This Hard Life

This chapter is mainly background information about the characters. There isn't much romance yet, but in future chapters there will be. So please, bear with me!! Feel free to give me ideas, and PLEASE review!!

Chapter 1

It was a lovely, sunny day in Los Angeles. There was only ten minutes in my last class of the day, English. The teacher, Mrs. Kelley was babbling on and on about our summer assignments and how important they were to complete.

“Hey, Charlotte,” whispered a voice to my left. I looked over and saw my friend Claire looking at me. “What are you doing after school?”

“I have to pick up Gracie and then go visit my mom,” I replied.

My little sister, Grace was five years old. She went to A.M. kindergarten and afterwards she went to a local day care. She had little ginger ringlets in her hair and big hazel eyes. She looked just like my mother, with the exception on her eyes; which belonged to my father. Gracie was more than my little sister; ever since she was born I cared for her like she was my own child.

My parents met in high school. They got together in their sophomore year and got married in the summer that they graduated; since that was when my mother turned eighteen. About three months later my mother got pregnant with me. She loved the idea of becoming a mother. Meanwhile, my father was nervous about bringing someone into the world when they were so young. My parents got into it, and he walked out. They remained married, to appease their own parents, but he moved in with his best friend, Charlie.

Charlie was a mutual friend of both of my parents. He told my mom that my dad was staying with him. Once in a while my mom would give Charlie pictures of her ultrasounds to give to my dad. When she went into labor, Charlie got my father to the hospital. After seeing me in the nursery, my father pleaded with my mother to take him back. He said that he loved her with all of his heart. He said that he was a complete idiot to think that they couldn’t raise a child since they were young. My mother of course, took him back with open arms.

Over the course of the next thirteen years, my father and mother became separated at least three more times, each time he was gone longer than the last. I always had visits with him, but dreaded them. How could someone hurt my mother so much and think that everything was okay.

The last time that my parents got back together, my mom got pregnant with Gracie. I was by her side minute by minute. My father was very distant. He would leave the hospital several times, saying he had to get something very important for the new baby, and Gracie would need it as soon as she got home. My mother didn’t think anything of it, but I thought that it was fishy.

Come to find out, my father was having an affair with a woman named Deanna. She was one of my mother’s co-workers at the doctor’s office that they work at. My father left my mother for the final time when Gracie was two months old, and I was fourteen.

My mother was devastated. She was unable to take care of Gracie for the months following the separation. Instead, I jumped in. While my mother was crying her eyes out, I was making the bottles for the new baby. While my mother was trying to rebound with some jerk who thought that any idea of having a commitment was ridiculous, I was the one up late at night trying to get her to sleep. While my mother was out drinking away her pain at a bar, I was trying to calm Gracie down, who was throwing a tantrum in the grocery store while I pick up food.

About a year ago, my mother was admitted to the hospital because she had chronic and severe headaches. She was diagnosed with a miniscule brain tumor. Even though our finances were tight, she went into surgery to have it removed. It was removed with no complications. She then was diagnosed with tuberculosis. She didn’t have long to live.

Over the years I grew to love Grace immensely, but I also grew to envy her as well. Gracie was a child, who was so pure and innocent. She had no idea that our father was a liar, a cheater, and a dead-beat. She had no idea that our mother lost the love of her life, whose health was deteriorating. I knew.

I snapped out of my reverie as the bell rang. Claire was talking about this party this weekend, and how much she would love me to go to.

“I can’t, I have to take care of my mom,” I replied my standard response. Everyone knew that my home life wasn’t easy, but Claire knew how badly it is. She understood with sympathy. She felt sorry for me, but she always wanted me to go out. I don’t know if I can count how many times I told her that I couldn’t and she asked me to ‘screw it!’ “You’re only young once Char! Live a little,” she would say.

“Okay then, but text me if you reconsider. There’s this guy Scott that I want you to meet. He’s Brian’s friend that just moved here.”

“Thanks, but I don’t think so,” I said with only minor disappointment. Guys weren’t exactly my first priority at the moment, and besides, there was no one at this school who wasn’t a stuck up ass.

“Okay, then I will talk to you later! Bye Charlotte,” she said before we parted ways.

I switched my books in my locker before heading out to my car. I paused at the main office door in the school. There was this tall guy with dark brown hair. He sensed my stare, and looked up with his piercing green eyes. I quickly broke my gaze and continued out the door.

I reached my Vista Cruiser and quickly got inside. I couldn’t wait to pick up Gracie and hear about her day, but I couldn’t shake the man with the green eyes.