Scandalous Love

3. | James

"Where were you last night?" Piper asks me after I had entered the lounge from where I had been alone in my room which was barely a bedroom.

I slept on nothing but a mattress with a light cloth as my duvet covers while Piper slept in the same bed as Mum if Mum had chosen to not sleep on the couch.
We only had a two bedroom flat - we couldn't afford anything more and it's been that way since Dad left.

He left our family and our home to go and focus on his career and achieve the things he'd always wanted to. He took the opportunity by the hand and strangled it by the wings.

He promised us he would be back, yet eight years on and he's still not back. Something tells me he will never be back either.

"I was out," I mumble, heading over to sit on the second-hand couch after stealing one of the sandwiches Mum had previously made for us.

She was living off of benefits from the government and the council so most of the time it was normal for us to share small portions of food if not starve ourselves for the day. It was just the way it was and the way it was supposedly always going to be.

I'm supposed to be paying for student accommodation and finances next year when I'm due to go to university but I have no idea how that's going to work out. I don't have any clue what I'm going to do when the time comes to it.

When I was younger I had a clear plan for my future - I was going to head to school, go to university, get a good job, start a family and everything would be perfect. But most days I even choose to bunk school because I don't see the point.

The schools around here aren't anywhere near as good. It's like a different world compared to the North Side of town where they're able to get private tutors and lessons and everything is paid for them. It's as if they don't even care about what's happening down here - all they care about is their wealth and fame and money.

I'd never bothered to talk to anyone from that side before apart from that girl I met yesterday...

The short brunette one with the light brown eyes and prissy pink dress.

She was different. She didn't seem as uptight as all the others. She was the first one I had ever properly spoken to but she was nice. Or at least I'd like to think so...

"Careful, you're being secretive," Piper teases, crossing her arms over in front of her on the tabletop. "That's dangerous."

I roll my eyes, scoffing at her before taking a seat down on the second-hand sofa.

Mum had headed out to the market to get some groceries but I knew she wouldn't be coming home with the jackpot. Maybe just a few fruits and vegetables - nothing out of the ordinary.

The longer I remained sat in this apartment with only three rooms and one window, the more agitated I get.

It was one thing staying at home all the time and it was another thing not being at the bottom of the flat to go out to the garden but it was so much worse when there was nothing you could do to entertain yourself other than throw a tennis ball back and forth against the wooden surface of our supposed home.

I don't think I could stay in here for much longer.

Pulling my torn trainers onto my feet after grabbing them from out of the broken cupboard, I grab my smashed-up phone as well which was in dire renewal and stand up, ready to leave.

"Where are you going? Mum isn't back yet," Piper begins to panic but just as she says those words, the front door unlocks and opens up to reveal Mum walking in with a bag of shopping.