Jodee

Chapter 1 - Morning

I stepped out of the warm shower, wrapping my towel around my body and releasing my unruly curls from the scrunchie I had tied them in to keep from getting wet.

I never got my hair wet in the mornings. Especially not on a school day because I didn't want to go to school with it being wet. I was also super prone to getting sick so Ace always got mad when my hair was wet in the morning because if it was I would usually get sick.

Ace was my older brother and the only person in my life that had ever stayed. He was also my legal guardian and had been for about seven years – ever since he'd turned 18 – making him 25 now. A whole 11 years of age older than me.

My brother and I share the same father but not the same mother. My mother abandoned me the second I was born – only to drop me off at my good for nothing fathers house when he didn't even know she was pregnant.

They were never married – or really ever dating – just sort of a casual thing where they got together every once in a while to have sex and stuff, but never anything more. I'm pretty sure my father cheated on Ace's mother with mine but I wasn't positive.

Ace never talked about his mother – it was a sore subject I guess – but from what I can gather she either died or ran away from our father. One of the two but I was sure she was never coming back.

I never knew much about my father, both because Ace wouldn't talk about any of our parents and I'd only lived with the guy for the first seven years of my life and much of that was spent with him out doing God knows what and my brother taking care of me like always.

Ace has been there for me my entire life.

There was an incident with my father around the time I was seven years old, causing my brother to "put his foot down" and decide to take custody of me. My father never fought for custody with his son and I was glad for that.

My life was much better being just me and Ace. Like it had always been.

Right after Ace took custody he moved us pretty much across the whole country to sunny side California where I lived now. We had a nice home, probably a little larger than a medium sized house but it wasn't a mansion by any means.

I know I said that Ace doesn't like to talk a lot about our parents but the truth is Ace doesn't like to talk period.

I think it's called selective mutism where he only speaks when he wants to and that is very few. My brother rarely speaks and when he does it's just small words here and there. Plus he only speaks around a couple people, the main ones I know of – that I'd seen him talk around – are me and his best friend, Caleb, who also hangs around my house a lot.

I know I have a good relationship with my brother because he'd do anything for me and I him but it feels as though we are strangers living in the same house sometimes.

I only see him a couple times a week and at most once a day. He's always off working or up on the third floor, which I'm not allowed to go in.

The third floor of my house is super small with just a couple rooms – four I think and a hallway – but I wasn't sure because I hadn't been up there in a long time.

Ace says I'm not allowed up there because that's where he does a lot of his business and he doesn't want me involved in that stuff at all or even around him when he's dealing with those things.

I only dared disobey him on that rule once because he was dead serious about it and when Ace is serious he is scary. The one time I went up there was because there was a weird dude walking around our house with a knife so I got scared.