Sorry for the long lack of posts, who else is caught up in school? Lately I have been writing a story in the past week. Take a look at a little preview.
Turning eighteen marks the day you become an adult. That’s what everyone says, but I think the day you become an adult is when that one thing happens that changes your life forever and makes you fend for yourself. My mother made me an adult when I was only twelve. That Christmas Eve morning two days after I turned fifteen, I woke up to a thud downstairs in the living room. I reluctantly got up and shuffled out of my room to go see what it was. My two little sisters came out of their room as I walked by. “Santa is downstairs” Brooke whispered excitedly she and Doris are young enough to still believe in Santa, Brooke being six and Doris being almost nine. “Brookie Santa doesn’t come until tomorrow morning.” I corrected “Now be quiet and stay close to me.” We crept slowly through the hall until we reached the balcony overlooking the living room. My tensed body relaxed when I just saw my mother scrambling with a big pile of photos on the the floor that had fallen out of her leather bound photo album. “Don’t worry it’s just mommy Doris said cheerfully. She began to head towards the stairs when I noticed the big black suitcase that was lying open on the couch. I grabbed Doris and Brooke’s hands. “What?” Doris asked trying to pull away. “Mom looks really busy right now let’s not disturb her” I told them directing them back towards their room.” After they had both climbed back into bed I crept back downstairs. My mom was kneeling over the pile of photos some of them were photos my mom took of the town or her trip to Spain last year, but the photo she was holding showed Doris and I sitting on a bench on the in a museum my mom and dad stood behind us my mom was carrying a camera and my dad was cradling a six month old Brooke in his arms. My mom’s hands shook as she held the photo. She folded it gingerly and stuck it in her back pocket. I crept down the stairs and watched her from the window in the kitchen looking into the living room. She zipped up her suitcase and attempted to pull it silently off the couch. “Do you need help?” I asked standing in the doorway looking into the dining room. She jumped and let go of the suitcase, it tumbled to the floor with a loud thump. She swore under her breath looking fearfully up the stairs. “What’s wrong, remember Dads at the night shift at the hospital tonight. And what do you have to hide?” I asked, anger swelling up inside of me. “Look Ari I-” She stammered but I cut her off “What were you planning on doing! Just have us wake up and find you gone!” Tears started welling up in my eyes. “Ari please, let me explain.” She sat down on the couch and motioned for me to sit next to her; I shook my head and stood where I was. “Well go on” I insisted sarcastically “when your father and I met I was twenty three I had just gotten out of college ready to concur the world with photography and your father was about to turn forty, he had just gotten divorced with Pauline. We met in a bar one night and talked for hours. We went on a couple of dates and after only knowing him for three months he proposed he confessed that he was madly in love with me and that he needed to ask this. It was so sweet I had to say yes. But somehow I always knew I didn’t truly love him, I just loved the fact that a rich man loved me” she motioned to our large beautiful house.
“Now I need to strike out n my own learn what it’s like outside of all this. I always meant to.”
It was silent for a few seconds as I took it all in. Inside I was breaking but the voice that came to me was powerful and angry. “You always meant to!” I yelled contain my unable to contain my anger. “So what you just planned to leave at some point in my childhood?” she sat silently looking at the ground
“You know what, fine just leave!” She stood up and looked at me hard. “Honey this isn’t about you. It’s about me, and your father, he should have never asked me to marry him that soon.” I almost laughed.
“Are you telling me this is dads fault, NO this is your fault, you should have never said yes! This is your fault for being a gold digging Bitch! I stormed forward and pushed her down with all my might. She collapsed against the wall yelling with shock, I started up the stairs. “Arianna how dare you-” I turned around “What are you going to do, punish me? You’re not my mom anymore, you made that choice!” I was screaming at the top of my lungs. She looked at me shock and fear flooded her face, she picked up her bag and stormed out the door slamming it behind her. I collapsed down on the floor and began to cry. I cried until there were no more tears left in my body. I sat up and looked at my watch, it was about three thirty, and I rubbed my eyes and walked up stairs to find Brooke and Doris sitting at the top. Brooke stared blankly at me looking scared and also confused. But Doris was old enough to understand where our mom was going and that she wasn’t planning on coming back.
“We heard a lot of noise so we came to see, but Dori wouldn’t let me go down. I’m really tired.” She pulled herself up by the railings and walked slowly back to her and Doris’s room.
“So what did you guys hear?” I asked sitting down next to her.
“A lot, Brooke didn’t understand what was happening she actually fell asleep for a while.” Tear marks stood out on Doris’s face. “So what are you going to tell dad, he gets back from his night shift at five?”
“Oh god no,” I hid my face in my hands and yelled in frustration. Doris pulled herself up and I looked up at her. She was really tall for her age; we could never find clothes to fit her because she is also super skinny. Her sweat pants were two short and they showed her ankles both Doris and I are tall. Brooke is tiny though but besides that she was a little version of Doris. Tears were fighting their way through her eyelids again. She left without saying anything. I yelled again and hit the ground with my fist. I hoisted myself up and walked to bed. I threw myself down onto the covers and stayed there until morning. The morning came too soon. I heard my dad’s car pull in right on time, I had already dressed and put on my makeup. I was shivering and I couldn’t stand for longer than three minutes without my legs shaking and crumpling under me and my heart was beating faster than I could ever imagine. As I walked down the stairs to meet my dad I thought of mom’s stories, of how love sick my dad is, and what is going to happen when I tell him. Right now I hated being the oldest in the house I actually missed my stupid step brother Pete who decided to go live with Pauline for the rest of his senior year. I looked outside the window; dad was fumbling in his bag looking for his keys. I looked around the sun was not up yet but the palm trees let off some light, mom made a song about the palm trees of Florida Keys when I was little. I used to listen to her sing it and watch out the window on a rainy day. The door opened and reveled my dad’s smiling face. He was overcome with groceries, I ran forward to help him. “What are you doing up so early?” he asked casually. It felt as if someone has punched my vocal cords; every moment I didn’t tell him it became worse. It seemed as if there was a clock ticking away every word. I- tick well- tick you-tick.
I couldn’t breathe, my head spun. Dad looked at me confused, I opened up my mouth, and still nothing. He looked concerned now. “Arianna what’s wrong he asked sternly. I panicked and did the first thing that came to mind. I collapsed on to the ground
