Rowena Raven: Prologue

 I am Rowena Raven, and I am most definitely not the kind of girl you’d take home to meet your family.

       Usually when I wake up, I stumble out of bed, and, more often than not, with a hangover from my constant, every-day habit of drinking and drugging my brains out. My pounding headache and soreness all over is resolved with more drugs. And no, don’t expect me to go “haha drugs as in tylenol!” Because that is simply not the sort of person I am. I like natural medicine, and Cannabis is perfectly natural.
Now, every so often when I wake up (which is most certainly never in the morning), there’s someone sleeping beside me. About ninety-nine percent of the time, it’s my sorta-kinda boyfriend Smog. We’ve never really made it “official”, but he does legally live in my apartment, and he usually ends up paying most of the rent, by less than scrupulous means. But because we’re not “official”, we can sleep around. It’s not really like we have any emotional attachment (that I know of). Mostly, we just stick together because we’re compatible in the sense that usually we both want the same thing. Usually, drugs, alcohol, or sex.
Don’t take me for the wrong type of girl either. If a “better” guy were to come along I, most likely, would not take that chance. It is simply that, with Smog, I get what I want. And I’ve never been the ambitious type. No visions of a bright future for me. I was brought up never to think very highly of myself, and most definitely not to think highly of others.
That’s what my mother taught me, and she has more right than anyone to say that. She had big dreams, but the universe had different dreams for her. Getting pregnant was not in her planbook, and if it wasn’t planned for her, then she wasn’t going to take responsibility for it. I’ve taken care of myself for as long as I can remember, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
You may look upon me with disdain, and tell your children to stay away from me, but I can say with 100% certainty that you are not the person you claim to be. We are dirty, terrible people who all hate each other somewhere deep down. I don’t belive in notions like “fate” or “destiny”. We are all born to die. We are all dust in the wind.

FORTH