Dirty Little Secret

Prologue

"Hurry up, Charlotte, we're going to miss our flight... Again!"

My mother has always been a little crazy when it comes to being on time to things, but the past few days she's gone completely out of her mind. And after missing our flight to New York and having to wait a few days to catch the next one, she's been acting insane.

I don't really know much about it, mom says it's hard to understand, but my grandmother is terribly sick and needs my mothers help with almost everything. My grandfather passed away when I was thirteen and my grandmother vowed to never live in a nursing home, so for the past five years she's been living on her own with a nurse to check on her, bring her groceries and make sure she was always alright.

After getting sick my mother insisted she needed full time attention, but Nana - as I've always called her - being oh-so stubborn, still refused to go to a Home. That's when my mom decided leave everything in Arizona behind and start a new life in New York.

I'm still upset, but I've come around to the idea of being somewhere new. I've always wanted to visit New York after seeing photos of it when I was little. However, having to leave behind my two best friends and the only town I've ever known was something I'd never get over.

"I can't find my other shoe!" I shout back at mom as I duck beneath my bed to find it. When I see it I quickly slip it on before making my way downstairs to find my red-faced mother tapping her foot anxiously. "Sorry," I squeal.

"Sorry isn't enough, Charlie. Our flight leaves in two hours and we still have to drive almost an hour and a half to the airport. We can't miss this flight too, Nana was expecting us last week!"

She continues on her rant about how I need to be more responsible as we walk out the door and load the rest of our stuff into the car. I was barely listening as I sang along in my head to an old Chili Peppers song. After all, I have heard her complain about this a million times before.

"Can we stop at Stella's real quick? Please please please! She and Parker are there and I just wanna say bye once more. Five minutes tops!" I jut my bottom lip out and give her the saddest puppy face I can muster up. But even without it she was bound to say yes.

Stella and Parker have been my two best friends since third grade. Stella was new and Parker was "different." None of us really had many friends, despite the fact that most third graders have tons, so the three of us sorta formed our own little clique. Throughout school we've always been known as "Stella, Parker and Charlotte." If you knew one of us, you knew all of us.

As I said my final goodbyes to my friends, I couldn't help but let a few stray tears slip out. I laughed lightheartedly as I wiped them away with the back of my hand. "You guys are making my mascara run."

"You're gonna be on a plane for, like, five hours. I think it'll be okay," Parker commented, wiping away the black makeup from under my eyes. The three of us chuckled but still continued to cry, nonetheless.

"If you meet any cute boys at your new school, I want names so I can stalk them online," Stella perked up.

Parker nodded his head in agreement. "Same. You know my type - tall, dark and handsome." We all began laughing but Parker was quick to assure us that he was being completely serious. "I'm not joking, though. If Steven Campbell was single, I'd be all over him."

Just as I was about to say something, my mother honked the horn and began tapping at the nonexistent watch on her wrist. "You guys can video chat or whatever you want while we're on the plane but we are not missing this flight. I'm sorry, sweetie, it's time to say goodbye."

And that was it. That was the moment I knew my life was about to change forever.
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A/N: Hi guys! So I'm new here and this is the first story/book I've ever written so I'd love some feedback but please take it easy on me! :) This is just the prologue because as I was writing it I realized that I wanted to get a little back story/info in there before the actual story. If there are any spelling or grammar errors please feel free to let me know so I can correct them. Other than that I hope you enjoy my cliche story. Please leave some comments or whatever you guys do on here so I know what you think haha. Thanks for reading! :)))) PS: I know my cover image is so cheesy and boring and ugly, I made it in about 5 minutes haha please excuse it!