Just Maggie

Chapter 9

**Hoping for 150 reads soon, this is kind of short, but I decided to write a bit since All-City is Wednesday for Swimming so I won't have much time. Wish me luck! Enjoy the chapter, it's not like the other ones.

I walk slowly towards the front steps of my house, savoring this moment. Niall on the other hand shoves the door open screaming some kind of nonsense the way he always does. I decided to just sit, and take in my surroundings. Since we had moved here I had never really looked around at our neighborhood. Medium sized houses lined the street, with a minimum of 2 trees in each yard, this making the environment so cliché and predictable. It looks like those perfect homes you see on TV, nice clean yard, a few bicycles here and there, and neighbors chit chatting to one another. I step forward and turn around to look at our home, the one that stands out, a fairly large, brown house, with charcoal shutters, unlike the others which vary in shades of brown and tan. Even our door was different, mom had changed it to a wide wooden door, giving our house an antique and original kind of feel.

            I wasn’t going to lie, this house was far better than the one in Florida. Even though this one is old and creaky, our old one was a horrid shade of orange, maybe a tangerine color? A nice solid brown color, was a wonderful change. I was starting to like it here, but Jesse has me so worried about the “night life”. Is it really that bad, or was he just trying to frighten me. After finding out that is was number 3 on the worst cities list in Forbes magazine, mom was slightly disappointed, but she still loved the house, and decided to give it a chance. I’m glad she did, even though I was mad at her and dad for awhile, everything has been fairly decent, apart from the sidewalks of course. However, that is how I met Jesse, so maybe I should be happy about making a fool of myself?

            After studying my house, I decide to walk on in, since it’s starting to get a little cold. I see Niall and Becca fighting over the remote, and I chuckle to myself.  Fredrick comes plowing over to me, with his sopping wet moose toy. He drops it on my feet, only covered with socks.

            “Eww, no thank you” I say, kicking it aside. Fredrick gives me a sad look but retrieves his moose, and begins chewing on it, as he lays in his bed. I pat his head, but he acts like he doesn’t notice, jerk. Making my way to the kitchen I drape my coat over a chair, and grab myself a glass of Arizona Iced Tea, I squeeze some lemon juice into the glass, for more flavor.

            I hear loud voices coming from upstairs, followed by heavy stomps across the floor. I roll my eyes, knowing it’s my parents again. They won’t admit it to me, but I know they moved so they could get a new start, and try to get along. I have always been that nosey child that listens through the air ducts as they scream at each other, but it’s not like they hide the fact that they are fighting. Sometimes the twins get upset too, that’s what makes me mad. The yelling only gets louder and I hear glass break…there goes dad’s temper, probably a picture frame. I can make out mom’s quiet sobs as she picks up the mess, she never yells during their fights, she knows better, my dad would never hit her or anything, she just knows her limits.

            Dad get’s pretty scary when he’s mad, I’ve been dealing with it for 15 years now. He can hurt your feelings too, even though he doesn’t mean it, there are some things you just can’t forgive someone for, because you just can’t forget the day your dad almost left you. He was drunk and didn’t mean it, I know he didn’t but that sting I felt when walked out that door, is something that just can’t be made up for.

            Niall starts to shuffle up the stairs, but I run and grab him. I give him a stern look and shake my head. He knows what they are doing, but he thinks if a little boy walks up there, they will just drop everything and make up.