Baby Doll (Harry Styles)

Chapter 1 - Misfortune

Baby Doll © Wonderwall123 on Wattpad
This story has not been posted anywhere else except Wattpad. Do not fall into fake-story traps.
And if you get any ideas that might possibly make you a copy cat if you acted on them, put them in a box and push it to the furthest, darkest place in your mind and let it fade away. You will one day be rewarded for being an awesome, ethical creature.

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"Here you go, dear." My mother smiled weakly as she handed a pair of brand new red sneakers to my brother. "Happy birthday."

They were replacement foot wear for the worn out shoes he had been using for the past two years. He'd grown a whole lot and he had to keep his toes curled up in those old kicks. The only alternative to those shoes were slippers, which he wasn't fond of at all. He never complained, though. It was only a few weeks ago that my mother noticed he'd been limping. After futher scrutinisation, we found his toes to be slightly fractured.

I couldn't believe Jakey was entering his teen years. My little brother was growing up. He was the purest, most honest person. He deserved more than sneakers on his birthday but that was all we could afford to give him. I felt awful that we couldn't even wrap it with proper wrapping paper. We had been struggling to save up money to pay for our apartment room rent every month. Our apartment room was small and damaged in some areas but we were lucky to even have a roof over our heads.

Ever since my father died five years ago, my mother, brother and I have been through many stages of hell. The first stage was sorrow and grief, the second was getting kicked out of our house, the third was having no more than a few hundreds in our savings account and doing anything in our power to find shelter and the fourth was finding a place, but having to work our hats off to keep it.

My mother had to work as a clerk at a veterinary clinic. The apartment owner, Richard, owned many properties in Fleese including the vet clinic and he gave my mom a job there. But he was as cruel and cunning as he was wealthy. Even as a clerk, my mother would have to clean toilets and animal faeces to receive her full allowance.

The environment was so dishonest and twisted that my mother refused to let me work, so I helped around in the apartment. She kept Jakey and I in school until a year ago. We had to quit because the fees of our school rose up massively and the other schools were even more costly. It was a major sacrifice but it had to be done.

I lagged in my studies because I kept quitting and entering school. The time period my brother and I had to stay out of school would be a mere few weeks or sometimes it would stretch up to about a year or so. It varied with the different situations we were in. I couldn't get past the eighth grade eventhough I was already seventeen. It was awfully embarrassing.

We couldn't pay for the rent of our apartment for the last three months so this month, the price we had to pay was tripled. My mother had been suffering from migraine attacks for the past few days just thinking about how she was going to come up with that kind of money. I begged her to let me get a job so I could help but like always, she refused to even listen. I just wished she would trust me to take care of myself.

Jakey carefully held the sneakers, studying them before throwing his arms around my mother. "These must've cost a lot. You didn't have to."

"Well, it was necessary. And we only spend money on things that are necessary." She pressed a kiss to his forehead. "Lia, why don't we sing happy birthday for your brother?"

I nodded and brought out the cake I'd spent all morning baking for him. I stuck thirteen candles into the chocolate flavoured treat and lit them all up with a match before we began to harmonise.