Stick People

Devonny closed her notebook and slowly brought the cap to her Sharpie. She looked down at the pitiful person she had drawn. So empty, the drawing was like a stick, and Devonny began to cry.

The empty stick girl looked up at Devonny, her sad eyes full, no mouth and Devonny knew she wasn't complete. But somehow, she didn't want to finish that stick girl. So, she didn't. As Devonny looked at the stick girl's pitiful face and sad eyes, she looked at the place where a mouth should be. Then, she realized that this stick girl had so much to say, but she couldn't speak. Not by force, but in some forbidden way, she just couldn't. Her eyes are desperately looking for someone to listen. But, instead, Devonny put the Sharpie away. She knew it would be like this for a long while. She knew it was too late to empty the eyes because they had already seen so much.

Devonny smoothed her hands over her belly. Empty, but so full of things to say, this stick girl had lived another day.

Sebastian Wakefield had a wealthy family, several siblings and large houses all over the world. Maybe a person like you or me would be thankful for that, but Sabastian wasn't. His father was the wealthy, handsome billionare Bruce Wakefield. He'd had 14 wives including the famous Rhiannon LeAmont, an Italian singer. She was the second of his wives, and Sabastian's mother.

Sebastian woke up and looked into his bathroom where a pair of girls' wadded up underwear was sitting. He rubbed his eyes, "Wow," he thought to himself, "What the heck are those?" A head popped up from the base of his bed.

Andrea Reynolds. She looked at Sabastain's startled face, "Oh crap," she said, "I so did not know that you were awake yet. Well, that's okay, my hot little party boy!!"

"YOUR hot little party boy? I think not." Sebastian looked away from her and shooed her with his hand, "So get on with it, get dressed," he commanded. He could see Andrea smirking out of the corner of his eye. She slipped a tee over her head and pulled on her underwear and a pair of shorts. He finally looked at her.
"What were you doing in my room?" he asked, with sarcasm.
She looked upset, "You don't remember? Oh my gosh, how sad for you! Well, see last night there was this big party on market street and..."
Sebastian glared, "Just get out."

When Andrea left, Sebastian lept out of bed and stormed down the stairs in his boxers, not bothering to brush his hair or get dressed.
"JENNNNNA!" he screamed at least 38 times. Right now, the Wakefields were staying at the London house, one of their largest.

Jenna tumbled down the stairs. She was his thirteen year old sister, four years younger than himself.
"Jenna, what did I tell you about all of your stupid little hooker friends?"
Jenna glared at him, she wasn't afraid of her step brother, "Andrea is not a hooker! She's one of my best friends! And put some pants on," she yelled as she stormed away.

He sighed. The doorbell rang. "Now I just have to find the door," he thought to himself.

Devonny rang the doorbell of the enourmous house, cowering with her basket of roses and wallet in hand. She waited...and waited...and waited some more. No one was coming, so finally she began to walk back down the long gravel pathway that she had come up. She heard the door open behind me.

"Um, Miss? Excuse me? Did you just ring the doorbell?" Devonny turned around and noticed a very handsome boy..but he was only wearing boxers which startled her. Suddenly she was very self-concious. She remembered her long stringy hair that hadn't been washed in ages and her slightly plump belly and dirty appearance.

"Oh, I'm terribly sorry, yes sir, here's the roses you ordered."
"Finally, I've been waiting for these stupid flowers for weeks, mother's day was yesterday you know? What took you so long!"
Devonny looked up with startled eyes.

Sebastian ripped the roses from the scroungy girls hands afraid of the grunge she might be getting on them. Devonny looked at him with terror, her whole body began to tremble.

When Sebastian looked into her trembling eyes, it felt like his heart was melting. But, being a boy, he had never experienced that feeling before, so he became alarmed. Although, he realized, under all the crap she was wearing and her horrible hair, her face was pretty, almost beautiful. "Ugh, stupid rose girl, what are you? A bewitching monster?" he thought to himself.

"Well, thanks for nothing," Sebastian manage to choke out as he shove some money into her hands. Devonny looked as if she was about to cry. So, Sebastian quickly slammed the door. But secretly, he watched her from the window as she scurried, like a frightened squirrel, back down the Wakefield's long, gravel path.

"Nothing feels right," Devonny said to the night air, she knew that no one was listening, that no one cared. She had made the biggest mistake of her life and at that moment, she felt ruined and trampled. She opened up her bare notebook. The whole book was empty with nothing but the stick girl on the very first page. Devonny was clearly not ready to draw the stick girl's mouth in. The stick girl clearly wasn't ready to speak.

Devonny picked up her Sharpie and flipped the page. She began to draw a baby, so beautiful, so innocent, being brought into this ugly, guilty world. The baby's eyes weren't full and she isn't a stick because she knows nothing yet. Suddenly Devonny wished to be what was inside of her. She didn't want to be what she was. She wanted to be the innocent baby she had drawn on her paper. The innocent baby inside of her.

"Doesn't anyone understand?" she yelled to the stars, "I want to be the innocent baby that's inside of me."

"What a strange girl," Sebastian thought to himself that night as he lay in his bed staring up at his ugly, brown ceiling. The Wakefield's newest mom had redecorated all the houses. Although Sebastian thought she wasn't much of a decorater. All of the new Wakefield moms redecorated. He guessed they felt like, if they were going to be in control, the house had to be all theirs. That's why Mr. Wakefield had one new house per wife. I knew that there were many more to come.

Sebastian couldn't fall asleep. He couldn't get the rose girl out of his mind. Her big brown eyes staring at him with fear and suddenly, he felt terrible. "Who was this girl? She had never delivered the roses before!" his head screamed.

So he finally decided to get out of bed and log onto his computer. He typed in, "Love and Lovely, Beautiful Roses for You." This was the name of the company he had ordered the roses from. He looked through the employee scanner. The girl who used to deliver was fired. "It's just as well," he thought, "She never did get the order right."

Sebastian scrolled down to where the old delivery girl's picture used to be. Instead, it said, "Devonny Muvalne, age 16, Delivery Girl." He choked on his breath. This girl was beautiful. Her hair was long and brown with natural highlights of red, it looked like silk and her beautiful eyes stared at you with sadness, even though a gorgeous smile was settled on her face. You could just tell that something was wrong when you looked at her.

Suddenly, Sebastian decided he would order a rose.

Devonny was woken by the loud yap of a man in his bakery yelling at her to move along off of his broken front bench. Devonny shyly tucked her stringy hair behind her ears and quickly scurried down the street to the big department store on the street corner of Beckley and Park Dr. It was still early. She spied two employees taking a smoke by the back door, one was yacking away on her cell phone and the other was listening to a beat up green Ipod mini while trying to blow smoke rings.

Devonny slowly walked right past them, and let herself through the back door where she galloped down the basement hallway to the employee bathrooms. Devonny let out a quiet giggle, "What awful security they have here," she thought and opened the door to a shower stall. She dropped her large satchel, thin black hoodie and dirty clothing onto the bench and quickly jumped into the warm water.

A shower was heaven to Devonny. She concentrated on the warm water and she scrubbed her head with a bar of soap while watching streaks of dirt drip off her body down the drain. It was hard for Devonny to enjoy her shower when she only allowed herself five minutes to be undressed and to let the water run over her body. Then she would scurry about brushing her hair and getting dressed so she could slip unseen out the doors without being caught.

Up the stairs, through the electronics section and out the front door. She didn't look like a poor urchin after her shower. She didn't feel like one either. She felt fresh and renewed and confident and she would head off to her job as a delivery girl where she earned enough to keep clothes on her body and food in her stomach.

After a shower, Devonny was ready to face the world.

Sebastian sat on the couch in his bedroom wearing a striped dress shirt and jeans, his hair freshly gelled and handsome looking, his eyes sparkling. A girl would go to any lengths to get Sebastian to fall in love with her. When they suceeded, which was rare, his love would only last for a few months maximum and then he'd be off on a wild chase to find what his heart was really searching for. Although he didn't know what that was yet, he was always restless to find out.