Author: Me
Rating: Teen/Mature
Category: All CC Focus mainly on M/L and Liz for the beginning
Disclaimer: I have nothing to do with Roswell, or UPN, or Jason Katims, or Melinda Metz, just borrowing. This story was inspired by "The Butterfly Effect" I don't plan on following the story line of the movie or anything like that I just liked the idea of the chaos theory and how changing one small thing in the past can lead to an entirely different future...
Summary: Okay, it may be a little ruff and sketchy in the first few parts, but please bare with me. Also there will be two times going on...I don't want to say too much because I don't want to give anything away but the *** represent a switch in POV's sort of, well more like a switch in story lines. I think it will make sense however if it's terribly confusing just let me know!
I have a really good place I want to take this story...so I hope I can get it there...so please leave your feedback pretty please
Prologue
April 3rd, 1999
It’s so weird to pack up your life. Living in the same room, in the same house, in the same neighborhood, in the same town, your entire life can help you accumulate things. Every thing that I pick up, even though it has sat on a shelf collecting dust for years, holds a small memory or impression of the history and story that makes up my life. How are you suppose to pick what can be left behind and what can’t? Isn’t my whole life equally important, what defining trinkets am I more willing to part with than others?
That’s what you have to do when your whole life leaves you. You’re left with trinkets of a fond past, mocking your dreaded future. That’s what you have to do when your parents die leaving you to live with an Uncle you know as well as the mailman. That’s what you do when your life falls apart.
****
I don’t know how long I sat on my lawn chair crying after he disappeared. I had no reason to stop, no reason to hope left, it was all gone. After that things were never the same. I knew how much I had hurt Max, and it hurt even more to know I may have broken him permanently. My Grandma had always said, “Be nice to everyone, for everyone you meet is fighting a harder battle.” I tried to live by this and always prided myself on being a nice person; a person that didn’t hurt other people, a person that didn’t kill other people, a person that didn’t break other people.
However, I took comfort in the fact that I had the power to break Max. I knew how much he was hurting, but in some sadistic way knowing only I could make him hurt so much, helped me get through the next day. I did my best to appear as normal as possible, Kyle knew something was wrong and tried to be my friend so much after that. He kept me from fully disappearing, because I knew even if I tried he would have gone to Max in a heartbeat and told him everything if it looked like I was shrinking into myself.
Kyle, poor Kyle, I can’t take full credit for ruining Kyle’s life, Max definitely had a part in that, but then again so did we all. Kyle always got the crappy end of the deal, he never received the respect or attention he so desperately desired from his father, he never got the girl; and the one time he sort of did, she betrayed his trust so deeply that he could never find it in himself again to judge the good in a person, being so wrong the last time. He was one of those people created for the sole purpose of providing a background of life for the rest of us, never the hero, always an extra. Poor Kyle.
****
“Elizabeth! Elizabeth?”
I turned at the sound of my name to see a man heading towards me, of course, my Uncle Jeff. He pulled me into a hug,
“Everything’s going to be okay now.”
I cringed at the contact. I was so sick of being hugged by people I didn’t know, being told everything would be okay when it wouldn’t. How could it be?
“I almost didn’t recognize you, you’ve gotten big.” He said
“Yeah, you know people have a funny way of doing that between six and sixteen.” I replied rather curtly and immediately bit my tongue for being rude, this was guy giving me a home.
We drove for what seemed like forever before finally reaching the smallest of all small towns. Roswell was everything I expected to be, it was everything that my home wasn’t. It had one main road and it would be so easy to just keep on driving, out of the town and never look back. But we stopped.
I looked at the building we pulled up in front of. My Uncle got out getting my bags from the trunk as I stared rather unhappily at what was to become my new home. My Uncle must have caught on to my disapproving look because he quickly said,
“It’s not much yet I know, but it’s, let’s say a work in progress…” he said as we made our way through the double doors in front.
My Uncle, from what little I knew about him, was notorious for get-rich-quick scemes, and his status as a bachelor. I remember my parents fighting when I was younger about whether or not my mother would lend him money again, however, he had called my parents not too long before promising a steady carrer opportunity for a change. It was a good thing he chose now to settle down, otherwise who knows where I’d have ended up.
I walked into what could only be described as a disaster area, there was sheet rock all over the floor, shavings on a newly installed countertop, no overhead lights to speak of, and chairs and tables stacked haphazardly in one corner of the room.
“Love, what you’ve done with the place.” I said sarcastically,
I doubt my Uncle noticed since I didn’t receive a response, or perhaps he was just ignoring my attempts at being a pain in the ass. We continued through the front room into a smaller back room where a stair case led up on one side. It creaked as we walked up it and he mentioned something about one of the stairs needing to be replaced. We reached the top landing. Although, wasn’t really a landing at all, more like a hallway with two doors leading off of it one at each end. His room was the one on the right closet to the stairs, while mine was the one on the left furthest from the stairs.
I immediately took note of the difficulty I would have sneaking out at night having to pass his room in order to do so. I walked into my new room and couldn’t help the grimace that escaped me again. It was nothing like what I was accustomed to, the wall opposite me, wasn’t even a wall, but bricks of the building that had never been covered, a small door in the corner which I assumed led into a bathroom since I had already took into account the small opening in the wall I assumed was my closet. On the other wall, there were three grimy windows that led out to a roof top, the only good part, because I could work with that.
My Uncle brought my bag in and set it down next to a cot looking around nervously.
“Uhh, I figured once you got here I would let you go out and pick out your bed and some furniture and stuff since I don’t really know your tastes you have a closet and your own bathroom but the bathroom needs a little bit of plumbing work but once the shower’s had a good scrub it will be fine and then the windows lead out to the roof and I think there’s a fire escape out there but I would be careful the roof may not be that sturdy.” He said in a rush
I could see how nervous he was, never living with anyone and then having a teenage girl under your responsibility had to be intimidating. But I didn’t feel sorry for him. Yeah, it does suck to have to adjust your entire life because of extenuating circumstances, but it really didn’t matter to me whether or not my Uncle felt comfortable having me around
“Thanks.” I said quickly
“I’m right down the hall if you need anything, so if you get hungry or something, uhh just call.” He said as he made his way around me to the door.
I didn’t answer, just felt the satisfaction of the resounding click of the door closing behind him.
Okay--What do you think? does it make sense? Should I continue?
As I expected there was a little confusion but let me see if I can clear it up...
And on Christmas break now so my plan is to be able to finish this story and then get on a regular updating schedule...I think that sounds good lol.