13

Chapter One

"GET THE FUCK OUT OF BED, AVERY." Ah, mother. Such a beautiful and charming woman. Except for... about 60 percent of the time? 

"WHY?!" I on the other hand, am only beautiful and charming 20 percent of the time. 

"BECAUSE I FUCKING SAID SO, ARSEHOLE!" Oh man, she must really want to say something if she's using British insults. I quickly yelled an 'ok' back and tried to get out of bed. As I stormed out of my room I tripped over my dog, Mak, making an audible 'thump' echo throughout our empty house. 

Mak is our little brown poodle that we got because of a show I recently watched. Despite him being a pain in the "arsehole," he is mine and I love him. Not even half a second later my wonderful mother decided to reply to my incident. 

 "WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT AVERY?!" 

"Um, my shirt fell!" 

"THAT SOUNDED HEAVIER THAN A SHIRT."

"I was in it.."

She made an audible sigh. "Just get the fuck over here."

"Coming!" I ran over to the kitchen where I figured my mother was, quickly shooting an annoyed  glance at Mak. "What's wrong mo-" I stopped in the middle of my sentence as I noticed 2 men in fancy grey suits and sunglasses sitting next to my mother at the counter. 

"Um, not to be rude, but who are they and why do they look like they're from the secret service?"

"The lovely men ready to give you an amazing job!" The way she said this was off-putting, to say the least. Her voice was laced with a tint of sarcasm, just enough so that I would understand it, but not enough for the strange men to understand.

"But... I'm only-"

"Fifteen! You're only fifteen, aren't you?" Her eyes contained something even I couldn't decipher, so I just assumed it was annoyance. Just then, something clicked in my twisted forest of a brain; I'm not fifteen. 

"Yeah! That's what I was gonna say! Anyways, why do I need a job?"

"Why, to support our family of course! I can't be the only one working, you know." 

You know, those fancy (and quite good looking I might add) men in our kitchen almost made me forget the disappearance of my father. Not too long ago, a police officer came knocking on our door. My mom was scared to death, wondering if it was because we had hidden away many illegal items (and substances) for our distant cousins. But the real reason was even worse. 

-/-\-/-\-

"A-Avery honey, c-can you come here for a s-second?" 

I had instantly known something was wrong; my mother was never one to stutter out of nervousness or embarrassment. Using the process of elimination, I figured out the name of my mother's offender. Fear. 

"Sure mom." It wouldn't take a genius to figure out the name of my offender, worry.

I quickly ran down the stairs to find my mother in a situation that I had never even thought of until I saw the heart crushing expression on her face. It didn't take me long until I deciphered the situation. I tried not to jump to conclusions, but I did. I left my thoughts and faced my mother.

"M-mom, please tell me what's going on. Now, please." Then I heard something I had never heard from her when asked a question. Silence. 

A different voice filled with sorrow chimed in. "I think that it would be best if I explained, Miss."  With great difficulty I turned to face the new voice.