Why me?

Younger Years

Heaven

You may be wondering why it's just my mom, my brother and I. My brother and I have different dads. My dad's name is Rob and Dane's dad is John.

My mom got with Dane's dad and ended up moving to Georgia to be with him. She ended up getting pregnant with Dane so they decided to get married.

About a year later my mom started to notice that a few nights a week John wasn't coming home after work. Come to find out, he was busy knocking up some other woman while he was married to our mom.

The day after mom found out that John was having sex with another woman and ended up getting her pregnant, she decided that she and Dane were moving back to Orlando. She waited until he was at work and then packed up hers and Dane's belongings and moved. When they moved back, Dane's dad never kept in touch with him so he grew up without a dad.

About a year after moving back to Orlando, my mom met my dad, got married, and had me. They got a divorce when I was two because all my dad wanted to do was party and get drunk all the time.

She was sick of having him walk through the door every night, drunk and having no help raise me. My mom had to raise Dane and me on her own, as a single mother.

A few years later my mom allowed me to see my dad every other weekend because he was receiving help with his alcohol addiction. He was a good dad for a while, then he got into his bad habits again. Drinking and driving with his four-year-old little girl in the backseat of his car, taking me to his friend's river lot and just handing me off to people he barely knew so he could go have sex, partying all the time and acting like an idiot when I was with him.

He was also very mean to me sometimes, screaming and yelling at me for no reason and getting really mad at me when it was time for me to go back to my moms.

I didn't tell her about him drinking and driving with me in the car until I was 7 because when I was in the car with him when he grabbed the beer out of the cooler, he pointed at me with it in his hand and said "Don't you ever tell your mom, you hear me?"

I was so scared to tell her but when I finally did, mom said there was absolutely no way I was ever allowed to see him again. They went to court about it and it was final. I was never to see my father again. It was for the better.

About a year after they went to court and decided I wasn't to see my father anymore, she told me that he was in and out of prison for numerous things such as destruction of property, drinking, and driving, stealing alcohol from stores, and the list goes on.

*

I continued unpacking boxes and organizing everything. I tried thinking about other things to get my mind off of what just happened but it wasn't helping. I couldn't help but wonder who that person was watching me in my new home.

Honestly, I was terrified but I didn't want mom to know because we just bought the place and I didn't want her to worry.

"Dane!" I yelled while putting the last box away.

He came walking around the corner of the house, "What?"

"I need to talk to you. Did you hear me scream for mom earlier?"

"No, I had my stereo on so I didn't hear anything. Why? What happened?"

"I was unpacking a box and I went to open the window to let some light and fresh air in when I saw someone."

"Wait wait wait. What do you mean when you say you saw someone?"

"I mean someone was standing right in front of me staring me in the eyes. You believe me right? You have to believe me!"

"No. You didn't see anyone. You know how many times you thought you saw something and it was nothing."

"That's exactly what mom said! Dane! Please believe me! I'm not crazy."

"I know you're not crazy Hev, it's just really hard to believe. I'll take your word on it as long as you swear you saw a person."

"I swear."

"Okay. Well then, let's keep our eyes open and watch everything closely. Oh and let's not talk a whole lot about this around mom. Don't want to scare her too much."

"Agreed."