The Decision

Chapter 1

I gazed at my house from the sidewalk as it was engulfed in flames. All my childhood memories, all the secrets hidden beneath its walls. All of it was gone. Some firemen were beginning to put out some flames, but most of the house was still burning away.

My dad left years ago for some lady who was as old as my grandmother with a hefty bank account. Thankfully with his newfound money he had no interest in the two-story home I grew up in, and left it to my mom. He lives out in New York now in some snazzy penthouse apartment. His life seems good, and I mean honestly school sometimes makes me think I should drop out and find a sugar-daddy myself, so can I really be mad at him? His leaving our house to us by no means made up for the fact that he was a asswipe of a father, but at least some part of my life was able to remain normal during the divorce. Not that it matters now though seeing as my house is being destroyed in front of my eyes.

I gazed over at my mother as she balled her eyes out in some fireman's arms as he awkwardly consoled her. The woman really needs to learn about personal space. I walked over and gently pulled her arms from the uncomfortable fireman and sent him an apologetic smile. The guy looked to be about in his thirties and although his hair was slightly starting to grey at the edges, he was quite handsome.I'm sure if my mom wasn't in such a fragile state,she'd beat herself up about throwing herself at him.

The fireman sent a thankful smile my way and gave me a pat on the back, then walked to go speak with his coworkers that weren't putting out the fire. I turned to my mom and pulled her into my arms. I never really was a touchy-feely kind of person, but if I don't console the woman she might go force herself on some other stranger. I slowly patted her mop of brown curls as she cried a snotty cry into my favorite pajama shirt.

Her body eventually stopped shaking and she took and deep breath, and pulled away from me. She put her hands on my shoulders and gazed at me with tear-filled eyes.

"Honey don't worry, this is just a minor set back. Things weren't going well for us here anyway. Too many memories of our old lives. We can start fresh." She said gazing at me with eyes pleading with me to agree with her for her own sanity.

I gave a tiny nod and reassuring smile. "We'll get through this mom. The only thing is I don't know where we'll go from here, with getting the whole divorce finalized, we don't have the money to get a new place." I said.

She gave a spiteful little chuckle. "You don't have to remind me honey. That dickwad left me with practically nothing. The only reason we had this place is because the mortgage was already paid off. Don't worry about it though, I'll find somewhere for us to stay. Let me go make some phone calls."

My mom turned away from me and walked off towards our neighbors driveway while pulling out her phone. I watched her talk on the phone and hang up repeatedly, and let out a long sigh. I'm almost through the third marking period of my senior year, and now I'll have to move. This is just great.

My mom roped me into joining some sport so my college applications looked better, and I ended up joining the lacrosse team. Unfortunately, we had practice today, which meant my legs were fucking killing me. I walked over to the people across the street's house and fell back on their grass with a loud grunt.

With my neighbors having about five dogs that shit on just about everyones' yards, I'm guessing there was probably dog poop on their own front yard. However, my house had just burnt down, and I couldn't really give half a shit. My day couldn't really get worse could it?

As I gazed up at the stars in the itchy, possibly poop-infested yard, I heard a slam that sounded like a door closing. I glanced up as my neighbor walked out of his house holding his cane.