Such a Fun Age

Your Power

"Hey Chloe you ready to go?" Mrs McLaren asked me as she entered my room.

"Yeah I think so." I said with a sigh. Today I was leaving the McLaren's house and moving in with my dad. Dad has legal guardianship over me now and I have to live with him at his new place with his wife. They got back from their honeymoon about a week ago and Natalia has been getting my room ready for me since then.

"You got everything?" Lara asked me.
"Yep... thank you so much once again, for allowing me to stay here for a full 2 weeks. You've done so much for me." I said.

"It's the least I could do. You've been through so much. If you need us for anything else, I'm just one call away, okay?" She said.

She was about to leave but I decided to surprise her with a hug. She hugged me back and we stood there for a while. Hugging Lara made me feel like I was in my own mothers arms. A few tears left my eyes.

"I know you miss her. I miss her so much too." She said, wiping my tears away.

I nodded and she patted my shoulder before leaving.

I grabbed my small suitcase and headed to Noah's room.

He was laying on his bed watching Netflix. I jumped into his bed and he cuddled me.

"I'm going to dads today."

"Yeah I know. I'll drop you off." He said. Noah and I hav been spending every second of the last 4 days together. Ever since we've been back together we haven't been able to keep our hands off each other. The ecstasy we had before was reignited and we had sex a few times a day now.

"I'm gonna miss living here. Living right beside my bestfriend, watching my boyfriend though my window into his room. School being 5 minutes away... god it's gonna take me 20 minutes now to get to school." I said, staring out the window at the calm street.

"I'm gonna miss it too. Laying on the roof with you all night and walking to the beach. I'll miss having you here." He said, he kissed me and I started kissing back. I had to stop myself from getting horny so as not to be late.

"Noah we have to go." I said breaking away.
He laughed and got out of bed.

We went out to his car and he drove me to my dads place.

I said goodbye to him and walked up the driveway to the front door. Dads new house was much larger than ours. Dad had all this money but never spent it on us. Guess he didn't love mom and I enough for that.

I sighed and rang the doorbell which was instantly answered by Natalia and Dad who opened the door for me.

"Hello Chloe bear!" Dad said.

Natalia gave me a hug and they took me inside. We toured the house as they explained everything to me and how it was gonna work. This place didn't feel like home to me. It didn't have my artworks from preschool on the wall, moms beautiful paintings, our lucious plants scattered everywhere and old music playing. It felt more like a hotel instead.

Dad took me upstairs to me room while Natalia made dinner.
The bedroom was beach themed with a surfboard on the wall and waves decorating the ceiling.

"Natalia designed this room all by herself. She cares about you a lot." Dad said looking around.

I sat down on the bed and put my only picture of mom and I on the nightstand. It was from my 13th birthday. We were standing in the backyard together, looking so happy. It was the only picture I had left of her.

"Hey... you can't put that there." Dad said grabbing the picture frame.

"What do you mean? I'm just putting it on my nightstand." I was confused why I couldn't have it out.

"Well even this room is part of my house and well Natalia told me that she doesn't like having pictures of... the dead lying around. Makes her scared. You can keep it in your closet maybe? Or in the cabinet." Dad said.

"Dad... what the hell!" I spat, I couldn't believe this was my father, saying stuff like this.

"That is not okay! That woman has such a spell in you, you can't even tell how fucked up that is to not be allowed to keep a photo of my mother on display in my bedroom. It's been 2 weeks and you're already acting like this!"

"Chloe, don't be disrespectful. That's your stepmom." Dad warned me.

"I don't care. You loved my mother once too but now you can't stand a photo of her in your house?"

"Chloe, stop it! Be grateful I'm letting you stay here."

"Why? I should have stayed at the McLaren's for the rest of my life?! Why didn't you just dump me at the orphanage? Why'd you bring me here?"

"I had to okay? I had no other option. We didn't want you in our house that was supposed to be for us only and our kids one day and now I'm stuck with you to take care of too."

"Dad..." I croaked.

He rubbed his forehead. "I didn't mean to say all that. It's just... Natalia-"

"How could you. You were meant to protect me. You were meant to show me what to look for in a man. You were meant to show me how women should be treated. You were meant to be there to teach me how to play soccer and cheer for me at talent shows and teach me how to drive. You were meant to love me... you were meant to love me dad. But instead you stayed away all my life and now you wonder why I'm like this? You've been away my whole life and now all of a sudden you have so much power over me. How?" I said, disgusted.

"Chloe, I'm-" he started and placed a hand on my shoulder.

I shrugged it off and cut him off, "just... try not to abuse your power." I said and headed out the room.

I ran to the beach and sat there in the sand for hours. I felt so sad and hopeless, not knowing what to do anymore. I felt so alone in the world.