Confessions on a Bedroom Floor

Once upon a time, there was a princess who was brought to a small village to live a normal life after she had been cursed from an evil sorceress on her first birthday. This is not that story. But like most stories, this one begins with a ‘once upon a time’ and ends in a ‘happily ever after.’

Once upon a time, there was a girl. This would be the perfect time to explain how different, yet beautiful, the girl was. But unfortunately, she wasn’t different and she wasn’t beautiful. Her name was Jane, she was sixteen years old, and the only word that could describe her perfectly was basic.

Now would be the perfect time to describe that one special day that changed her life. The day when she learned that she was the only one who could save the world. The day when she found out that she really wasn’t Jane, but someone important from another village who was never meant to live here in the first place. This isn’t that story.

But there was a day that did change her life.

After spending several long hours at her boyfriend’s apartment, Jane decided to walk home. Her boyfriend, Jake, wasn’t that very good looking, and he really didn’t see anything special in Jane, but he needed a woman’s touch in his lifestyle. Jane didn’t really care about Jake that much anyway; she wanted to be someone’s property.

It was around three o’clock in the morning, the temperature was sixty-four degrees, and the moon resembled an egg. Jane was wearing dark bluejeans, a t-shirt, her dirty orange sandals, and a navy blue sweatshirt with a hood. With her iPod earphones in her ears and listening to an Annie Lennox song, she continued to walk past the dark alley where the stray cats lived in the garbage cans.

“Doo-bee-doo-bee-doo-doo-doo -oh-oh” were the strange lyrics going on in her head. She stopped while raising an eyebrow to pull out her iPod. “What kind of song am I listening to?” she asked herself. Jane clicked the buttons and scrolled her finger along the circular wheel on the iPod until she reached a song by Madonna called “Hung Up.”

She started singing softly to herself, “time goes byâÂ?¦so slowlyâÂ?¦”

Unexpectedly, a hand grasped Jane’s right shoulder from behind her. The hand forced her to turn around, and another hand hauled the earphones out of her ears. Jane’s eyes met with her assaulter’s eyes.

“Whatchoo listenin’ to?” questioned the assailant in a feminine sounding yet masculine voice.

Jane didn’t respond. She took a step back, then two more, and then she was about a yard away from the attacker. Her mouth opened when she saw the man. He was wearing a pink leotard.

“Who the hell are you?” Jane asked, scared.

“Let me listen to Madonna. I love her,” replied the man.

“I can tellâÂ?¦” she muttered.

In what seemed like a split second, the man ran to her with his arms flying in the air. He threw himself at Jane, and tackled her to the ground. As she was screaming, he reached and grabbed the iPod out of her hands. He put the wire in its corresponding hole and stuck the earphones in his ears. He closed his eyes and started singing along to the song in his uncanny feminine voice. He looked down at his prey and spontaneously decided to finish what he was thinking about starting. He pulled the iPod to his eyesight, clicked the ‘back’ button and inserted an earphone into Jane’s ear. He had her pinned down to the ground and started his rape scene. Every thrust of his body corresponded with the beat of the song. Madonna was right; time goes by so slowly.

And even though the two were in front of a 24 hour deli, no one came out to save the heroine of this story.

As soon as the song ended, the man in the pink leotard threw the iPod at her and ran away. Jane was in shock. What the hell had just happened?

Jane stood up and put her pants on. She held her iPod and ran as fast as she could to her house. The door was opened and with tears in her eyes, she screamed and shouted “HELP!” until she couldn’t shout anymore. Jane’s father ran downstairs like there was no tomorrow.

“Jane! What’s wrong?” he exclaimed.

“A man wearing a pink leotard raped me!”

Her father remained silent. Jane was breathing really hard and tears were still streaming down her face. Who would believe a completely random explanation like that?

“Go back to sleep,” said her father, irritated that he was woken up for no real reason. He then walked back to his room.

Jane slowly climbed up the stairs and crawled to her bedroom. With her tears dried on her face, she curled up on her bed and started chanting “time goes by so slowly” over and over again until the sun rose. Jane didn’t sleep until then, but she was awoken by a girl who looked exactly like her.

“Janey! Wakey-wakey!” sang the girl. Jane opened her eyes and thought she was looking into a mirror.

“Yay! Janey is awakey-wakey!” the girl continued to sing.

“Who are you and what are you doing here?” questioned Jane.

“Didn’t you miss me, Janey? I’m your first best friend, Lainey!”

It took her a few seconds, but Jane finally realized that she was hallucinating. Lainey was her first imaginary friend.

Lainey sat down on Jane’s bed and leaned over at her. She had a really scary smile that did not leave her face, just like a little child would when they were happy.

“I can’t believe you’re here, Janey! I’ve been waiting here for so long! We have so much to talk about,” serenaded Lainey. Jane decided to play along.

“How long has it been? More than ten years, right? I’ve missed you so much,” Jane falsely said.

Lainey threw her arms around Jane and hugged her. Jane didn’t hug her back. Lainey then stood up and ran to the door. She turned around, still smiling, and looked at Jane.

“I brought some friends over to celebrate our reunion!”

Lainey opened the door, and about seventeen teenagers wearing the strangest clothing and makeup entered the room. One of them was wearing a costume with an actual boom-box on it, and it was playing the song “Hung Up” by Madonna.

Jane sat up in her bed, her eyes wide, her body temperature high, and her legs numb.

“WhatâÂ?¦the hellâÂ?¦is going on?”

As the teenagers started prancing and dancing on the floor of Jane’s bedroom to the song by Madonna, Jane’s heart kept beating faster and faster until it was synchronized with the beat of the song. Lainey ran up to Jane and pulled her arms so she could get up and dance with her. Jane resisted and started screaming “No!” every time she was tugged upon.

Lainey kept pulling Jane’s arms until they somehow ripped from her body.

Lainey ran back to the teenagers and danced with Jane’s arms to the music playing in the background.

Jane screamed. Where did her arms just go? How did they fall off? She kept screaming, her head falling onto her pillow and trying to escape the strange madness she was trapped inside of.

She kept moving, but every time she blinked, what she saw changed. One second she was armless, trying to escape the music playing in her bedroom. The next second, she was trapped inside a straight jacket, trying to escape the hands of the hospital workers and her parents.

“Jane! Jane! Wake up! You’re dreaming!” shouted her father as he held her head straight with his hands. Jane continued to shake, but she realized that she was actually in her room with no music but a bunch of adults trying to make her sane.

“We’re doing this for the best, Jane,” said Jane’s mother, with her hand on her husband’s shoulder.

The hospital workers picked her up and one strong one cradled her in his arms and took her downstairs and out into the ambulance. He fastened her in the back of the ambulance, and then sat in front of her.

As Jane continued to shake, she saw that Lainey was sitting next to the hospital worker, listening to an iPod.

“Every little thing that you say or doâÂ?¦I’m hung upâÂ?¦I’m hung up on youâÂ?¦” sang Lainey.

The hospital worker looked at Lainey and asked, “Can I listen to that?” Lainey nodded and handed the iPod and earphones to the man. He started dancing around in his seat, and Lainey joined him.

Jane rocked in her seat, staring at the man sitting in front of her. At one split second, when both their eyes met, she realized that the only thing missing from the man was a pink leotard.