The Broken Hearted Girl **HOLD**

Chapter 1: Pointless Dreams

Chapter 1: Pointless Dreams

“Mommy! Can Ava and I go play up front?” Ava and I begged. She narrowed her eyes at me, trying to figure out why I wanted to go outside.

“Where?” she asked skeptically. I looked over at Ava wide eyed. We both looked down to our feet. “Up front…” we mumbled. I looked up to see my mom smiling down at us. She nods her head and says we can go. We smile brightly and sprint out the front door.

As we run out the door Hailey is walking up the pathway, with Cody trailing behind her. I smile at them, and they smile back. I look up at my big sister and my big brother lovingly. While Ava just blushes in my brothers presence.   

“Hey girly! What are you guys doing?” Hailey asked looking at us. We shrugged, she laughed. “How about I go inside and get us some ice cream?”Hailey asked. I glance over at Ava; it seemed she has snapped out of drooling over my brother to hear the words ice cream. We nod our heads vigorously. She giggles and walks in the front door.

Next was Cody to greet us. He stops in front of me with a smile on his face, as he looks down at me. “Hi Addison, what’s up?” he says as he ruffles my long, curly brown hair. I fake pout as he messes it up. I point up to the sky and smile devilishly. “The sky, that’s what’s up smart one!” I say in the most sarcastic tone an eight year old can have. Ava giggles next to me; Cody pretends to give me a pointed look.

He picks me up and starts to tickle my sides. I giggle and scream, I’m laughing so hard tears are falling down my face. Ava’s laughing at me, but Cody pulls her in and tickles her sides to. Soon we both are squealing trying to get away from Cody when mom and Hailey come outside. Both of them are carrying ice cream cones for all of us.

“SISSY HELP ME!” I scream out. Mom laughs and shakes her head at her weird children. Ava is saying ‘Please’ in between labored breaths.

“Cody! I’ll lick your ice cream!” Hailey yells as an attempt to get Cody to stop his tickling assault. He immediately jumped up, with Ava and me securely in his arms. “I’ll hand over the kids once you hand over the ice cream.” Cody says with a really bad southern accent. Hailey nods her head. “Okay, but give up one child now.” Cody raises an eyebrow, but none the less he releases Ava. She sprints behind my mom, blushing like crazy at how close she was to Cody. My mom hands her an ice cream cone and waits patiently for her children to finish the hostage exchange.

“On three, I will release Addison, and you hand out the ice cream to my out stretched hand. Deal?” Cody says, looking at Hailey waiting for her to make her move. Hailey nods her head. “On three.” She repeats. She holds out the ice cream for him and they start to count to three,

“One”

“Two”

“Three”

Cody releases me and reaches for his ice cream. I run to Hailey, while Cody starts to devour his cone. Everyone rolls their eyes at the pig in front of them. My mom happily hands me a cone to munch on.

“Oh, Cody, Hailey; you both need to go and clean your rooms! They are disgusting; I can’t even walk through them!”

They both roll their eyes and start towards the door. Leaving Ava and I alone, the sun starts to be blocked out by big, black rain clouds. Ava starts getting nervous about the whole situation; she hates rain while I love it. We are complete opposites, but we work.

It starts to drizzle, and Ava gets up from the porch and walks over to her house which is next to mine. She waves goodbye as she gets to her front porch. I smile to myself as the rain starts to fall harder. I jump up and dance around on the front lawn. Laughing and having the best time of my life. I wasn’t paying attention to the scene around me, so when two car doors slammed I jumped. I whirled around to see two men in a Marine uniforms that looked just like my Daddy’s. I quirked an eyebrow at them, turning my head to the side in confusion.

They smile sadly at me as they start to walk towards me. “Hi.” I say in a quiet voice. One of the men gets down to my level. “Hey, I’m Staff Sergeant Right and this is Chaplin Bander. What’s your name?” I look up at him and blink a few times to get the rain out of my eyes. “I’m Addison, are you a Marine?” he nods slowly. “Do you know my daddy?” His smile completely falls when I said that. I looked up at him trying to figure out what his reaction means.

My mom walks out on to the front porch while I was talking to the Marines in the middle of the front yard. “Addison! Who are you talking to?” She asked, I see her stumble a bit when both men turn around. She leans up against the wall for support, her hand over her heart. Tears start falling down her face. I hear Hailey and Cody yelling for her, but she’s not looking at them or the Marines in front of me…she’s looking directly at me. Cody and Hailey finally walk outside and stop abruptly next to mom. I watch as Hailey’s body starts shaking violently, Cody looks like a deer in headlights. Hailey falls to her knees, hugging herself; Cody staggers back and hits the wall and slides down it putting his head in his hands. Staff Sergeant Right reaches out for my hand, I put my hand in his without thinking and we slowly start to walk towards my family. As soon as we step up on the stairs Cody looks up and waves me to him. I hesitantly let go of the Staff Sergeants hand and walk to Cody. Cody puts his legs down and opens his arms for a hug.

I see the tear marks down his face and I automatically start crying too. Cody never cries this can’t be good. I run into his arms and he holds me there for what feels like forever. I cry into his shoulder, while he cries into the crook of my neck. I look up at the Marines in front of me, I watch as the help my mother and sister in the house. Cody picks me up and we follow them inside. We all sit on the couch and I watch as these men hand my mother a letter, and then salute us. They stand there for an entire minute before my mom nods her head and stands up. She leads them to the door, I get up and follow. I walk right out behind my mom; the Staff Sergeant sees me and nods his head in my direction. My mom walks back inside without me, but I don’t care these men know my dad I just know it. The Chaplin leans down to my height; he pulls out two cards from his back pocket and hands them to me.

“Addison, if you ever need anything ever, just text, call, email or fax to these number on the card and we will come talk to you. We will be here for you.” I nod as I take the cards from them and put them in my pack pocket. They both hug me before they walk off and leave. I walk back in the house to hear my mom reading something out loud.

“We are sorry to inform you that your husband, Sergeant Major Thomas, of the United States Marine Core, has passed away in the line of duty. Know that everyone in America grieves with you on this awful day as well. You are not alone. I am deeply sorry…”

I tuned the rest of the letter out, you mean my dad’s not coming home…like ever. Tears fell from my eyes, I sank to the floor. I felt as if my world was collapsing around me, I couldn’t breathe. I must have fallen asleep there because when I woke up I was in Cody’s arms headed up stairs to my room. “Shhh, baby girl go back to sleep.” Cody coos in my ear trying to get me to sleep. It doesn’t work as he sets me down in my bed; I look up to his watery blue eyes. I look down at my hands in my lap while he starts to head for the door. “I know...” I mumble, I don’t think he heard me, but when I feel my bed dip I know he did. “What do you know?” he asked sounding nervous. Tears started forming in my eyes again as I was about to say my next sentence. “I know dad is d-d…” a violent sob racks through my body and I can’t finish the sentence. Cody’s arms are around me instantly as he tries to calm me down. Hailey runs into my room probably from hearing me crying. Cody pulls me into his lap to try and comfort me more, I feel Hailey rubbing mindless, comforting circles on my back. And soon all three of us are crying, which makes my mom walk in. She sees all of us huddled together, crying our hearts out. I look up and hold my arms out for her to come over, she runs over and kneels on the floor while we all hug each other so tight, thinking that if one of us lets go than we will lose someone else.    

That’s how we spend the night, staying in each other’s arms, hoping that when we wake up tomorrow that it will all be some sick joke and my dad will walk through the front door laughing his head off.

But that doesn’t happen; I wait for it to happen for four years before I finally gave up on my pointless dream.