1997: Chapter 1 - We must stumble before we can walk

Sunday, January 5th 1997 - 8:00 A.M. EST - Ontario, New York

Groggy. That’s how I felt. Hung over would be a better word, if I drank. I hadn’t gotten drunk since 2011. God had it been that long? But yet, here I was, waking with a headache in my teenager bedroom. I rolled onto my stomach and tried to pick myself up with my arms. It worked, sort of. My arms were shaky. Couldn’t expect every day to be a good one, I suppose. I had stayed up the night prior watching old T.V. shows. Well, old to me, not to everyone else. At the same time I was writing a letter to Danielle. We had become pen pals since we last saw each other. I looked over at the clock. 8 a.m. Damn, I had planned on waking up 3 hours earlier for a run. I forced myself to my knees. Oh god, the pain in my head. What the hell hit me? I had gotten a drink of water, used the bathroom, came back to my bedroom and ended up passing out. Sherley had two friends over, I remember that much. I could hear them downstairs. What were their names again? The guy, he was the boyfriend of the girl. Kevin? No, something else. K sound though. Carl? No, that wasn’t it either. What about the girl? Amanda? Amy? No, those weren’t right. Abigail. Yeah that was her name. I remembered her being cute, with that kind of curly black hair that only was really seen on Television. My first time around I had a crush on her, but this time, I knew her better than that. She was a bitch. And though she smiled, I could just tell it was fake. So why did I feel like death? Everything else from the night before had felt normal. Was it the flu? I felt my forehead. No, no flu, no high temperature. No nausea. No ear ache for me. No, that wasn’t it at all. I recognized this feeling now. It was the lack of sleep. I hadn’t felt this for a while. Not since before Annie passed. Yeah, I needed to get up and moving.

I struggled to get to my feet when there was a knock at my door.

“Yeah?” I groggily called out.

“Can I come in?” Meagan called in.

“Sure, Kiddo.” I said.

Meagan entered the room and looked at me.

“You look like crap.” She said.

“Trying to get on a military sleep schedule. 5 hours in the rack.” I said. “Though I think I should swap the hours with school starting tomorrow. Maybe in bed by midnight, up by five.” I said before I stretched.

“Military? Are you joining?” She asked.

“No clue yet.” I said. “To get where I want to be, I’d have to bring up my grades and get in way better shape.” I pointed out.

“What would you do in the Military?” Meagan asked.

“Tech support would be my fallback, Officer would be my main goal.” I said.

She laughed.

“You? In Tech support?” She smiled.

“Yeah. I can build, fix, and maintain computers. I also type at about one hundred and fifty words per minute.” I pointed out.

“No way. No effing way.” Meagan said.

“Way.” I said as I really got deep into my stretching.

She took my hand and led me downstairs to the den, which was at the back area of the house near Chloe’s room. Elyssa was already on the computer there. It was an old windows 95 Packard Bell. It had speakers on the monitor, and boy did it bring back memories. Meagan walked up to Elyssa and pulled her out of her daze.

“Hey Elyssa, I need the computer real quick.” Meagan said.

“Real quick? Yeah right.” Elyssa said.

“No really. It won’t take over five minutes. I promise.” Meagan promised.

“Okay. Let me log out.” Elyssa said.

“No, leave it logged in, we won’t hurt what you’re doing.” I said.

“But I’m talking with ... a friend.” Elyssa said.

“Trust me, he won’t mind.” I said.

Elyssa turned and gave me a look before surrendering her seat to me. I sat down, cracked my knuckles and sighed.

>Angel5997: Brb, bro wants computer fast.

>SumDude1776: Sure.

I began typing, without looking after making sure I was on the entry section of the messenger.

>Angel5997: Hey this is her brother. How are you today? Me? I woke up with a headache after getting only 5 hours of sleep without trying to acclimate my body. You know the weird thing about it is that after some stretching, I felt fine. You know, got to get the blood flowing. Why am I telling you all this? Well, I’m proving to our younger sister that I can type really really fast. By the way, if you’re wondering about my sister, I should tell you she is totally single. Yeah, that’s right, my sister is single and I’m telling you to go for it. Yep, you can go for it. I bet she’d like you. Well, I have to go as they’re now giving me wide eyed looks. K thx bye.