Nothing's As It Seems

Chapter 1

I lie in bed, tossing and turning. My alarm should go off any minute now. I'm too excited to stay in bed, so I get up and walk over to the mirror hanging across from my bed. When I look at it, I see a thin 18-year-old looking back at me. She has hazel eyes and black hair—very typical. I turn to my side and mutter, "Someone's gained a few," to myself, careful not to wake my mom up. 

"Maeve, I swear to god if you don't wake up now..." my mom threatens from the kitchen 5 minutes later.

 "I'm getting up!" I scream back. 

My mom and I don't live in a big house, just one floor, but my mom always said that it's cosy and that she likes it, but I know her well enough to know she doesn't. My dad lives in a much bigger house with his new wife Aurelia, I would like Aurelia if she wasn't only 5 years older than me or if she wasn't such a bitch to me as a freshman in high school. 

"Hurry the fuck up Maeve" my mom screams from the kitchen, I sigh knowing she's about to rant about some stupid shit again, "I have better things to do than drive 16 hours to a stupid..." she continues as I would expect. 

As I walk to the bathroom butterflies in my stomach start fluttering furiously making me want to throw up. This is it, what I've been waiting for 10 years now. This is the escape, from a shitty home life, this is the last time I will ever have to worry about hiding in  a closet because my dad decided to come home when he's drunk,  the last time I will have to hear my mom rant about random shit that is really not important and the very last time I'll ever have to speak to my shitty friends who couldn't care less about me. When I hop in the shower I turn the water to the full warmth hoping it'll relax my mussels but instead, it burns my skin. 

My mom's rant about how much of an inconvenience I am to her stopped with a ring on the doorbell. 

"Mark!" she squeaks and her eyes go wide, "you didn't tell me you'd be coming!" 

Mark is the reason my mom and dad's marriage failed, and I hate him for that. Mark would always come to our house, hit on my mom and leave. That was the only thing he ever did, but it pissed off my dad so much that he started to drink, one thing lead to another and my mom and dad started to hit each other because of Mark. Now I'm convinced my mom and Mark are secretly dating. 

Mark smiles, and then shifts his attention to me, his smile growing to a grin. 

"And how have you been, Mae?" I look at him with utter disgust on my face.

 "It's Maeve" I say making it obvious I don't want to talk to this excuse for a human. 

"Maeve," my mom gives me an annoyed look.

"Don't be so rude," she says in the most annoyingly fake sweet voice.

After 15 minutes, which felt like hours, of  Mark and my mom talking, my mom turned to me and said, "Do you think you could drive yourself?" 

"What?!" I say extremely frustrated 

"You said you were free to drive!" 

"Can't you see that the circumstances have changed?" my mom says nodding her head to  Mark and still smiling annoyingly. 

"What?! Just because this fucking excuse for a human decides to show his ugly face you can't drive me to college?" if looks could kill then I would be dead on the floor.

"I- I- I don't know what to say about you?" she says pretending to be upset for empathy points, "how could you say such a thing to a friend of mine?"

Mark looks at her with a slight frown on his face, "I could drive her" he suggests, just as I'm about to open my mouth to call him the biggest idiot I ever met my mom cuts me off and says "NO!- I mean, no it's fine. She is old enough to drive herself".  At that, I rush to my room to bring my boxes downstairs.  

After 5 minutes of Mark's unsolicited advice on how to load a trunk the proper way, I'm finally ready to leave. 

"Hey, uh could you get my mom up here so I can say bye to her for the last time?" I ask Mark reluctantly.  

"She's out right now, sorry hun," he says shrugging his shoulders like he doesn't care, I hate him so much.

"Well tell her I said bye," I say blinking back tears. I don't know why I'm crying, she was never there for me, I should be happy, not sad, I'm free, no longer stuck in fucking Birmingham Alabama, and no longer have to be bullied for not having friends. I should feel wonderful, instead I feel empty inside. 

"I hope you miss me" Mark says and I give him a death stare.

"I'll never forget what you did to my mom and dad," I say and his face falls as I hop in my car to drive off. 

"I LOVE HER SO MUCH..." He screams after my car.