The Minor Character

I’m seventeen and in the evenings I work part-time as a cashier at a 24-hour convenience store on the corner of the street. Sometimes, I stay overnight. No one is waiting for me at home, so I don’t lose much by being away. I come from one of those families where older brothers go a hundred percent unnoticed, while all the attention goes to the younger sisters. I don’t mind. I like being free and independent. And I don’t even have to wait another year to already feel that way. There is nothing remarkable about my appearance. Average height, sun-bleached, messy light brown hair, a few rare hairs on my cheeks, gray eyes, a very ordinary easily forgettable face. I got standard name as well, it's Jon, the name people usually forget five minutes after being introduced. There are millions of people just like me. That’s all I can really say about myself. Every day of my life is the same and no different from the day befor, just as gray and just as forgettable. I’m in my last year of high school and after classes I go to work at the store, like I mentioned. During my lunch break, I do my homework, then browse the internet on an old computer in a tiny storage room near the back, which the owner proudly refers to as “the office.” At home, after work, I spend my free time the same way; staring at my computer's screen. And on weekends, I either disappear into the local park or aimlessly wander the streets. Honestly, if there were a contest for Mr Average, I’d probably be placed second, if not dead last. That is not to say I think I am a complete loser. Well… okay. I do think I am a complete loser. If only because I have no strength or desire to change anything about this life. More than that, I’m actually fine with it. And if you think that one day—one awful, sunny, summer day—my life will suddenly change and fill up with some real cool adventures, just like in every other story about teenage years… then you are deeply mistaken. I have no intention of breaking out of the gray frame of my everyday life. And I’ll do anything to preserve the peace and stability that have taken hold of my world. Or rather, I’ll do absolutely nothing. Because nothing unexpected ever happens. There are already too many random events happening to billions of other people in this world, and I am neither one of them. I am just a nobody and I was never meant to be anyone else.