Good Girl Turned Bad

Chapter 1- Ashes to Ashes

"Ashes to ashes, dust to dust," the preacher said as the tears slid silently down my cheek. 

My brother reached over and grabbed my hand, giving it a squeeze. I look over at him, then over to my dad, who was crying like a baby. I had never seen my dad cry before, and it was very strange to see him cry. 

Finally, the funeral was over. Now all that was left was to go to the little gathering afterwards. 

I huddled next to my friends, who tried to console me, but I had just lost my mother when I needed her the most. 

Don't get me wrong, I loved my father. He tried his best to make my brother and I happy, but there's only so much he could do. I was a fifteen year old girl, still growing and learning about how life worked. And I had just lost my mentor.

"Sarah, you need to eat something. Anything, just get food inside you," my aunt said as she tried to hand me a plate of food. But I just turned my head and ignored it. I wasn't hungry. I had had breakfast that morning and was still full.

My brother, Nate, glared at me and said, "If you don't eat right now, I will have Dad take away your phone."

I glared at him and grabbed a piece of cauliflower from the plate. I took a bite of it, then put it back down. 

"There, I ate," I snarled as I walked away. I would have gone and found a place to hide, but I knew Nate would have just come to find me, and I would rather not have him yell at me. 

My friends followed me as I tried to mingle with the people who had known my mother through out the years.  I knew a few of them, and majority knew me, even if I had no idea who they were. It was worse than a family reunion, because at least there were only a few of them. 

I never knew my mom had been such a social butterfly, but I wasn't about to complain. I'm about to sound selfish, but my mom has only been dead for a week, and I've already gotten about five hundred dollars in the mail. 

"Sarah, I'm so sorry for your loss," I heard over and over as I passed from group to group, my friends trailing behind me. I just smiled and nodded, sharing a few words with them. 

My mom had always taught me to be kind. Don't ignore anyone. I felt like a robot as I walk among the people mourning as I was. Shake hand, say thank you, smile, talk, hug, walk away. Repeatedly, I spun around, until finally, the last person walked out the door and the last note of the song played. 

My dad walked up and wrapped his arm around my shoulder. "You ready to go home?" he asked as we began to walk towards the kitchen, where the left over food was.

We stopped at the kitchen, letting them know that we wanted the food to go to the homeless and then walked out to the van. I watched as bouquet after bouquet was put into the back of van. I held myself back from crying and got into the front seat. My dad said goodbye to his brother and then got in the drivers seat.

He started the car up and started out journey to the house. I fiddled with my phone, but grew bored of it about twenty minutes. We were staying at his old house until we finished cleaning up my mom's house. My brother and I had been doing repairs on it when my mom passed away, and my dad didn't want to have to sleep in a house that was a mess.

"Is anyone coming over today?" I asked as I surfed the radio, looking for some good music. 

"Nah, it's just you, me and Nate for the day." 

I knodded my head and frowned. I knew Nate wasn't going to be there when we got home. He was probably gonna stay over at his girlfriend's house, like he had been for the past week. But I didn't want to get my dad's hope down. It wasn't my dad's fault that my brother was a wimp that couldn't face his own family.

After about twenty minutes, we pulled up into the driveway and I hopped out of the van. I ran straight to the computer and put my earbuds in. I turned on my music and let it wash my sadness away. 

Just another day in hell.