Til Death Do Us Part

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If you believe it, live it. If you love it, get it. If you have faith in it, fight for it. But who actually does that? Does anyone actually stand up for what they believe in? Does someone actually open their mouth and speak words that they actually mean?

I didn't think so.

I was never a person who spoke what I meant.

Hell, I wasn't a person who spoke ANYTHING.

Of course, that changed. Someone walked into my life and turned my life inside out.

I had waited my whole life for someone who was different...someone who could teach me something...

My name is Adelle, and this is my story.

This is my story of redemption.

A story of change.

A story of pain and happiness.

And love. A story of such a strong love.

But it's not what you think.

It's never what you think.

Everyone is different. Everyone wants to stand out, and not be normal. That wasn't my wish...but it happened.

This is my story, and I beg you, learn from it.

1

"Get up, Adelle!" I heard my mother scream from downstairs. I groaned and rolled over. Then my alarm clock started to play "Face down" by Red Jumpsuit Apparatus. This was my first day waking up before noon all summer. It was not something I enjoyed doing. "You better be out of bed RIGHT NOW! Get downstairs in 10 minutes!" That's my demanding mother. I hated her with a passion. She was tall and skinny, and supposedly pretty (for her age.) She was a hooker, and I'm not kidding.

I opened my eyes and studied my room. The walls were white but I always drew on them with sharpie, and my floor was checkered. My room was messy because I never bothered to clean it up. This was my room, the one place I could be alone. Be myself.

I stumbled out of my bed and hurried to the bathroom. I tugged a brush through my thick, long snarly hair and apply dark eyeliner and pulled on random clothes. I didn't care if they matched or not. It was then I realized that my shirt was yellow and my jeans were brown and my headband was red. I made a face but didn't care enough. I wasn't an appereance person. I didn't care if I was pretty or ugly, fat or skinny. I raced downstairs before my mother threw another hissy fit.

"Make your own breakfast. I'm leaving," she snapped. She was dressed in a short red dress and black high heels and her lips were smeared with dark red lipstick. Her pale skin looked sickening white compared to her dark eyeliner and her blonde hair was poofed up. We looked nothing alike, then again, we acted nothing alike. She always wore a fake smile and her eyes were always glossy. I never knew why, but never asked.

"Angie-" I don't call her by her title, she doesn't deserve it, "-where are you going? It's like 6am." It was, unfortunally, the first day of senior year, and I was SO EXCITED. Note the sarcasm.

"I have a date this morning, because I'm busy tonight."

I didn't ask for details. I knew what "busy" meant. I grabbed an apple and then watched her slide into her red porshe. She was a selfish woman, she bought everything for herself. Makeup, womanly needs, clothes and food-enough for herself. I had to buy everything myself, even though my mother had plenty of money and I had almost none.

I glanced at the clock and guessed it would take fifteen minutes to walk to school. School was down the road from me, and I was glad. I had ridden the bus once, and had ended up with ketchup and peanut butter smeared all over me.

I stepped outside and took in the fresh air. It was slightly humid, which was normal in South Carolina. My house was set in front of a damp forest, in an old part of the outskirts of Charleston. It was a gorgeous town, but I never went to the beach or did anything fun. Fun wasn't my thing.

"HEEEYYYY!" oh great, it was my stupid next door neighbor, named Max. He was Mr. Popular and King at every dane. We had been next door neighbors as long as I remembered. I never bothered to talk to him, but sometimes he would pretend to be interested in my life. i knew he didn't really care. "ADEELLEEEE!" He yelled at me as he ran out of the house, "Can I join you?"

"No."
"But this is the only way to school."

"Take a back road." The truth was-the only back road was through the dark forest, and most people became lost and died. Well...not really, but I'm sure its happened. Maybe Voldemort hid in those forests, waiting for Harry Potter to come along.

Right.

"Back roads are dangerous." He replied, taking me seriously. He studied me, "Why won't you be friends with me?" I didn't answer. "Oh, silent treatment. Right." I stuck earbuds in my ears and blasted Paramore. "You're the only girl who doesn't like me."

"Full of yourself, eh?" I replied, my annoyance seeping through my lips.

"No, I just knew that would get you to talk," he smiled. I could see why girls would like him. He was tall and gorgeous and hot body. He was also seriously nice and down to earth. But I think he just pretended.

I turned up the volume so I could block him out. A car full of teens passed us, with their windows down and music was blasting. The car was a new, green jeep. I hid my envy. I had always wanted a car, but never dared to ask for one and never had the money to buy one for myself.

"HEY MAAAXXX!" One kid yelled out of the car. He was Max's best friend, with dark hair and dark eyes and tan skin. I couldn't remember his name.

I rolled my eyes.

"Hi Max!" A girl squealed as the car passed us and drifted out of sight. I couldn't tell who she was, but then again, I didn't care. All the airheads looked, dressed and talked the same.

Max didn't comment, he just smiled and waved.

He turned to me, "You like music?"

I just nodded. The truth was, I LOVED music. He ripped an earbud out of my ear and stuck it in his. He was uncomfortably close to me, but I couldn't step away without ripping out the other headphone.

"Paramore? Yuck." I just glared at him. "I'm just kidding, giiirl. I love Paramore. I'm a music freak," he said with a big smile, "I love it." He patted my shoulder and I jerked away from him. I hated physical contact. He quickly dropped his hand. "I can tell you love music. Why didn't you defend it?"

I just shrugged.

"Defend what you love," Max said, his voice bold and strong. He wore a serious face and his lips weren't smiling. "You'll regret it if you don't." I had no idea what he meant, but I knew there was a hidden meaning.

I didn't care enough to think about it.

10 minutes later, I pushed myself into the crowded halls of high school. I hated it. People shoved past me without saying sorry, and it was impossibly loud. I barely could breathe. Welcome to senior year.

My first class was math. I groaned. It was my worst subject. My teacher had emailed me and told me that today would be a test, and if I failed it, he would assign me a tutor. Great. A tutor. Just what I needed.

I sat down in my seat, and Max and his gang sat in front of me. Well, his whole gang was practically the whole classroom. Everyone knew him and loved him, except me.

Call me judgemental.

But you don't know me.

"Here's the test," Mr. Lonede (lon-eh-de) passed out the tests. He was a short and stout man, who never smiled but he wasn'tnecessarilymean. He was just...boring.

I practically threw up when I glanced at the test. They were hard questions that I was supposed to know. I randomly scribbled down random answers, and drew a few dinosaurs and music notes. I drew a picture of Harry Potter, and Snape arguing. I loved to doodle but I wasn't good at it.

Finally, it was time for class to be over. I knew that tomorrow I would be assigned a tutor.

Let me tell you about my school.

It's a 3 story, old building-an old castle, supposedly and very huge. Supposedly, the basement was haunted because some kid locked himself down there for four days and someone stumbled across him dead. No one had entered the basement since then.

No one had bothered to fix up the old castle thing-just put in some lockers and break down a few walls for the cafeteria. No one ever ate in the cafeteria, because pretty much everyone ate outside...except me.

I was an inside girl. Call me boring. But that's who I am.

I have every single class with Max, which is SO annoying. He makes jokes and hardly pays attention. That's what I think. The teachers love him.

It was the last class-Literature.

"Now class, over the summer, our favorite student, Max Leonardo has written a speech, and he'd like to give it today. I have no idea what it's about, but hopefully something relevant to what you learned in sophomore year," Mrs. Donea said. She was tall, skinny and young. She was stunning, and engaged. She always wore a smile and she was my favorite teacher, yet I was invisible to her.

It was rare when someone actually volunteered to give a speech on the first day.

I was glad today was only a half-day. Yay first days...

"Last year, this very class were all juniors and we read Romeo and Juliet," Max began. I let out a long groan and Max glanced at me. I immediately shut up. It was obvious that he was excited about this speech.

He took a deep breath, "Romeo and Juliet teaches a lot of things to us...but it teaches one REALLY stupid and super important lesson-fight for what you love. Don't let it go. Everyone knows the story..." he yammered on about how Romeo fell so in love with Juliet, and fought for her until the end. "They died for each other. That's love. That's undying, forever love. It's one of the stupidest things out there, yet it's perfect. It's the only perfect we thing we have in this world. Love. It's so important, but if you think about it-quite stupid." I couldn't lie, he had a point, but I couldn't decide if he was for love or against it.

"Who agrees with me? Love is perfect," he said with a huge smile. Everyone's hands shot up...except for mine. I had my arms crossed. I didn't really think about it. Love was stupid, and the farthest thing away from perfect.

Finally, the half day was over and I walked home from school.

"Adelle, wait up!" I heard Max call. I let out a groan and walked faster. Yet, Max's legs were long and he easily caught up. "You didn't like my speech? You looked so bored during the whole thing. You don't believe in love?" He started to ask a lot of questions.

"Go away," I snapped.

"Can't."

I groaned and tried walking faster, but he easily kept up.

"You know, my friends talked about you today," he said with a frown.

I glared at him.

"I didn't like how they talked behind their back, but they had some interesting things to say about you. I'm sure somethings are just rumors, right?"

I snorted.

"Alright, that's a no. Wanna know what they said?"I didn't answer because I knew he would tell me anyway. "They said you are ridiculously boring and quiet. They said you have no life, and everything! But I don't believe them!"

I just looked at him, "You've been my neighbor for years. You know it's true."

"Nope. You know how our windows are across from each other?"

I rolled my eyes, "Why do you think I have the blinds down all the time?"

"Well over the summer, a few times you forgot to pull the blinds down. So I watched you," he said with a huge smile, as if he thought this was funny.

"Who are you, Edward Cullen?" I snapped, "That's creepy. What are you gonna try to do, turn me into one of you? Make me fall deeply in love with you? Knock me up?"

"Wow, talkative," he smiled, "no, I'm human.......maybe." He stuck his tongue out of me.

"Anyway, over the summer, you had your blinds up and I saw some interesting things."

"Pervert."

"No, I never saw any of that. That'd be gross," something sounded honest in his voice. I looked at him oddly. He was a boy, how could that be GROSS? He wasdefinitelydifferent. I saw you dancing around your room, singing into a hairbrush, and I saw you drawing on your walls with sharpie. Does your mom allow that? I've never been in your room, and I could tell what you were drawing. Will you show me?"

"Nobody's been in my room before. Not even my mom," I snapped. "So what are you trying to prove? That I'm not boring?"

"I'm trying to prove that you aren't who you act like. You act all quiet and boring, but I know that's a mask."

"You act all deep and down to earth, but I know your cocky. That's a mask too."

His voice suddenly became very serious, "You're wrong."

"So are you," I snapped. Finally, we reached our houses.

"See you tomorrow!" he called out with a huge smile, "Leave your blinds up! I'm out to prove that you aren't who you say you are!"

I glared at him. Well, I'm out to prove that he isn't the perfect, different boy that he pretends to be.

----

hen I opened my front door, I was welcomed by silence. It was morbidly depressing, yet it was better than obnoxious noise. I slowly shut the front door and studied the inside of my house. It was sophisticated, which to me, was ugly. We had a quaint brick house, with a tall brick fence around the yard. It was the most unwelcoming house in the neighborhood. That was because an unwelcoming family lived inside. We hadn’t had company for years.

I ambled up to my room, and just stood at the door. I finally swung the door open and stepped into my room. I looked around and decided that I didn’t like it. It needed to change. I changed into shorts and a T-shirt and started to move things around. It took me an hour just to drag my bed across the room. I splattered paint on the floor and scribbled on my ceiling. I painted my desk and broke my bed. When I was done, I looked at my room with pride.

Then I realized that I hadn’t pulled down my blinds. I ran to the window and saw that Max was standing by his window, watching me. When he saw me, he smiled and opened his window. I pulled down my blinds and walked away.

I sat down in front of my TV and watched a few movies and Spongebob. I fell asleep around 4am, and woke when my alarm started to blast.

I was disoriented from lack of sleep, but dragged myself out of bed and stumbled to my bathroom. I didn’t bother with my hair, and didn’t even put on foundation to cover up the pimple on my forehead. Of course, I applied my dark eyeliner. It was my security. I always felt naked without the eyeliner…and I always felt vulnerable. I pulled on skinny’s and a random shirt. I ran out the door even though I didn’t have school for an hour. I was hoping that Max wouldn’t see me pass his house, so he wouldn’t join me.

“Hey Adell!”

Just my luck.

As I was passing by Max’s house, he ran outside and started to walk next to me. I tried to bite back a groan. “Good morning sunshine!” I glared at him. “Or not,” he muttered under his breath. “Why are you leaving for school so early?”

“Why are you?” I shot back.

“Basketball practice,” he replied, “I’m rusty. I have to get my swagger back.”He moved his hips in a circle as if he was dancing. He looked at me as if he was waiting for me to laugh. Too bad I never laugh.

“Please, don’t do that again,” I replied coldly, “You just traumatized me for life.”

I rolled my eyes and we slowly walked to school without speaking. Several high schoolers passed in their cars and waved at Max. I pushed through the doors into a mostly empty school.

“So, why did you leave for school early?” Max asked me as we walked down the hallway toward the gym.

“To get away from you,” I snapped, “Goodbye.”

“What? You aren’t going to wish me good luck?” he asked with a smile on his face. I just walked away and didn’t look back.

Finally, school started and math was my first subject.

“Adelle, you’re tutor will be Jake,” my math teacher announced at the beginning of class. I turned and glanced at Jake. He was the geek of school, and a super genius. He wore square glasses and his hair was gelled back. I let out a sigh of relief. I was just pleased that it wasn’t Max who was tutoring me. Supposedly, he’s the best student in math. Please. He’s a jock, not a brainiac.

The rest of the day went as normal. I didn’t talk to anybody. And nobody talked to me. I went home and fell onto my bed, exhausted.

It was Wednesday. And today, I had a tutoring session in the library during lunch with Jake. I woke to my mother screaming at me from downstairs. “Get downstairs you little brat! Why didn’t you wash the dishes?”

I groaned and didn’t reply. I was safe in my room. As long as I didn’t leave my room, my mother couldn’t hurt me. That meant I would have to wait until she left the house. I sat on my bed and watched the clock tick and finally I heard the front door slam. I swept off my bed and ran to the bathroom and tugged a brush through my hair. I hadn’t bothered to change out of yesterday’s clothes so I raced downstairs. I would be late for school now. But it was better than confronting mother’s wrath.

I walked down the sidewalk, not daring to run. I couldn’t run to save my life. I always tripped and got severely injured. I walked into math and the teacher glared at me. “You’re late.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Detention.”

I just nodded. I had gotten several detention’s over the last 3 years, so this wasn’t anything new. I noticed that Jake was absent from all of my classes. During lunch, I sat down on the library couch and picked up a book and started to read. Someone sat next to me.

“Max? Go away. I have a tutoring session,” I snapped.

“I am your tutor. Jake is in the hospital,” Max said, his voice a bit sad, “it’s a bit tragic.” He wasn’t being sarcastic or rude…he sounded genuinely sad.

“I won’t pretend to care,” I replied.

I expected Max to reply with, “Heartless?” But he didn’t. He just pulled out a math book from his backpack. “The math teacher gave this to me.” He held up my test. “He asked me to tutor you, and handed me this test to show me how awful you are. 0%...but I’d give you a 100 just for amazing drawings,” he studied the piece of paper, “you are good.”

“Please tell me you’re not tutoring me,” I replied, not accepting the truth.

“I don’t lie,” Max stuck his tongue out in a childish way. “I’m going to be your tutor.” I growled at him. “Let’s get started.” He slowly explained a few formulas but none of it makes sense. He closed his book, “This really doesn’t make sense to you, does it?”

I shook my head.

“You’re head has been wired for art and music,” he said thoughtfully, mostly to himself. “Obviously we’ll have to approach this differently.” I just stared at him, not sure exactly what he meant. “Come on, lunch is over in 10 minutes.” We stood up and walked to the library door. “Goodbye, Adelle.” He almost sounded like he was mocking me. When we stepped into the hallways, Max was instantly surrounded by people. I stood by and listened to it for a second.

“Hey, Lindsay!” Max called out to a girl, “Awesome new hair cut!” The girl blushed and rushed by. I rolled my eyes. “Hey, Daren, how bout we blow some zombie brains later? Like this evening, I got homework first.”

That’s it. Daren was his best friend. Everyone was Max’s best friend. I walked away to my next class, wondering what it would be like for people to surround me and be my best friend. I shoved the thought away. I would never want that.

After school, I had detention and didn’t get home until four. This time, my mother was home. I tried to slip by her. Yet, she heard me come in and she instantly towered above me. “How dare you hide away in your bedroom to get out of chores? You are so immature!” She slapped me, and I felt my cheek burn. Her words were slurred and I knew that’s why she was being so violent.

“I-I’m sorry,” I lied, “I’ll do them now.” Yeah, right. I raced upstairs with mother calling my name. I slammed the door behind me and took a deep breath. I looked in the mirror and saw that my cheek was tomato red.

I touched it up with makeup, because I hated looking at it. I sat down at my desk, and finished my homework. Before I knew it, I blacked out and didn’t wake up until the next morning.

My bones ached from sitting in a chair. Groggily, I did my morning business and walked down the road.

“Hey Adelle,” Max greeted me as I passed his house. He walked next to me.

“Go away.”

“I’m your tutor now, you should treat me with respect,” Max said, his eyes bright and happy. Somehow, every morning, he was lively and happy. I just rolled my eyes and blasted music from my iPod. He didn’t speak to me, he seemed deep in thought. He turned to me and ripped an ear phone out of my ear.

“Aren’t you worried about Jake?” he asked me, his tone serious. “You act as if you don’t care.”

“I don’t care,” I replied, and I was being honest. Jake wasn’t my problem, besides, I barely even knew him. “I don’t even know him.”

“Neither do I…he helped me with math in freshman year. He’s really nice, you know. Just because you don’t know him doesn’t mean you shouldn’t care. He’s still human, he deserves to be worried about.”

I rolled my eyes and bit my lip so I wouldn’t say something I would regret. “It’s not my problem.”

Max’s eyes seemed sad, “Someday, you’ll learn that it should be.” We became quiet again, and finally we reached school. I walked over to my locker and put a few books into it. I realized that Max was right next to me, even though his locker was down the hall.

“Why are you still standing here?” I snapped.

“Yeah, Max,” a girl came up to us. This was Miss Popular, the Queen Bee of the school. Her evil name was Jess. She was tall and anorexic. Well, she looked like it. She had fake blonde hair, and a faux tan. Her green eyes were glaring at me, “Why are you hanging out with this cowardly freak?”

I slammed my locker, “When did I become a coward?”

“You don’t take risks. Hello, I bet you’re still a virgin,” Jess let out a fake laugh.

“Oh, leave her alone, Jess,” Max said with his persuasive voice.

“You are a coward. I bet you wouldn’t go down to the basement to save your life,” Jess replied, and I knew that something bad was going to happen. “I dare you to go down into the basement tonight. If you don’t-well-let’s just say, I’ll make your life hell.”

“I’ll do it,” I snapped and walked away. Max followed me, his eyes full of concern. Gosh, why does he have to be so…him?

“You’re not going to do it, are you? You’ll be breaking into school, and that’s illegal. Plus, you don’t know what’s down there,” he said. Sure, it was logical.

“I don’t care what’s illegal. I’m not scared,” I snapped, and it was true. I had no limits-no boundaries, and I wasn’t scared at all. “Besides, maybe I can steal a key from the principle.”
“No, that’s wrong.”

“Try to stop me,” I replied, daring him to fight.

“This is wrong,” he answered. I couldn’t believe that he was actually talking about ‘right and wrong.’

“I’m going down there. Goodbye.”

“See you in the library during lunch!” He called with a huge smile on his face. It was as if he enjoyed torturing me. All I could think about was sneaking into the school tonight and going into the forbidden basement.