Words Unspoken

The Sun in the L.A Horizon had now begun to set as I was making my way back home. I held onto the strap of my satchel, strolling down the sidewalk and kicked a pebble along the pathway. I lifted my head and looked up at the sky, keeping my eyes on the pink/orange sunset that lit up the sky, which was the only beautiful thing we have in our lives right now.

Everywhere I go, everything looks the same. There are days where I wish that some sort of excitement would happen because all I do is wake up, go to work, come home and the only "fun" thing in my life is going to the library and reading random books or sitting at a cafe and reading as well.

One of the reasons I am the way I am is because of my parents. They're very cautious of everything around them and they've been keeping me and my brother on a leash, not able to explore and find ourselves. I see people around me, like Noah for instance, and it seems that he has a lot of fun and has his life put together, despite the fact of the type of world we live in right now.

As I mentioned before, there's not much technology left in the world, and the ones who own them are those who are rich and powerful or famous, and people like that are well protected and also support the government and their laws in making sure every middle and lower class human being abides to these regulations. Which is pretty unfair to say the least.

So yes, many years of riots and protests and the only people who get away are the rich and powerful, who live in their own restricted area away from the rest of the population.

My thoughts kept wandering about how these rich people kept getting away with all this technology while the rest of us were stuck, not even moving forward, not evolving.

As I kept pondering on it, some movement from the corner of my eye caught my attention. I quickly looked over between two houses and saw someone disappear behind one of them. My eyes wandered the streets to see if anyone else saw what I did, but nothing. I stood there for a minute before mustering up the courage to find out what that was.

Slowly but surely I crept my way over to the house, my hands gripped tightly on the strap of my bag. My eyes scanned the area and then at the house to see if there was anything different. Nothing. What caught my attention was the sound of something shaking and spraying.

Furrowing my eyebrows I continued to make my way over to the back corner of the house. Holding my hand on the wall of the house, I slowly peaked my head around the corner and my eyes widened at what I just witnessed.

It was a guy dressed in all black clothing, a hood over his head and a mask just covering his mouth and nose. He shook the can a few times as he continued to spray the wall but stopped as he slowly turned his head in my direction. I quickly moved and leaned my head against the wall as nerves took over my entire body hoping he didn't see me.

A minute had passed and it was eerily quiet. I finally turned and peaked around the corner but the hooded figure was gone. Furrowing my eyebrows I stood up straight and slowly walked over to where he was spray painting. My eyes widened at the sight. The rebellion signature and their logo was spray painted on the house. I stared up at the bright red words for a good few seconds before quickly looking around to make sure no one saw me. Thankfully no one did, but something told me that someone was watching, which made me feel the hairs on my neck stand up. I shivered slightly and looked around once more before taking off and rushing back home.

Once I entered my house, I closed the door behind me and locked it as I leaned against the wall to catch my breath.

"Sam? Is that you?" My mom called from the kitchen hearing bags and boxes rustle.

"Yeah it's me." I replied now that I had calmed down a bit walking into the kitchen. Kyle was sitting at the table reading a history book as he munched on some fries. Mom was setting boxes of food on the table.

"Hungry?" She asked as she grabbed herself a plate and sat down at the table.

"Uh, not really no, I'll eat later." I said as I hung my satchel on the hook by the door and rummaged through the cabinets. I grabbed a mug and walked over to the pantry taking out the tea. Once I made my tea, I took a small sip and sat at the table.

"Where's dad?" I asked, glancing over at my mother who was eating.

"He's in his study." She replied as I nodded my head and took another sip of my tea.

"How did the interview go?" I asked, a smile forming on my mothers face.

"It actually went pretty well, I was just telling Kyle about it." She said motioning to my brother

"What's the job?" I asked, raising an eyebrow and watching her facial expressions. I could already tell she was happy by the way she started talking about it. Her facial expression lit up the room. It was good to see my mom happy again. Ever since she lost her job, she hasn't been the same. She's usually a happy bubbly person, despite the overprotectiveness she instills sometimes. Overall she's a great mother.

"It's the new tailor shop downtown, Also a cleaning service. It's better pay and better hours." She said smiling.

"That's great mom." I said, taking another sip of my tea.

For a moment everything seemed perfect, like the world around us didn't matter. Things were normal, my mother getting a new job, my dad getting a promotion, my brother's final year of high school and me, even though I have a simple job I still didn't mind it for the time being.

"There's something I have to tell you guys." I blurted out. I looked up to see my mom and Kyle staring at me when my dad walked in. My brother gave me a confused look but his eyes widened, he knew exactly what I was going to say.

"Samantha? What is it?" My mom asked when I hadn't said anything yet. My dad sat down next to me at the table and kept his gaze on me, eyebrows furrowed.

I took in a long deep, shaky breath before speaking up.

"I saw the graffiti marks." I mumbled under breath, my head shifted down to my hands as I picked at my fingernails

"You what?" My mother said with gritted teeth. My gaze flickered over to her. Her happy demeanor quickly changed to an angry one. Glancing over to my father he had a disappointed look on his face and I looked over at my brother who pinched the bridge of his nose, shaking his head slightly.

I instantly regretted saying anything but I couldn't keep it to myself any longer.

"We have to page the authorities." My mom quickly spoke up as she reached into her bag and rummaged through it looking for her pager

"What? No! No, don't do that! I'm not gonna say anything." I said as I reached my arm over to stop her from alerting the authorities but she pushed my arm away, glaring over at me.

"Samantha, this is a serious issue, you can't just keep these things to yourself and not tell us." She said sternly.

"Your mother is right Samantha." My dad replied, finally speaking as I looked over to see his arms crossed over his chest.

"I wasn't going to tell you at all, but I thought if I did it would be something we kept between us." I mumbled softly.

My mother sighed, rubbing her face with her hands as she shook her head in disbelief. "Sweetheart, keeping things like this can lead us into serious trouble, do you want to end up in prison? Do you want any of us to end up in prison? Do you want any of us to end up dead! How could you be so selfish!"

"Selfish?? I am not being selfish!" I yelled back at her standing up from my seat.

"I am sick and tired of living in this stupid, fucked up world we call home!"

The room got silent and everyone stared at me, eyes widened, shocked at what I just said.

"I...I..." was all I could get out before turning on my heels and grabbing my bag, quickly rushing out the door.

Hearing the shouts of my name being called out but I didn't pay attention to them, I just kept running and running as fast as my legs could take me without looking back. This was it. This was the end for me. I knew by the look on their faces they were just as stunned as I was. Even though they were my family, they were obligated to alert the authorities, and for two reasons now. One, I saw the graffiti and two, I cursed for the first time in my 24 years of existence and man did it feel good! I didn't regret a single word, and I wasn't being selfish, or was I?

My running slowed down to a jog as I tried to keep my breathing intact without passing out here and now. This was the longest and fastest I've run ever in my life. As I stopped into my tracks, I turned in circles to see where exactly I ended up.

I could hear footsteps in the distance, getting closer and closer from behind. I had nothing on me to protect myself but my own self. My hands gripped into tight fists, ready to fight off this person but they spoke up, easing my nerves.

"Hey.." The voice called out to me. All tension was slowly released as I turned to see who it was.