The Good Girl's SECRETS (PUBLISHED)

Chapter 4 (Published Version)

Four Years Earlier

We're all taking a trip to Oregon tomorrow." Mom tells me out of the blue. I didn't expect this to be the news when she told me to be home right after school. I thought I was in trouble but I had no idea what for.

"Like a vacation?" I ask. She's fiddling around in the fridge, trying to scrape something up for dinner I assume. She won't find much. Nate is a better cook and even he couldn't whip up something edible from what's in there.

"Yes, a family vacation. Well, Jeff has to go there for business, but his boss is paying to rent a place down there for all of us to go and stay for the week." She explains as she slams the door shut and huffs out a long and exhausted breath. She walks over to the sink and smooths her hand over the loose strands of hair on top of her head as she turns the faucet on and starts taking big gulps of water for the next few seconds.

"Is everything okay mom?" I ask in a quiet, concerned voice; barely loud enough for her to hear me, but she does. She stands up and wipes the drops of water off of her chin with her sleeve before swiping at her hair again.

"Yes, everything is fine bean, now why don't you start packing your things for the trip? We'll be leaving first thing in the morning." She says in a distracted voice as she walks out of the kitchen, abruptly ending the conversation.

I have never even been on a real vacation before. We could never afford it when it was just the two of us. Mom worked all the time but we never had any extra money to go and do anything expensive like that.

Any of the jobs she had never allowed for time off either since she never stayed anywhere long enough to earn vacation time, so we just lived day to day, paycheck to paycheck, and did what we had to do. I can't complain, at least then we had fun when we spent time together as opposed to now.

Jeff's job is awesome though. He gets all of these free trips completely paid for even though he can afford to pay for them himself. Mom even quit her job because he said he didn't need her to work because he made well enough above what they need to be comfortable. So, when we moved in with him and his son, that's what she did. She quit her job and promised to spend more time with me. Only that didn't happen either. I think we spend even less time together now since they got married.

AFTER WE GOT off the plane, we all grab our bags and walk out into the fresh mountain air and parked in front of us sits a large white SUV that I take it is ours for the week because everyone is walking over to it. The driver gets out and puts all of our bags in the back while Nate jumps to the seats in the back. He puts his earbuds in, sprawls his long legs out across the entire seat and proceeds to cover his face with his hat before crossing his arms over his chest. He looks surprisingly comfortable for being crammed back there though. 

I take the middle seat by the window and set my backpack down beside me. The driver hands Jeff the keys and opens the door for mom to get in the passenger side while Jeff goes around to the driver's side. Jeff should have held the door for her himself.

It felt like it took forever to get to the cabin we're staying in, but was realistically only about twenty-five minutes before we pull up in front of this massive gate at the end of a stone driveway. Jeff punches in a code on the keypad and the gate opens to let us through. He stops the car in front of this gorgeous building that looks like it belongs in one of those luxury magazines of celebrity homes or something and the first thing that takes my breath away is the amount of glass that makes up most of the outside walls. 

I was expecting something a lot smaller and maybe run down looking, since they described it as a 'cabin in the woods' so my jaw nearly hits the ground when I open the door. The railing that wraps around the front porch is made out of branches and connects to the tree trunks, acting as pillars to hold up the roof on the covered porch. I can't help but stand there in awe. I've never seen a house this huge and luxurious looking much less allowed to stay here for an entire week.