The Moon Betrayed Me | Teen Ink

The Moon Betrayed Me

March 25, 2011
By Boolovesyou SILVER, Christiansburg, Virginia
Boolovesyou SILVER, Christiansburg, Virginia
7 articles 0 photos 0 comments

Ginny used to be normal; a petite girl with big dreams. She yearned to be a big time actress. Above all she just wanted to be perceived as a dazzling girl who everyone wanted to be friends with.

So, the question is : How did she end up dirty, abandoned and drained of life in an alleyway? It could of been the reach for her dreams that made her fall so low, or maybe Ginny was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

It was 1960. The Cold War was raging on, and John F. Kennedy was in office. Ginny sat on her roof, still a mere child the age of 13, playing with her rag doll. Ignorant children ran around the street laughing. The wind swirled around her, causing her hair to fly up in the wind. She could vaguely hear the show, Bewitched, coming from her mother's room.

Ginny’s parents were shouting at each other. They had been fighting like this for years now, and she knew they never paid attention to her when they were fighting. She would always sneak on to the roof. The moon would smile down at her illuminating the night sky. It was her favorite thing about night.

Imagining the moon was her protector, Ginny could go anywhere at night without becoming afraid. She would often sneak out to the bakery on Main Street that always had someone making delicious, warm bread.

Ginny skidded down the edge of the roof to where the gutter was and jumped off on to the dog house she had purposely move there.

“ That is it! I'm done. You perverse our child with your cussing, drinking, and smoking. Then you have the nerve to blame me. Was I the one who wasted all the money last Christmas too?” A door slammed.

The neighborhood kids scattered like bomb was going to hit. Ginny’s dad stormed out of the house, suitcase in hand. In a flash he was in his car and driving down the street.

Ginny ran after his small car screaming, “Dad!” her brown hair flying in the wind. He never looked back, and that was the last time she saw him turning the corner on to Louis Street.

“ Mom! I'm home.” Ginny screamed. There was no answer. “Okay, its safe. She is probably drunk; passed out in her room.”

“ Man, that is awesome. You must get away with everything.” Lindsay whispered as they tip toed down stairs to Ginny’s room.

“ Right...” Ginny laughed. She knew all to well how untrue that was. It defiantly was not awesome. Most days she would come to her broken mother screaming about anything that made her a wretched, old sob. Ginny held back the tears that threatened to run over her eye lids.

They had reached her room, and intruded it. Ginny pulled out a bottle of only the “finest” vodka. Which in all reality meant the cheap stuff. Her mother would not even notice it was gone.

“ Dude you have your own TV in your room? So lucky. I wish I had your life.” Lindsay was Ginny’s blissfully dense friend. They met a month ago at school. The only day that Ginny decided to show up to school, and had not since.

“ Can you hand me a cig. They are in the draw. ” Ginny opened the bottle of vodka and took a sip. She was not fond of the drinking thing, but she thought it would make her look good in front of her only friend.

“ Sure.” Lindsay tossed Ginny the pack of cigarette and clicked the big power button on the TV, causing it to light up.

“ In recent news John F. Kennedy was assassinated today during the Presidential motorcade by a fatal shot. His killer remains at large.”

“ Depressing.” Ginny mumbled, lighting up her cigarette.

For a hour Lindsay and Ginny took turns taking swigs from the bottle of vodka. In a drunken stupor they lit cigarettes and dropped them on the floor after only a few takes.

“ Hey Gin.”

“ Yeah Lin?”

“You got something on your face.” Lindsay leaned over to wipe it off, lost her footing, and fell on top of Ginny. Her cigarette landed in the blankets on the bed. “Whoops.” Lindsay giggled.

Ginny laughed. Her mind was in a fog, everything seemed hilarious to her. That was when Lindsay’s lips connected with hers and she found her self swept up in the moment. Everything was a haze and seemed to blend in Ginny’s mind.

Shortly after Ginny realized what was really happening. “ What are you doing?” She pushed Lindsay off her. “What the crap, Lindsay!” Ginny backed away from Lindsay.

“What? I was just joking around.”

“Well, it was not funny Lindsay!”

“ Ok! Sorry.” Lindsay looked ashamed. “Gin, do you smell smoke? I mean, a lot of smoke.”

On the bed a fire had become apparent and was reducing the sheets into ashes. It had already become to big for the girls to quench. They shrieked and ran into obstacles whilst trying to get out of the room.

Once out side Ginny realized she left her mother up stairs. She ran back towards the house which was already letting off enormous amounts of smoke into the now polluted air. Lindsay grabbed her, “What are you doing?”

“My moms in there!” Ginny cried.

Sirens screamed down the street.

“The firemen will get her Ginny! Don’t you dare go in there, you’ll die!”

“She is my mom!” However, by the time Ginny had gotten out of Lindsay’s grasp, the firemen had come and were holding her back.

Ginny watched in tears as the fire caused the roof she had loved to cave in. Firemen were busy all around her. One of them, a bulky young man, came out of Ginny’s house carrying a middle aged woman.

They lay the stiff, motionless body of the woman on a stretcher. Paramedics whispered to each other before coming over to Ginny.

“Your mother was already gone before the fire started.” The man had a dismayed look on his face and would not look her in the eyes. “ We did all we could, but its no use. We called social services and they will be here shortly to pick you up till you can be brought in for questioning.” Ginny noticed how the man was telling her all the bad stuff, like ripping off a Band-Aid, and after he told her the sting was plainly there. The man walked back over to consult the other men.

“ Gin,” A voice squeaked behind her, “ I know you're in a lot of pain, but if we don’t get out of her now who knows what will happen to you.” It was Lindsay.

“ I know...” Ginny tremors , “lets go.”

Two bus tickets later Ginny and Lindsay were out of Hereford, Texas and on their way to Las Vegas, Nevada. The moon as their protector.

“ Ginny! This is amazing! Come look!” Lindsay stood by the hotel window gaping at all the bright lights of Las Vegas. Her blonde hair had gone past her shoulders now and she was in desperate need of a shower. Ginny and Lindsey had been off and on busses for days, and decided to save all their money so they could get a hotel room once reaching their destination.

“ I know, just let me count our money first. I don’t think we should have spent so much for one night.” Ginny had worry lines covering her face.

“ It was so worth it! Come look!”

Ginny trudged off the bed over to the window. She admired the moon before returning to her depression. “ Great. How long do you think 135 dollars will last us?”

“ Ginny, its ok! Marcus says he can maybe get you an audition for the Shakespearean play.”

“ Yeah, and what does that pay?”

“Depends what part you get.” Lindsay smiled at Ginny. She was always the positive one in the group.

“If I get one. I cannot believe how quickly we ran out of money. We may have to get a job at that motel.” Ginny sat on the pavement in a dark ally the moon glowed down on her, leaving a shadow on the wall of the building.

“ But! They say the boss is a pervert!”

“ So! We will die if we cannot eat, and we have already dine and dashed half of the restaurants out here! I'm turning 17 next week so maybe I can get that job as waitress.” That's lightly banged her head again the brick wall she was leaning against. “ You know if you had not been drinking so much we would still have some money left.”

“ Hey! That is not fair. You were drinking to!”

Ginny snorted, “ Not half as much as you.”

“Hey girls! I got it for you Ginny.” Marcus shouted. They met him at one of the bars that did not check IDs. “ You have the audition, and the manager says he cannot wait, he needs to fill parts now. So your it is in half a hour."

“Your Kidding? I haven’t showered in days. I look like a hobo!” Ginny was thrilled and scared of the news.

“You are a hobo, but it does not matter. You better get over there. Now!” Marcus pushed her towards the entrance to the ally way.

“Alright!” She stumbled out into the street. She glanced back once only to see Marcus and Lindsay all over each other like pigs.

When she was almost down the street she heard Marcus call out, “ Rock it skinny, white girl! We are counting on you!”

Life is good. Ginny scribbled this down in her diary. Things have gotten so much better. I'm on my way to becoming big! Oh, dairy remember last year when we could barely afford a cheap dirty motel. Now we are living with Marcus. We don’t even have to pay rent! I can’t wait for another audition. I have been in 12 plays so far! I haven’t made a lot of money, but i can afford food.

Oh, yeah. Marcus got a really good job. He won’t tell me what so I kind of just assume its better left alone. Ginny sat by the window writing in the moonlight.

Lindsay and I are closer then ever. She’s turning 18 soon, but I will be 19 in just three months! I got Lindsay the best present. A radio! Alright well Lindsay home!

“Ginny, are you writing in your girly diary again?” Lindsay yelled through Marcus’s 4th floor apartment.

“Ha, you know me so well.” Ginny smiled to her self.

Lindsay waltzed in the room and plumped down on the bed next to Ginny.

“ So, what does the Ginny Journal for today say?”

“ Nothing, just being happy about how much better life has been.”

“ Your so ridiculous. It was never that bad.”

“ Don’t you remember how we were when we met Marcus? I was drunk and all over him, and you were depressed. Probably considering suicide.”

“I never considered suicide!” Lindsay seemed offended.

“Yes, you did! I remember you were telling me about it.”

“ I think I would remember what I said, and you were all over Marcus when?”

“ When we met him, don’t you remember?”

“No... How dare you.”

“What? I didn't know you would like him!”

“Get out.” Lindsay glared at Ginny.


“Leave. I can’t trust you with him.”

“It was a long time ago!”

“I don’t care!”

“ Fine!”

Ginny had just turned 19 that very night. She lay in an ally, thinking of how badly she had screwed up with Lindsay. How life tricked her. It got so good, only to become so bad.

She laid on the dirty pavement of where she and Lindsay use to live. She had not been able to get any more auditions after breaking off communication with Lindsay and Marcus. Nobody wanted her, and there was no moon in the sky that night to watch over her. Her limbs were numb. She was slipping in and out of her own body, not able to keep consciousness.

The smell of the bakery she used to sneak off to came to her mind. If only she could be there again. The only things Ginny could smell was rotting food and dirt. She wondered could her body be rotting as well?

The moon betrayed me.

Similar Articles


This article has 1 comment.

PJD17 SILVER said...
on Mar. 30 2011 at 4:51 pm
PJD17 SILVER, Belleville, Illinois
8 articles 0 photos 624 comments

Favorite Quote:
I do the best imatation of myself- Ben Folds

good story keep it up  could you please check out and commetn on my story Manso's Shame  I would really appreciate the feedback

Smith Summer

Parkland Speaks

Campus Compare