I don’t get high very easily. It’s like some sort of immunity my body seems to have to marijuana. It sucks, but sometimes, its better that way. Because of it, I’ve often gotten away with smoking, and today was no exception. If it weren’t for the horrible stench the smoke leaves behind, I probably would've been able to get away with it when Erinyes came to my room.

“How the hell did you get this past security?” she demands angrily, holing up the baggie I had bought off a guy by the airport restroom.

“I didn’t,” I reply, shrugging.

“Then where did you even…? You know what?” She drops the baggie back on the bed. “I don’t even want to know.”

“What are you doing here, Erinyes?” I ask her. I can feel her glaring into my back; she hated it when anyone used her first name, simply because she was embarrassed by the fact that Mom had named her after Furies – like the ones from Greek Mythology. For some reason, it had sounded cool to her; so Erinyes got stuck with her name, which was just another name for the infamous demons.

“I came up here to give you a piece of my mind,” she states, sniffing loudly. I roll my eyes.

“That’s not what I meant, Erinyes. I meant why are you here? In California?” She doesn’t say anything for a moment.

“I didn’t have a choice.” I scoff.

“Please,” I laugh. “Little Miss ‘I-Get-Everything-I-Want-Because-I’m-The-Princess’? Since when did you not ‘have a choice’?”

“You’re a real bitch, you know that, Daenerys?” I just shrug. “Anyway, if you must know, I wanted to come here. I haven’t seen Daddy in ages.” I laugh again.

“You’re not fooling anyone, Erinyes,” I tell her. “What about Payton? Or Josh? You know, the guy who you banged at Brittany Meyer’s party last month?” I turn around facing away from the open window, pleased that I’ve gotten the reaction I had wanted from her; the look of horror on her face was absolutely priceless.

“H-How did you know about that?” she squeaks.

“That’s need-to-know,” I tell her. Her face turns red with fury (ha, see what I did there?) and I smirk.

“I can’t believe you,” she growls. “I can’t believe you would just drag everyone down with you. You’re so… selfish.”

“You’re one to talk,” I mutter. She throws a pillow at me, knocking the burning blunt out of my hands and onto the carpet. “Hey!” I yell, bending down to pick it up. “Careful!”

“You know, if you would just stop smoking, we wouldn’t be in this situation now, would we?”

“You know,” I retaliate, “if you would just leave me alone and let me do my own thing, then you wouldn’t be here with me, now would you?”

“It’s just… not fair,” she says, her voice turning high. I want to hit someone over the head with a bat – preferably her. Was she seriously going to make this about her? “Why should I have to share your punishment?”

“What punishment?” I ask, taking a hit and blowing the pot smoke out the open window.

“Living with Dad,” she answers angrily. I pause for a moment.

“Since when is living with Dad a punishment?”

“You see?” she yells, pointing at me. “You see what I mean? For you, it isn’t even a punishment; you wanted to live with Dad! You wanted to come to California! That’s why you let yourself get caught! You wanted an excuse for Mom to ship you off.”

“Of course I did. I couldn’t handle living with the two most materialistic people in all of Michigan. Too bad one of them had to come with me anyway.”

“You know what, Daenerys? You’re a real bitch.” She turns to leave.

“You already said that,” I call after her.

“I don’t care!” she screeches, sounding vaguely like the real Erinyes (or Furies).

Once she’s gone, I blow out a final puff of smoke, and hide what’s left of the weed in the book I had specifically brought with me for stashing it. I stuff it into my bookshelf, glad I had chosen a neutral color to match the rest, so it didn’t stand out. It’s not like anyone touched them at all anyway.

To be quite honest, I did want to leave Michigan; to get away from Mom and Erinyes. Though I had planned on running away instead. I had been saving up for months, which is how I had enough to pay that drug dealer at the airport. California, however, would’ve been my last choice to run away to. I probably would’ve chosen to go to Washington or Maine or some more remote area of America. Somewhere cold and wet and sheltered, where no one would ever be able to find me.

Somewhere where Dad wasn’t.

I can’t remember a time when my father and I were close. Erinyes was always the favorite, even though she barely resembled Zack at all. She was always bringing home good grades, always drawing pictures to give to her family, always being an overachiever. Everyone loved her; she was a pile of happiness; a pocket full of sunshine.

But when it came to me, I was her polar opposite. If Erinyes brought home an ‘A’ on her last test, I would bring home an ‘F’. If she drew a picture of a happy family, I would draw a picture of a dead family. If she was an overachiever, I was an underachiever. While everyone was busy loving her, everyone silently despised me. It was inevitable. I had gotten stuck with the “evil twin” roll. And I hated it.

And as for living with Dad being a punishment, well, it wasn’t the worst punishment in the world. While I often hated Dad – though I really do seem to hate everyone, to be quite honest – it was better than living with Mom. She was always so controlling. She never let me do anything, which is why I started doing everything. While Erinyes and I had both been mistakes, she had gone above and beyond what everyone expected of her, while I didn’t give them a chance to expect anything of me.

I lived up to my unspoken label. I lived up to the fact that I was nothing more than a mistake. If it had been just Erinyes, then my parents probably wouldn’t have minded so much. If it had just been Erinyes, then everyone would’ve been so much happier. Sure, she would’ve still been a mistake, but if she would be the same person she is now, people wouldn’t even think of her like that. They wouldn’t think of her the same way they thought of me.

And I guess in a way, I am a little selfish. I didn’t often think of others when I decided to do something, but it’s not like I had anyone to think of when I did. I just do what I want to, and don’t let anyone stop me. They can all pretend like they care, but it’s clear they don’t. They just don’t want anyone to judge them for being honest, so they put on this act that makes them seem like concerned family members, when really, they do want me to die.

Well, the feeling’s mutual.

As the high finally hits me, I crawl over to my bed. Nothing seemed more appealing right now then to curl up into a ball and cry. I bundle myself in the unnecessarily thick blankets, willing myself to let go and let everything out right then. But nothing comes out, so I sit there in a sort of hypnotic state until I finally begin to drift off.

Notes

A/N: Edited: Jan. 7, 2015

So I realized that, with this story, the guys aren't really in it too much until about chapter five or six, and the first few chapters were just kind of an introductory-thing. To fix this, I originally was going to combine a few chapters together, and I even renamed the first part, which I posted more than a week ago, as the introduction. After a week of internal debate, I decided against it, and I am going with the original format of the story, which means the guys won't really be in it for quite a few more chapters.

As for the POV thing, I hope it didn't confuse anyone too much. The "Erinyes" chapters are told from third-person omniscient, and the "Daenerys" chapters are told from first-person. So far, from what I've written, every other chapter is from one of the girls' POV, however this is subject to change as the story unfolds.

Hope you enjoyed this part.

~WOLFY~