Long Lost Cousin

Chapter 1

A/N: This is my first story so it might not be very good. I will try to have good grammar and such but I make no promises. I will try to update once a week on Fridays but it might change due to scheduling and other stuff. I hope you enjoy my story.

This is my second year in college. I have been going to the same school and living in the same dorm for two years. My parents can not afford for me to live in an apartment with my best friend, Rachel, so I have my own dorm room to myself. My dad is in the hospital with lung cancer caused by secondhand smoke from his father, who passed away when I was two.

He has been battling for five years now and he doctors think he is close to the end or a cure. It's very confusing they say he could either recover completely or die. They don't seem to sound in their logic. My dad was adopted so I'm looking for his birth parents and family in order to see if they would be willing to help pay for a surgery or to see if they would like to say goodbye. It's a long process but I have one clue that he is from Australia.

So here I am, on my first day of my sophomore year of college all alone. Yep. That's right my mom was too busy with my 6 month old little brother to come send me off to college. I really do love him but he is so annoying sometimes. He takes all the attention and I don't really want it but when I need to talk to my parents about something he automatically needs help that instant. It's not his fault but my parents were hardly around when I was growing up and I was practically raised by my grandma. I'm closer with my grandma than my mother. My grandma helped me all throughout elementary school, middle school and all most all the way through high school. It was the end of my senior year that my parents decided that they wanted another kid. They decided that they wanted to become more involved in my life too. They poked and prodded at my life until I just told them that since I was 18 I was going to live with my grandma.

You could say they were shocked to say the least. They started cussing at my and yelling at me but they could do nothing about it. My grandma had offered and I accepted. She also offered to help pay for my college since I had a partial scholarship. They stopped caring after that. They let me do whatever I wanted as long as I kept visiting them. Those mandatory visits were awful. They always droned on and on about the new baby and how wonderful he would be. That he would make them a family again. I no longer cared for my mother. My grandma was my mom but my dad was still my dad. He came and visited me some while I lived at his moms house. He also visited my when I first started college. It was nice so we still get along fine. But my mother, heats another story. She no longer cares about me. She rarely treats me as though I was her child and I am fed up with it.

At the end of my freshman year of college, my mom was going to pick me up and take me home but she of course went into labor and couldn't come get me. I would have found my own way home if she had told me she went into labor but no. I received no text nor call nor anything telling me that I needed to find my own way home. I guess my dad assumed that my mom told me because when he called me to ask where I was I told him I was still at the airport and that no one called me. He then came and picked me up but before he could take me home I told him to take me to my grandma's house instead.

Now I rely on no one but my grandma, Rachel and myself. My parents can't be trusted with their 'favorite child' at home and their crappy attitudes. I drove myself here in my new car I bought after three years of saving and a little help from Grandma of course.

I arrive at my dorm and see some people I knew last year but mostly new faces. I gather my things and headed up to my room. I have a spacious room with its own bathroom. That is a blessing. I hate community showers hey gross me out. I put on my navy blue sheets and black comforter and added some pictures on the walls of Rachel, my grandma, and I. I ended up laying on my bed daydreaming about the rest of the school year and possibly finding a boyfriend. I have never been in a serious relationship and really want to be able to have a family that is better than my own.

I fell asleep about three hours later after unpacking and getting ready for classes tomorrow. I let myself sleep because tomorrow would be a busy day.

A/N: Thanks so much for reading. I hoped you liked it and I will try to get a better cover soon.