Happily Ever After

Chapter One

When I was a little girl, my mother would come into my room every night, and tell me a bed time story. These stories were always about a princess who would meet some guy and fall hopelessly head over heels for him, and they would live happily ever after. Of course I always fell asleep before the part where they lived happily ever after, but I knew that’s what happened, that’s what was supposed to happen. It was supposed to happen to every one right? So where was mine?

                I’m seventeen now and my mom stopped telling me bedtime stories years ago, and turned to alcohol instead. Of course,  I  don’t blame her. I probably would too, If  I found out that my husband of twenty years had been cheating on me for at least twelve years of the marriage. My father left my mother for the woman he had been cheating on her with, and is now happily married with two other children. He doesn’t ever try to contact me. He got his happily ever after, And still, nothing for me. My mother spends almost every night with a bottle of cheap vodka and sometimes, if she’s lucky, a man to bring home with her so that she can try to forget my father. But anyone who had eyes could tell it’s not working.

                Our lives were miserable. We lived in a two bedroom apartment above the local subway. We were dirt poor, and barely had anything to our names. My mother was too busy with her cheap liquor to even bother getting a job, so I had to work for the both of us. I worked full time at the subway downstairs, which thankfully, paid the bills. I would get home after school, and go straight to work until ten o’clock at night, and then would repeat the same the next day. Saturdays I worked from open to close, and Sunday was my only day off. I would spend that nursing my hung over mother, and trying to find a ride home for her latest one night stand.

                School was my only means of escape. I was a senior at Wicasset High School, and had six months left until I graduated. I already had my life planned out. Me and my best friend Chelsea were going to start saving (her more than me, since I had a little more on my plate) and hopefully move out of this dump of a town and move into the city. Chelsea knew everything about me, and my mother. She often let me stay the night at her house, on the days when my mother became an angry drunk. She was never abusive, but she was scary, and I didn’t want to take the chance. Chelsea was the only one I could talk to, and feel like I wasn’t being judged, and that I wasn’t scum. I honestly don’t know what I would do without her.  Atleast if I don’t get a happily ever after, I have Chelsea.

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                “Anna, Snap out of it! Get back to work, your break is over!” My boss Shelly screamed at me. Oh right. I was at work. I let out a sigh of resentment, and carefully tightened my blonde hair back into place in it’s ponytail. I retied my apron, put on my plastic gloves, and went back to stand behind the counter and make some damn sandwiches. Honestly, I hated this job, but it paid the bills. And I can’t have my mother out on her ass. She wouldn’t last a day in the streets.

                “Hi, my name is Anna, Thank you for choosing Subway, What can I get for you?” I droned as the next customer stepped up to bat. Only half an hour left and I could go upstairs and wash the day off of me in the shower and hop into bed. Thankfully tomorrow was Sunday. I planned on going over to chelsea’s to spend the day, If my mother wasn’t to hung over that is.

                Luckily, the half hour flew by and before I knew it, I was headed up the stairs to our apartment. I unlocked the door, and stepped inside, carefully looking around for my mother. She wasn’t in the living room, or in the kitchen, so I figured bedroom it is. Probably has a man with her. I figured I’d let her have her alone time, and I went in to the bathroom, and started a shower. Walking back towards my bedroom, I scanned the hall, noticing pieces of a strangers clothing strewn about. Yup, I thought. Definitely brought someone home. I shook my head, and gathered my tattered pajama pants and an old tshirt. I strategically made it back to the bathroom, stepping over every article of clothing in the way. I set everything down on the counter and began to undress.

                The feeling of the hot water running down my body, always seemed to make me forget about all my stress and worries. Not permanently, but a little while was better than nothing, right? I washed my hair with my apple scented shampoo and conditioner, and then began crying. This was routine for me. I always cried in the shower.  My stress and worries would go away, and then they’d come crashing into me full force like a train. The crying would remain until I would get out of the shower  and get in bed. However, whenever I was in bed, it was the worst. I had nothing to block out the thoughts that would run through my head at night. The thoughts of the good days, when happy ever afters were possible, where my mother didn’t drink every night, where my father would be home, and would tell me he loved me… where all was happy. But that would never be my life, never. I just wasn’t destined for a happily ever after. And that killed me inside.