Behind the display

Chapter 1

My mom always said that beauty has so much power.  Now she says that beauty can ruin your life.  She says beauty is a hollargram of an ugly soul and each time I see myself in the mirror, I remember that I have an ugly soul.  The beauty in my face isn’t worth it.  The compliments I get in the streets aren’t real.  The love I’ll be receiving one day will hurt and destroy me, just as I deserve it.  Cause the surface will be clean and beautiful but once inside all the beauty will escape.  That’s what mom says, anyway.  Each day so that I don’t have to feel too good about myself.

“Next month, you’ll be standing behind the display.” Mom calls loudly from the kitchen.

“I know.” I call back from the living room.

“Finally out of my arms.”

I swallow a bit of heartache but shrug it away as I enter the kitchen.  A fishy smell invades my nose and I want to puke.  I hate seafood.

“The person that must love you will be unfortunate.”

I sit behind the table and she dishes saucy fish and rice on my plate.  She continues to ramble on and on about what a mess I am and I try my best to get the fish down my throat.

“Thanks mom.” I say, raising my eyebrows, indicating that I’m tired  of her mean words.  I wash my plate in the sink and escape the kitchen as fast as possible. In a month I’ll be out of this house.  In a month I won’t be waking with screams filled with ugly words.  Only a month.

I grab my coat and waltz outside to where Coby is sitting with his skateboard on the curb.

“What’s up.” I say and he quickly pulls himself in a standing position.  He fluffs his hair out of his face.

“Sup Red Flare.”  He calls me Red flare because of my red hair.  I’ve never witnessed him call me anything else and I prefered it that way. He always makes me smile when he calls me that.

“Let’s go to the lake.”  I say, feeling a sudden pump in my legs.

“Sure.” He says and his skateboard and we start walking.

“So,” he starts and I know exactly where this is headed, “Next month.”

“Yeah, what about it?”

“You’re for sure going to be behind the display?”

“Yeah, they already chose me.” I say not feeling any kind of sad emotion, given he’s sudden droopy eyes.

“It’s sick.”

“What is?”

“To put you behind a display for people to buy you as if you're an item.” He snarls and anger engulfs his aura.

“Well, aren’t we? Aren’t we just items?”  I ask, looking at the wafts of white clouds in the blue sky.

“Maybe our bodies yes, but not your heart and soul.  And your heart and soul is part of your body.  So no, we’re not just an item.”  He knits his dark eyebrows together and swipes his brown hair out of his face.

“Well, it is what it is and I’m going to stand behind the glass display and that’s just the way it is.”  I lifted my shoulders almost ten times in that one sentence.  But even if Coby tried, I couldn’t and wouldn’t see a way out of it.  I’m going to be behind the glass display and that’s final. Even in law.

“It’s stupid.” He grunts and spit on the ground.

“Euw.” I say, feeling irritation towards him.  He always has something to say about the glass display and even though I know it might sound bad to buy a person, I couldn’t care less.

“Euw yourself man.” He lets his anger seep through his always chilled vibe.

“What’s your problem.”

“I just don’t get why you're so in with all this.” He licks his lips and eyes me with mixed emotions.

I sigh, “You wouldn’t understand.”

“How wouldn’t I understand?  You’re my best friend.” He violently throws his hands in the air, almost dropping his skateboard.

I purse my lips and look at the zooming trees.  Trees without leaves.  I hate the winter season.  I hate coldness and if I could choose, I would choose to live in a place where winter doesn’t exist.

“Why can’t you tell me a reason?” He continued.

“You know.”

“Because of your mom?  How many times have I told you that you can live with us.”

“I know, but I don’t want to spam on you.  I’m not your or your parents responsibility.”

“But my parents love you.”

“It doesn’t work like that Coby.” I yell, wishing that he could just stop.

“Why would you rather be bought than,” he stops his sentence and sighs.

“Can we just stop with this please?” I say as soon as the grey water of the lake is visible.

“No, I don’t want to,” he continues, “Can’t you see?”

“The lake? Yes.”

“No.” He sniffs and looks at him.  I look at his sea blue eyes, so vulnerable and it’s almost as if his lips are quivering.

“Can’t I see what then?”

“That I love you.”

“Of course, I love you too.”  I say in the most honest manner possible.  I do love him.  We’ve been best friends since the age of five and unlike other kids who kept being mean to me, he was and still is always nice.

“No.” he says again and after three seconds of hearing his deep breathing I feel his lips on mine.  Warm and soft.  I feel shocked and my eyes widen to see his eyes closed, looking so peaceful and the way his lips feel makes fire sparks explode a million times in my stomach and at the same time a calmness takes over.  His hand reaches behind my neck and I almost flinch of the cold touch but I take a step forward into his embrace.  Even though I’m closer to him than I’ve ever been before, I want to be more close.  So I push myself hard against his body and let his lips continue to caress mine.  My first kiss.  My first kiss.

With all the strength I have in my heart and soul, I pull away.

“Coby!” I say, my worriedness starting to increase.

“What?” He says, still in a dreamy state.

“What did we just do?”

“Kiss?” He licks his lips and I lightly touch my lips with my fingers.

“What were you thinking?” I try to sound mad but I can’t hide the fact that I enjoyed it.  That it felt heavenly.

“I didn’t think.” He says and seriousness starts to lace his expression.

“Oh dear.” I say and stalk up and down with mini steps.

“I’m sorry if this worries you so much,” he says in a sarcastic way, “But I’ve wanted to do this for like forever and I’m not in any way sorry for what I did.  You can’t deny the fact that you felt something as well.”

No.  I can’t. I actually still feel flutters in my stomach and he suddenly looks like a whole different person.  As if he became more handsome by the minute.  As if he became stronger by the minute.

“But I know you’re still going to walk away.  I know you’re still going to be an object behind that stupid display.”

“Coby,” I take a deep breath for the sentence I’m about to say, “Even if I didn’t want to, it’s not my choice.” Iyell the last part and kick a small stone into the lake with my sneakers.

He stays silent and I take the opportunity to speak some sense into him.

“They chose me and we both knew what was going to happen.  So you’re being pathetic right now.”

“Run away with me.”

My head spins in circles and I’m speechless.  Run away with me.  Did he really just say that.  Run away with me?

I look at him to see if he’s joking but he only confronts me with seriousness.

“Coby?” I whisper.

“Run away with me.” He says again and a small tear escapes my eyes.  A tear escapes my eyes because he’s so prepared to do so much, just for me.  To run away, just for me.  To give up his life to make everything better for me.

“Why?” I try to swallow away the lump forming in my throat.

“Because I love you.”

Love.  A scary word.  Not the kind of love that forms from a friendship.  Not the kind of love that you have for a mom, dad, sister or brother.  More tears falls down my face.

“I don’t understand.”

“What’s so hard to understand, Emily?”  I flinch hearing him use my name for the first time.

“I thought we we’re just friends.”

“We are just friends, but I’ve been hiding my love for you all this time, “ This time a tear escapes his eyes, “It f*****g sucks man.”

Coby never swears.

“Why didn’t you tell me before?”

“Because I was scared.  I was scared because you didn’t look at me the same way I looked at you.  I was scared of rejection.”

I briefly close my eyes, trying to find the right way to handle this.  I don’t know what to do or what to say.

I notice a small fish making a splash in the water as I stare ahead at the miserable sky.  It feels as if my heart is beating in a million different ways and I don’t know which beat to follow.

“Coby,” I say eventually, “You know it’s not going to work.”

I don’t want him to give up his life for me.

“Why?”

“Just think about it. It’ll never work.”

“We can make it work.”

“No!” I turn and run away.  I can’t face his miserable state and I can’t face saying no to him.

“Emily, don’t do this.” he says, running after me.

“Leave me alone.”

“Just think about it.” And with that he lets me go.

I cry and stop to catch my gaspy breaths.  I don’t want to go home. Usually I spend my weekends at Coby’s but obviously I can’t right now.

The streets are quiet and empty, only the faint sound of birds flapping their wings of singing songs, invading my ears.

If only things can be that easy. If only…

When our house becomes in my view I see a black van standing in our driveway.  I frown.  I don’t know anyone with such a fancy black van.  

I slowly approach our driveway, contemplating if I should go in the house or walk past. When I eventually open the front door a man and  a woman sits in the living room. The man is wearing a black suit and looks like a security for the woman sitting on the couch.  She’s beautiful.   Her blonde curls fall perfectly till her lower back.  Her eyes are blue like the ocean and skin almost pure white. She looks like a princess.

“Emily.” She says and stands as soon as she sees me.  How does she even know me?

I look at mom, who’s standing with an irritating expression in the kitchen.

“Hi?”

“How are you? Please sit.” She says as if it’s her one house.  With a frown, I go sit on the couch in front of her, scanning her light pink dress, which is heavy overdressed.

“You are beautiful.”  She says with a gaze on me I really don’t want on me.

“Who are you?”

“I’m Elizabeth.” Wow, her name fits with everything about her.

“And why are you here.”

“Oh yes sorry,” She giggles and I sigh, “I’m here because of the glass display.  You were chosen, am I right?”

Oh.  The glass display.  I get a nauseated feeling in my stomach after what Coby said and did.  It doesn’t feel like I want to do it anymore but I know I don’t have a choice.  Run away with me.

The words keep playing over and over in my head.  And the kiss.

“Okay?”  I say questiongly, still not getting why she’s here.

“We have to go over some stuff and then you have to come with me.”

Yes.  I would be anywhere than here.

“Okay, cool.  We can just go now.”  I say looking back at mom, who clicks her tongue.  I’m sure she doesn’t want me here in anyway.

“Then we shall go.” She stands and me and the man with the black suit follow her towards te black van.

“Why do you have a security guard.”  I ask, entering the van.

“One day, you’ll understand.”  She says and sits next to me in the back, leaving the security alone without anyone in the passenger seat.

“Where are we going?”

“To my place.” She says, with a toothy grin as her place is an enchanted one.

“Were you behind the glass display once?”

“Yes.” The tone in her voice is obvious.  Yeah, obviously. Look how beautiful she is.

“So what happened, during the display?”

“Well, you stand there, people watch you and then they buy you.”

It does sound kind of disgusting, the way she puts it.

“And then?  What happens after you’ve been bought?”

“Depends.”  She says it with regret.  As if she has witnessed bad stuff happening and it’s replaying in her mind right now.

“Well, what happened to you?”

“I’ll show you.” 

I nod and look outside at the busy streets.  We rarely go out of our town.

When the van stops in front of a big and old rusty gate I frown.  The security takes out his phone and types something on it for the gates to slowly open.  The car surges forward and I’m met with a garden that seemed forbidden.  Even though it’s winter, the trees are different shades of green and colorful flowers decorate them.  The grass isn’t dead and wilted like ours but green and cut short.  It all looks like summer.

“Wow.” I say.

“I know right.” Elizabeth says with an excited smile.

“How is this possible? It’s winter.”

“Secrets.” 

The van stops and she jumps out, reminding me of a little girl. The security opens the door for me.

“Thank you.” I say and follow Elizabeth’s small and fast steps to a big wooden door.  She opens the door and eagerly gestures for me to follow her.  A sweet scent invades my nose and everything in the house is literally made out of wood.

She leads me to a small room filled with three green couches and insists me to sit.

“Want some tea?”

“Sure.”

“Okay, all this might be so strange for you.”

“A little.”

She gives me a cup filled with steamy tea and sits in front of me.  I take a small sip and savour the sweet taste.

“You are very beautiful.  And you know it’s only once in a while you walk up to such a beautiful person.”

I let out a deep breath, “I guess.”

“Okay I’m just going to cut all the sweet talk. You’re in deep trouble.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean like life or death.”

“Because of the glass display?”  I know it isn’t safe because you can’t trust anyone and I don’t know who might buy me.

“Yes but it’s not like they say it is.”

“Okay?” I say waiting for her to elaborate.

“They want to destroy beauty.”

“Destroy beauty?”

“Yes they want to erase everything beautiful.  Including love, kindness, everything.”

Who would want to do that. Destroy love?

“Wow.” I say feeling awe struck.

“And that’s where it starts with you and everyone who owns such beauty like yours.”

I gulp my gathered spit.

“They’re going to use you.”

“Did they use you then?”

“My brother helped me out of it and I’m living in hiding right now.”

“But.”  How did she make it to us then?

“Security and your mom isn’t a big problem.”

I hope she isn’t.  I let my eyes travel the warm orange walls, letting her information sink in.

“Istill don’t understand what you’re saying.” 

“My brother will elaborate.” She smiles and calls his name, “Lucas!”

After a few seconds a tall handsome man enters the room.  My mouth falls open.  Not that I’ve ever seen him in real life, but I know that he’s Lucious Staton, the guy who started the display.  Oh no.  Even though he’s tall and handsome with his light brown curls and dark green eyes I know I’m in deep trouble.