I was ambushed by my classmates.

My mom freaked when she saw me walk through the door, bloodied and bruised. My lip was busted, there were bruises on my arms and legs where I was hit by rocks, and my left eye was swollen shut. To my surprise, I didn't cry. I felt too numb to cry. I didn't go to school for the rest of the week, but when I did go back, I was different. My left eye was still puffy and swollen, so I had a hard time seeing. When my teacher asked what happened to me, I snorted and said, "My horrible, good for nothing, but pain friends happened to me." I didn't talk to anyone ever again.

Coming back to the present, I never did fit in. Just like I said, I didn't talk to anyone.
People made fun of me for that, and on very rare occasion, I spoke. I spoke, yes, but in Spanish or Russian. They would often leave me alone after that, scared I may have put a curse on them or something. My sister, however, didn't like when I got bullied. I told her to stop, but she didn't listen. My sister, Mira, was the exact opposite of me. We were the same age, but she wasn't my twin. I was born in May, she in February. Mira was a flirtatious social butterfly, the object of attention from all the guys at her school. She had dark hair and piercing brown eyes. Her lips were perpetually stuck in a sexy pout. Unlike me, her chest was flat while mine was the size of perfectly ripe oversized watermelons. Mira was jealous of me for that. She tried everything to be as big as me.

I had brains. I had athletic ability. I was flexible. Girls hated me. Since I entered high school, there was never a day I wasn't bullied. I didn't really do anything back and I often didn't care when they called me names or questioned my sexuality because I didn't like any guys. Most people would have broken down and cried, but not me. I hadn't cried since I found out my parents' secrets.

I was thinking about all this while I was in the woods surrounding my house. My house sits on the bank of a river. Meager River, but people called it Ponder River because it was the perfect place to think. The woods surrounding my house was filled with cherry and dogwood trees, giving it the nickname Cherry Dog, though it's really named Pelletier Woods. I came here because of the smell and tranquility it encompassed me with. The sound of crunching snapped me back to reality. I turned to see a gray wolf staring at me. Fear immediately registered in my mind. I started to back as the wolf drew closer. It kept eye contact with me. I realized that it had green eyes. Was that natural?

The wolf suddenly looked over to the left at some unseen animal and I took the chance to run. I was at my back door within three minutes. I looked over my shoulder for the wolf, but saw nothing. I sighed with relief and entered my house. I heard my sister clumsily stepping around in her room, but that was all I heard. Alejandro, my younger brother, was probably sleeping off the newest cold he was infected with. Just Mira, Alejandro, and I home. Again.

"Sis? Is that you," my sister down from the steps. Her curly brown hair was pulled back in a ponytail, her dark brown eyes dulling down when she saw me. Mira must have been expecting someone else. I didn't answer because Mira had clearly already seen me. I glanced at a clock. It read seven thirty. Time to start dinner.

~~~~~~

I was cleaning the dishes, when I heard them. My mother entered the kitchen first, followed by my father. They were fighting again. "I can't believe you, Jamal," my mother continued, ignoring my presence in the kitchen. "Carmella, I told you already. They called me in. I have to go back to the office," my father said for what must have been the hundredth time. My stomach churned when I realized what he really meant. He was going to see Ellen. Ellen, my father's secretary, had come to work for my dad about two years ago. She had actually come over to our house on several occasions.

"I won't be long, honey. I promise," my father said. My mother finally realized I was in the kitchen with them. She shot my dad a look that said just get the fuck out of here

. He left and she turned to me. "How was your day," she asked absent-mindedly. I knew she wasn't really paying attention, so I said something that was going to get her attention. "I had sex with Mark Collins the other day and I just found out I pregnant. You're going to be a grandmother," I said in monotone. My mother looked at me with concern.
"What's this about being pregnant?"
"Nothing, madre

."
"Camilla!"
"It's nothing."
"Camilla Anya Maritsa! You tell me what you just said, now!"
"I was kidding," I exclaimed, shaking my head.

My mother frowned, deep in thought again. My father walked back into the kitchen. "Camilla, what did you make for dinner today," my dad asked in his heavy Russian accent. I loved his accent and my mother often teased me when I spoke, saying I sounded like my father. "I made fried shrimp and rice. There's some left in the microwave. You could take it with you with you back to work," I said happily. "No, I'll get something on the way back," my father said. He was going to have a romantic dinner with Ellen. "Alright," I said hesitantly. He smiled, kissed me and my frowning mother on our foreheads, and left. He wasn't even going to have dinner with us.

Mom left shortly after to her second job. I felt bad seeing her come home late, only to leave again. I woke up Alejandro to give him his medicine. Alejandro could have been someone else's child; he looked nothing like out father, not in the least. His eyes were a soft green, his hair a dirty blonde. I'd always loved his hair and told Alejandro that all the time. When I finished giving him his medicine, he sweetly said, "Thank you." His eyes twinkled whenever he saw me and that made me feel loved.

~~~~~~~~~~~
I sat at the dining room table, not doing my homework. Well, I was doing my homework, just not focusing on it. I was thinking about the wolf from before. Green eyes? Was that a natural color? I repeated those questions in my head over and over again. I couldn't use the computer because it was broken. It's been broken for years, but we never tried to fix it. I would just have to ask my science teacher tomorrow.

I got up and put my unfinished homework away. I went to the bathroom, stopping in front of a full length mirror in the hall. I looked around the hall for my brother and sister. When I was sure there was no one with me in the hall, I looked myself up and down in the mirror. I saw myself as I always had: short with way too much junk in both trunks. My hair was longer than my sister's, stopping just above my waist. The curls in my hair were a light brown that highlighted my auburn colored hair. My pale blue eyes stood out against my milky russet complexion.