Secret Love

Chapter 1

It is at night that she lives. Her presence familiar with the silence and peace of a restful world, staring down at the blank light blue-lined paper with a pink margin on the left side of it as she continues to work.

As she chews nervously on her black ballpoint pen, the edge of the pen clings to her teeth, not knowing how to begin writing down her thoughts about a particular subject. Having exerted herself to conjure up ideas, her brain has become frazzled. She is acutely aware that her time is almost up, and the days ahead are fast approaching.

It causes her anxiety as she continually thinks about her father's reaction if he discovers that she is ill-prepared, pleading with the Almighty Power above to somehow make him show mercy to her when things don't go as expected.

Knowing that he may scold and push her aside as he has done for years, not even sparing his wife and son, who understand that he is the provider without whom they would be nothing. He never knew how to be a father or husband, only a money-bearer, he spends all his time in the company of others and never with his family.

Strong and courageous at heart, her mother always puts the happiness of her two precious bundles of joy before her own, hiding the pain caused by her husband's lack of love behind a smile; a smile that never quite reaches her once full-of-life eyes.

Taking a deep breath, she thinks about her mother, knowing that she would be proud of her regardless of how her unreadiness turned out; encouraging her to try again if she failed. Her older brother does not follow in his father's footsteps by supporting his mother and younger sister as soon as he leaves home-filling the gap that a husband and father left behind.

Their once close-sibling relationship remains strong today, as she grins as her thoughts shift to him, happy that he didn't turn out like their father. The days they were younger and he was always there to protect her when their parents argued and held her in his arms to reassure her that everything would be okay are long gone.

As an adult living away from home, he is no longer witness to hostility between their parents and can no longer keep her company, although he does his best to be a good brother by providing frequent chats and texts whenever he can.

Not happy with the prospect of leaving her mother alone once she leaves home for university the following year, she wishes she could just finish her last year of high school and move out to be with her brother.

She looks forward to the future not knowing that it will be filled with unexpected hurdles which will shift her life the way that she had not anticipated.

She shakes her head to rid herself of these thoughts which are distracting her and looks back down at the blank paper placed down on top of the mahogany-coloured wooden table in the tiny kitchen of the house that she has lived in all her life.

The sudden sound of clicking startles her, diverting her away from her books and she jumps up in fright at her chair, moving away from the golden-brown old-fashioned wooden chair that she was comfortably seated on.

Placing her hand on her chest to calm her racing heart down as she is stood on her feet, looking around behind her, at the door where the sound is coming from-her fright dissipating as she hears the sound of a key being inserted into the key hole, hearing it twist and turn before it opens.

Her heavily intoxicated father stumbles into the house, almost losing his balance but she reacts quickly by grabbing him by his shoulders as he moves forward. Catching a whiff of the strong alcohol present in his hot breath as his lips remain centimetres away from her nose.

She scrunches her nose up in disgust while holding onto him, careful not to let him go and fall down on the ground. She moves to his left side, grabbing a hold of his arm and placing it over her shoulder, he leans on her making her feel all his weight on her shoulders, his humongous body providing to be as heavy as lead.