Skylar Miller was only ten years old when everything began to fall apart. First, it was the quiet disappearances-one sibling at a time-until only three of her siblings remained in her life. Then came the accident, a day that left her with more than...
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| Noah Miller |
"It's been me. It has always been me. I drove the hours it took to get there, and pushed off things that I had been waiting to go to, just so my little brother and sister were safe. I made sure they were my first priority, and they always would be, no doubt"
"Hey, Noah!" a voice that was loud and full of life, made me cringe. I should have just gone up to my room, and locked myself away for the night, but I knew that I had to do this for the other two. I had to do this for Sky and Luke. I had to put on that brave front, the one in which I knew all the answers to every query, and to every question they could possibly ask.
I was the second best option, when Shane wasn't around. Most of the time, I felt like the sole provider for the two of them, and I never said a word. I would cancel going to parties or hanging out with my friends after school, and being a normal teenager, just so I knew that my little sister and little brother got home safe.
I was one of the only seniors that didn't have their own cars to drive to and from school, while they picked all their friends up. I bailed out on hanging out with the football team after games because I was so worried of leaving the other two home alone for too long that something could happen. I begged Shane to only make 4 keys, one for each of us and that was it.
I also asked that we moved in next door to the best friends that we had grown up with, and it turned out that luck was on our side that day, when this house became available. I had to get them out of that house, without telling Shane our secret. The main secret, was the way that Shane's friends from college had drugged us all, and then raped my little sister. My little sister, was raped on the counter we shared numerous dinners and breakfasts, as a whole family.
A family of 11. Not a family of 4. "I'm going next door to get changed, because there isn't enough room to get changed here" my sister walked into the kitchen, a bag in hand, as I barely acknowledged her. I wonder if she had been as popular in college as she had been in high school, or if that had changed her. She still seemed to be the same person that she used to be, only that she was older now.
More demanding. "So, Shane mentioned that you started playing football" that was a statement, not a question from George. Jay was now hovering in the background, and I knew that this would have been the multi-million dollar question they would be asking once they found out. I was sure that none of this had been mentioned from Shane, or at least not directly.
We had social media for a reason. A public one at that. It felt good, to show that I had been living life to the fullest, or at least bluffing to them that I had just as good as a life without them, as they did without us. It felt good, to have a break from the demands of surfing and football as well as school and keeping this family afloat.
Surfing was something that my parents had loved, hence why we had always lived on the beach. It was engrained in our bones before we were even born. It was also engrained in the Martinez family, but they didn't feel like their hands were tied behind their backs. They had other opportunities at their fingertips if they wanted.
