King Of Anything

Keep drinkin coffee, stare me down across the table
While I look outside
So many things I'd say if only I were able
But I just keep quiet and watch the cars that pass by
You've got opinions, man, we're all entitled to em
But I never asked
So let me thank you for your time
And try not to waste anymore of mine
Get out of here fast
I hate to break it to ya babe, but I'm not drowning
There's no one here to save

Who cares if you disagree?
You are not me! Who made you king of anything?
So you dare tell me who to be?
Who died and made you king of anything?

You sound so innocent, all full of good intent
Swear you know best
But you expect me to jump up on board with you
And ride off into your dillusional sunset
I'm not the one who's lose with no direction, no
But you'll never see
You're so busy making maps
With my name on them in all caps
You've got the talking down, just not the listening

Who cares if you disagree?
You are not me! Who made you king of anything?
So you dare tell me who to be?
Who died and made you king of anything?

All my life I've tried to make everybody happy
Well I just hurt and hide
Waiting for someone to tell me it's my turn to decide

Who cares if you disagree?
You are not me! Who made you king of anything?
So you dare tell me who to be?
Who died and made you king of anything?

Let me hold your crown, babe.

Somebody Save Me: Chapter One

Let's try this again.

My sister brought it to my attention that maybe I should change people's names when writing this book.  So I thought about it and I decided to make this book fictional: it will have fictional characters and this way I can add or take out whatever I want.  It's up to YOU the reader to guess who these people are, if you already know my story =P But I will give you this:  Lauren is ME.  I think I have decided on Somebody Save Me for the title, but I'm not 100% sure yet.  Anyway, enjoy! Feel free to edit away if you want!



Chapter 1:

Lauren threw her hair up in a messy ponytail, brushed on a bit of make-up, and was ready to go.  It was the day she would meet the Man of her Dreams.  It was Easter Sunday, 2006.  Easter had always been a big deal in her family, but this year, nobody was coming home for the big annual Easter egg hunt.  Everyone had grown up, gotten married and had children of their own to start new traditions with.  So, Lauren decided to start a little tradition of her own: meeting strange men she found on the Internet.

"I'll be back, Daddy", said Lauren.  "Sarah and I are just going to drive around."

"But it's Easter", Daddy said.

"Do we have any plans?"

"Well, no...but--"

"Then I'll be back later!" Lauren interrupted, as she walked out the door to her old red Ford Ranger pick-up truck.

She was 17, and she knew it all.  She had just gotten her limited driver's license just a week before, which in the state of North Carolina meant she couldn't drive past 9:00 pm without a licensed driver in the front seat, preferably a parent or guardian. But did Lauren care about the stupid 9:00pm rule?  Heck no.  Did she respect her parents? She did, but not enough. Since they were separated, and never communicated with each other about anything, she got away with murder!  So, if she stayed out all night, no problem.  She would just tell whichever parents house she came from that she had decided to go to the other's for the night.  Easy.  So, would she be back to her father's that night?  Maybe. Maybe not.  

It was the beginning of Spring Break of her junior year of high school.  She had just started her very first job at the Golden Horse Buffet, making a whopping $6.25 an hour, which she thought was the big bucks.  She had done her math and if she made at least $6.00 an hour, she would be able to save for a new car in no time at all.  She was a full-blown, know-it-all, grown adult! 

Lauren loved her parents, she really did.  But man, were they dumb. They knew absolutely nothing about her at all.  They knew nothing about the people she hung out with, the things she did, the places she had been, the things she had seen, which was nothing at the time compared to what she would be seeing in the future.  At the age of 14, her mother left her father and Lauren was forced to start high school in a different county with different friends.  Who was she kidding?  She wasn't forced.  She practically begged her mother to find a house in the next town over, just so she wouldn't have to go through another four years of torture from the cruel girls at her old school. All of them had found out her secret:  she had lost her virginity.  At only 14.  Well, that just made her a slut, right? No. It made her a victim of rape.  That's what it was, right?  She was screaming "NO!" the whole time and he never stopped.  But, it was never reported, and her parents never found out.  She had been ashamed.  By the time she gained the courage to tell someone, it was too late. 

So, the girls at school called her everything from "fish" to "whore" to "slut" and worse.  She was slammed up against lockers, pushed and shoved, hit, kicked, you name it.  The teachers never did a thing.  It wasn't until the last week of school when Lauren decided to "man up" and go tell the guidance counselor what was happening, but that only made things worse. 

She finally had a chance to get out of this hell hole?  You bet she was going to take it! That just meant that she would get to play her parents against each other.  This whole "divorce" thing didn't seem so bad after all!

Lauren picked up her phone to call her best friend, Sarah, before she got out of her driveway.  She had to call Sarah at least an hour before she came to get her because she took that long getting ready to do anything, including just going to Walmart. 

"Hello?" Sarah answered.

"Hey, bitch! I'm coming to get you!  Get ready!" said Lauren.

"Oh, what are we doing?" asked Sarah.

"Meeting that guy, Ryan I told you about!  I told you this!" answered Lauren, frustrated.  Sarah never remembered anything.  Probably all that pot she started smoking.  It was already killing off all her brain cells.  Go figure.

"OOOOOHHHH! Yea! Think he'll have any hot friends?" asked Sarah.

Lauren laughed. "Well, probably.  But they're all too old for you remember?"

"Oh. Yea.  Why do you like such older guys anyway?"

"Beats me.  I guess they are a whole hell of a lot more mature than the nerds we go to school with."

"Yea, probably", said Sarah. "So when will you be here?"

"I'll be there in thirty minutes! Be ready to walk out the door! I'm so excited I can't stand it!" said Lauren.

"Okay! See ya soon!"

"Lata!"

Lauren began to wonder, what was her obsession with older guys?  Ryan was the oldest guy she had ever been interested in, at 22.  But, she had never been interested in anyone her age.  If she had been, they never lasted more than a week.  Lauren blamed it on having two older sisters a decade her senior.  Her mind was just way ahead of everyone around her, and it wasn't her fault.  That's just the way the cookie crumbled.  She just preferred older guys.  Was that so wrong?

Meeting Ryan was by far the most dare-devil thing Lauren had ever done.  She had met him on Myspace and they had been talking for months and every time she had gotten the chance to meet up with him, something happened and the plan fell through.  But this time, she had her license and her own means of transportation, so nothing was going to stop her.  But what Sarah didn't know was this wasn't the very first time Lauren had met Ryan.

She had snuck off to meet him in the mall parking garage a few days before, while shopping with her friend Julie.  He had been really mysterious and sneaky, like he wasn't supposed to be there.  This made Lauren a bit uneasy, but nevertheless, he was HOT! So who cared?  He had sent her a text later that night asking her to meet him at his friend Jeremy's house the following weekend.  But this time, she was bringing company.  Lauren was naive, but not completely stupid.

Lauren finally arrived at Sarah's house.

"Get in, ya slut!" yelled Lauren across the driveway.

"Shhhhh! If my mom heard you call me that, she'd come out here and smack your face off!"

"Oh, shut up.  She loves me."

"She won't much longer if she hears you talk like that!" said Sarah

Lauren rolled her eyes.  Sarah was a weird one.  She smoked pot, something Lauren had never touched and never wanted to, she drank, and God knows what else. But she was extremely funny about sex and language.  Lauren just found this to be odd.

Off the girls drove to meet "The Man of Lauren's Dreams".  Little did she know she would be entering a completely new chapter in her life, that Ryan was only a part of in pieces.

The whole 45 minute drive to Jeremy's house was torture.  Lauren couldn't contain herself.  Sarah was oblivious to it, dancing and trying to rap to the songs on the radio.

"Would  you shut up and be my friend for a second?!" Lauren shouted. "I'm nervous as hell over here!"

"Oh, sorry dude! Geez!"

"It's okay. Sorry, I'm just really nervous," Lauren laughed. "Nice rapping by the way, ya nerd!"

"Ha Ha. You know it!" Sarah replied.

The girls began singing together for the rest of the drive.  This was something they loved to do.  Both friends loved music very much because it seemed to calm them down with they needed it most.  Lauren especially needed it now.

Before they knew it, they were pulling into Jeremy's driveway.

"Holy hell. Here it goes," said Lauren.

"Here what goes?" asked Sarah.
"My stomach. It's turning somersaults."
"Haha! Cool!"
"No! Not cool! Gah! I think I'm gonna be sick!"

As Lauren looked at her surroundings, the neighborhood looked pretty shady.  She was in a part of town she really knew nothing about, and she had no idea whose house she was at, other than some guy named Jeremy lived here.  She knew nothing about Ryan, other than he lived in Asheville with his sister and he was hot and he was into looking for people on Myspace and he liked how Lauren sang.

Finally, she got out of the truck and Sarah followed.

"Dude, are you sure about this?" Sarah asked.
"Yea. I'm sure," Lauren replied, nervously.