Tiny teenage heartaches

chapter one (prologue)

I tiptoed out of my bed and down the hall to my brother's bedroom. I could see a faint light coming from his room. Quietly I opened the door and saw that he wasn't in his bed. He was sitting at his desk with the lamp on. "Lewis, what are you doing?" I asked. He turned around in his chair and looked at me.

"I'm just doing last minute homework. But why are you up Mackenzie?" he looked over at his clock, "It's almost midnight."

"Dad isn't home yet." I answered. Worry filled his eyes, but he was quick to cover it up. Lewis sighed and put away his homework I assumed he was working on. I walked over to his bed and layed down. Lewis put the rest of his things away and laid down next to me. Things like this happened sometimes. Our father would go out and not come home for a while. With the bills piling up we couldn't afford to be without him. Even if does he hate us. Besides, I couldn't stand the thought of him being gone. Anything could happen. He could get hurt and I knew that this family couldn't handle that. Even if he wasn't the best, he was my dad. I could never seem to go to sleep unless I knew my dad was home, and whenever he didn't come home Lewis would let me sleep in his room while we waited for him. Sometimes he didn't though and we'd just have to get up in the morning with bags under our eyes and go to school. Tonight was different though. My stomach kept turning every time I heard the clock on his wall tick.

My eyes felt droopy and I found myself struggling to keep them open. I look at the clock and see that it's 2 am. No harm in just resting my eyes. I think to myself.

I wake up immediately to the sound of a phone buzzing and look over at Lewis's nightstand to see that it's his old, beat up flip phone. I shake him awake and he jumps a little.

"Mackenzie! What's wrong?" he asks, half alert and half groggy

"Your phone is ringing" he is more awake once he realizes that his phone is actually buzzing annoyingly. He sits up and grabs it off his nightstand.

"Who is it" I question, "is it dad?"

He nods conforming my question and answers it.

"Hello" I can hear a slight mumble from the other end so I curiously scoot closer hoping to hear better. "Lewis, you can tell your sister to stop waiting for me to come home" my dad says.

"She only waits for you because she's to naïve to see we'd be better off without you" he growls into the phone
(a/n: and no, he did not literally growl like a dog. Haha I thought that the first time I ever heard and author put that in their writing. It pretty much means he said it in an angry tone.)

I look at Lewis nervously and shake my head at him. No, he can't say something like that! Dad might get mad and leave us!

"You know what young man? Wether you like me or not, I'm your only source of income. Your little part time job won't take care of both you and your sister. So I advise you not to hack me off. Learn some respect"

"You don't deserve my respect! You don't deserve Mackenzie's love! You don't deserve anything!" Lewis yelled into the phone.

"You know what? You little brats can fend for yourselves. This time, I'm not coming home. You and your sister can beg all you want but it doesn't matter to me any more. Go, starve to death for all I care." And then the phone line goes dead.

Lewis throws his phone on the ground and puts his hands in his head. Oh my gosh what are we going to do now? Lewis can't do everything. He's not superman, even though he tries to carry the weight of the world on his shoulders he just can't do it. He's a teenager for crying out loud!

He looks up at me and his angry expression turns to sadness. "Oh don't cry Mack, please don't cry." I suddenly notice the tears streaming down my face which makes me start to cry harder. Lewis pulls me into his lap and hugs me like his life depended on it.

We just sit like that until I've cried every last tear out. He holds me tighter once he realizes I'm done crying and then he releases me. He stands up and picks up his phone off the ground and calls somebody. However I'm to far away to hear this conversation.

"Hey man, look I'm sorry for calling so late but I'm in a bit of dilemma right now...you owe me dude...yeah we just need to stay for a couple of days. Just until I can get everything sorted out...no please don't tell your parents all the details...no it'll just make it harder...yes I know what I'm doing" he laughs a little at the end then says his goodbyes and thanks and hangs up.

Lewis turns and looks at me, "It's okay Mack, everything is going to be alright. Don't worry about a thing. I'm going to figure it all out," he says with a small smile.

A/N-
First chapter out and I'm quite proud. If you're unsure if you like it just keep reading till about chapter five or six and then make your decision

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Much love,
hannah <3