Just Like Us

~Introduction~

Life wasn't horrible; I mean I wasn't completely poor, I didn't live in a tiny apartment in the projects or anything like that! I might have rather live there though... Anyways, I should probably introduce myself. My name is Emily. Em for short. I've always hated that name, because it sounds like a white girl from georgia, and frankly I've met so many people with that name it's just ridiculous.

I was born in texas, and raised in a couple different places (they all felt the same to me). You see, my dad is white and my mom is black, so it's hard for me to fit in anywhere we moved. My dad. Oh...my dad. Impossible to sum up into one sentence, just like me (it's the ONLY trait I inherited from him.) I'll just say this about him. White military dad of three with anger issues. My mom. Kind, catholic, and tired. We almost never shared the same opinions, but she would do anything for her kids, so we had a pretty good relationship, mostly because she was the one who was there. That's not to discredit from my dad, since his job took him on trips and deployments. I mean he paid for us pretty well at least.

On to my siblings. I have two, a sister who went off to college when I was about 6; and a brother who was home, but never really there because he was off smoking, and getting blackout drunk. But don't get it twisted, I loved my brother more than ANYTHING. He was loyal when he was with me, and understood me the most out of my family, little though it was.

I am... Well... You'll find out soon enough.

When I was 10, my brother (16) started getting into trouble. I mean, my parents are really strict, but I could tell even at 10 that it was more than that. I loved my brother so much that I started feeling more and more depressed when he did. And all the yelling... I still have all their voices ringing in my head. It gives me a headache sometimes even though it's been years. I think that for me this is where all the problems started. Once I started figuring out what depression was, I figured out that I was well... Depressed.

Very soon after that, about 3 months later maybe... My brother got a girlfriend. You see, my brother ALWAYS had complicated relationships. One time a girl's parents pulled her out of his high school because he got involved with her. I didn't like that girlfriend very much, but Jacob was always with girls anyways. His new girlfriend's name was Graciela, like my middle name.

The first time I saw her... She was sitting on the bleachers alone, at my brother's baseball game, looking like a sunrise. Her skin and hair were a golden glowing Brown; she was wearing baggy jeans, keds, a light pink tank top, adorned with a seashell necklace, and the matching scrunchie. She smells like the ocean, and her deep hazel eyes reminded me of mine. I asked her who she was and she told me that she was Jacob's girlfriend, and that she knew who I was as well. I was shocked! I never thought that Jacob would tell anyone about me. She simply said, "Everybody knows who you are. Your brother talks to everybody about you. You know how he is with being a social butterfly and all. Besides, you look just like him." From that moment on, I loved her. I always will... Not like I had a crush on her or anything, but the type of love where you fall and connect so deeply to someone's soul that it's whatever you need it to be. I sat with her for the rest of the game, quiet and calm, which was rare for me. When it was over we gave her a ride home. We dropped her off a block from our house, at her own. At a house I would come to being more than my own, and in a house that would hold both secrets and love.