Reluctance

There are very few people in this world that I can confide in and lean on when I need a shoulder to cry on- which I've needed many of. Those people are my very good looking friend, Alex Barakarth, my grandma, Janie, and my school counselor, Ms. Jacobs. Alex and I have been best friends since 2nd grade when I moved to Westchester Pike. I know everything about him, and he knows almost everything about me. Unfortunately, I have a bit of embarrassment about some of the stuff I don't share with him. For one, he doesn't need to know that my step-dad molests and beats me. How am I going to say that? "Hey, Alex, don't be mad if I snap at you, I spent the night getting felt up by my dad and slapped across the face while my sister cried in the corner." I mean, come on, does that sound like something you would want to tell your crush/best friend? So far, he hasn't noticed his best friend, who is highly unnoticeable with her plain brown-blonde hair and amber eyes- that's understandable, he sees me as his best friend who he cares about in a friend way, nothing more. But I keep telling myself that next week I'm going to make a move, only to lose my courage and say "maybe next week." Now my grandma, she is the next best thing to a mother, considering I haven't had one since I was three. My mother died of "unknown causes" when I was still a tot, at least that's what the police told me, but I have my suspicions. Not knowing who my father or my sister, Andrea's father was, we were sent to live with are step dad who is the pure definition of evil. I have no idea how he turned out that way, his mother, Janie, who I consider my long-lost grandmother, is just about as nice as they come. She's country and boy, can she cook. That was about the best thing our evil stepfather ever gave us, was a nice relative. My sister is 11 years old and was born right before our mother died, leaving me to care for her. So, yeah, my life is as peachy as it gets. I'm Kaia Miller and this is my story. It all started the first day my mother, Kelly Miller, started seeing my soon-to-be "stepfather" Jack Gazhana. I was two at the time and my mom thought she was madly in love. The thing she didn't understand was that Jack was her blind spot and he was evil when he wasn't around her. She didn't believe no matter how many times I told her that he... touched me when she wasn't around. She thought I was either crazy, sick, or jealous that she had finally found love. I thought that theory was crazy itself and it hurt to believe my own mom would choose a man over me. I had to deal with it though, the only way she would believe me is if she caught him red-handed, which of course never happened. Well, the night she died, they had had an argument and told me to take my 1 month old sister to bed so they could work it out in peace. I had told myself I was going to stay awake, but that's difficult for a 3 year old child and I eventually started dozing off. Well, that turned into a full-fledged sleep and when I woke up the next morning, I couldn't find my mother anywhere. I knew something was wrong, so I asked Jack where she was. He said he didn't know. Yeah freaking right. I went into their bedroom and found my mother's cold, lifeless body. I knew then that he killed her. The thing is, the police don't take murder lightly, I was underage and didn't have proof. Well, let's just say I was scared to tell the truth after that and stuck up for Jack. He approved and "rewarded" me in front of my sister. It was more like torture. I cried for several months after that. Now, it's been 11 years and I still am in the same predicament. I wait outside my homeroom classroom at Westchester Middle School, home of the Titans, for Alex to get there. He's late as usual and I grin widely as I see him come around the corner towards me. He grins back and winks, which makes my heart melt in a puddle at my feet. He walks over to his locker and puts in his combination. When he opens the locker, he shoves his gym clothes and book bag into the locker and takes out his English textbook and Homework, of course it isn't finished. He walks over to me and kisses me on the cheek, normal routine everyday. "Hey, can I borrow your English homework? I left it in my locker all night and forgot about it. Pleeeaaassseee? You're my bestest fweind in the whole wide world!!!" Uh-oh. He brought out the puppy dog face. Who could say no to that? Definitely not me. "When don't you not leave your homework here?" I say while handing over my homework. "Thanks Kai, I owe you one!" He says with a stupid grin plastered over his face. I laugh. We walk into homeroom and sit in our normal seats next to eachother. The period passed fast with Alex passing me notes about what was going on in school between everybody. He was quite the gossip. He's also a popular athlete in school. He plays soccer, football, baseball, and basketball. He also has quite a body, too. He has shaggy, kind of long brown-blonde hair and the prettiest blue eyes I've ever seen with splecks of green around the middle.