Chapter One
“Austin, let’s go! We need to leave in five minutes!” it took my mind a minute to wake up and process what was going on, and I guess I wasn’t processing things fast enough, because the next thing I knew, my sister, Sarah, had already dumped ice cold water all over my bed.
“Okay, okay I’m up, go away!” I growled at her as I stumbled out of bed.
“Look, you know just as well as I do that you’re getting suspended if you’re tardy one more time!” I swear, she’s such a nag.
“Alright, yeah I get it. I’ll be out in a minute.”
“Don’t roll your eyes at me!”
“You’re not my mother, now bye.” And at that point I had forcefully led her outside of my room and slammed the door. I swear, she always treated me like I was five, and it was as if she nominated herself to be my parent. She was always so convinced she was so responsible when she was only two years older than me. Like, I get that she probably feels like it’s her job, considering that my dad wasn’t much of a parent and it felt like my mom was almost never around, but either way, Sarah and her constant nagging just got to be so irritating.
After a quick shower and applying the hair gel to spike up my hair, I made my way over to the kitchen to look for food, having absolutely no sense of urgency. I got to the kitchen to find Mom and Dad sitting at the table together, which was truly a rare occurrence.
“Good morning, Mom. Good morning, Dad.” I greeted them. My mom paused whatever work she was doing on her laptop to acknowledge my presence.
“Good morning, Austin. Running late again I see?” it kind of bothered me that she had just flown in from her two week business trip the night before, and when I finally saw her, the only thing she had to say to me was ‘running late again I see?’. I shrugged off her statement and continued pouring myself a bowl of cereal.
“I saw that you have two new missing assignments in your English class.” She stated very plainly
“Yeah, I’m working on turning those in.” It took every effort in me to refrain from rolling my eyes at her. I sat down at the table with my cereal and braced myself to be lectured about my future for the billionth time.
“Your grade in that class has dropped to a C. Much like your history grade that you refuse to fix. C’s aren’t going to get you into college. You keep this up and you’ll work fast food if anything for the rest of your life and be unable to support a family. That is, if you can even get a girl that would settle for that kind of low life.”
Her words didn’t even phase me anymore. Ever since I started high school it was as if my grades were the only thing that ever mattered about me in her eyes.
“I know, I know.” I insisted. I had also glanced over and noticed that my dad had looked up from his newspaper for the first time since I had been in the kitchen. I noticed him shoot a rather bitter glare directed towards my mom. I guess that she noticed too because she called him out on it.
“Robert, you know exactly what I’m talking about.” She hissed at my dad, with such a strong sense of spite in her voice.
I had watched my mother become so cold over the years. There were many fond memories that I had from when I was younger, back when she was as loving as a mother could be. She would always make it a point to go out of her way to make sure that our whole family was happy all the time. I still remember the way that she always used to read me stories in bed on the nights when I couldn’t sleep and play imaginary games with me when no one else would. She would always make the best home cooked meals, but the craziest thing of all to remember was the time when her and Dad were still in love. At one point they had been the perfect lovers, no two people could have possibly been happier together than my parents at that time.
