Fast Car

One

So here I am, a 22-year-old girl sitting in my room, door closed window opened, a book in my hand, contemplating this bit of freedom left to my life as the cool breeze caresses my skin. Gazing at this strikingly handsome guy, and only friend I have in this life, working so hard to make a living, and it occurred to me ... 

"I've got to run away".

So here is my story...

My name is Isabel; I live in the suburbs of a beautiful country that I never got the chance to discover because I had to grow old suddenly. I only see the empty pavements early in the morning when I go to work and the haunted alleys as I return home late at night. I have three jobs, working double shifts to make a living for my father, and barely for myself.

You wonder what happened...

My parents met in college; my mother was a rich, beautiful nerd and my dad was the hot, popular dude and captain of the soccer team. He played his tricks on my mom and he fell head over heels in love with her instead. She tutored him, he taught her soccer, they fell in love and they dated secretly because her parents would not approve of her marrying someone from a different status like Dad. They even arranged her marriage to their favorite partner's son, who was an arrogant prick, so Mom and Dad decided to elope.

My favorite memory from my childhood is when Mom used to put me to bed; she would sit next to me, playing with my hair, and she would tell me my favorite bedtime story, their love story. How they met, how he tricked her into tutoring him, how they fell in love with each other, all the places they have been, and most importantly, how they eloped and got married in a museum.

They were crazy, crazy in love, and on the wild run. The bad guys in the story were always my mother's parents for refusing my dad, for destroying his confidence, and most importantly for not giving a beautiful love, like theirs, a chance to survive. They even tried to give my dad huge amounts of money so he would "sell" the love he had for Mom and leave her alone. But he was a super hero who never gave up.

I never got enough of their story, I used to sneak up to Dad and ask him to tell me their story because his version was a little different. He used to describe my mom as if she was his fairy tale princess. He never missed an opportunity to talk about his achievements in sports and in school. I love my parents, I love that I am the result of something so beautiful; I just wish I will have such a story to tell my kids.

I grew up in a home where "love conquers all"... because that's what Mom and Dad used to always tell me. We were not rich, but we were extremely happy. I would cherish every moment spent with my parents. I used to love sitting on top of the slide in the playground and watching them gaze into each other's eyes or hold hands. They set the bar so high for my future husband.

They make me fall in love with love every day.

But sometimes, no matter how hard you work to make a living, you feel like the currents are always going against you. Sometimes, you run out of opportunities to make the right thing happen, and sadly, sometimes everything you do, all the efforts you make, they just go down the drain... and that's what happened with my father.

He started losing every job opportunity he got; it was surreal how this life turned against him. He would start a job, and then a couple of days later they would just fire him.

He just lost every hope in life, and he became a different person. Happiness was strangled out of his system.

"... and love fades after the first unpaid bill"

So in our household, we started running out of the main energy that ran the whole system... Love turned into hate, holding hands turned into endless fights, and gazing into each other's eyes turned into death stares.

It was a nightmare!

When darkness started taking over, my father made a friend he used to run to after every failure or disappointment and they both became very close over time. That friend comes in different colors, names and shapes but the main description of it is "a bottle".

That drove my mother away when I was still 15 years old. She said she deserved a life, that she needed a new start and both my old man and I were stopping her. So, she just packed her bags, went out of the very same door of our home, and she never looked back.

Her evil parents took her back on the one condition that she would leave me behind, because they didn't want Dad's blood in their family tree, and for them I was going to ruin "their clean roots". She just turned her back and left me.

When she did, my dad became a broken man. The sight of him so lost, so down, and so drunk would kill me. The relationship between my dad and his so-called friend started getting stronger by the day; he was replacing my mom's presence with it.

His days turned into nights. He would stay up drinking and spend his days sleeping. He claimed that his body was too old for working now, and that if I wanted to live, I was going to have to find a job myself.

I looked at him with a broken heart and teary eyes because he was just too young to look like that. His life was ruined, and so was mine, and my future. The only thing left to do was to quit school and start working to provide for the both of us. One job became two, and two became three.

Seven very long years passed by in the blink of an eye. I missed on my beautiful teenage years; I did not make any friends. I missed out on school and college. I did not have a best friend to tell her my secrets, or to tell her about my crushes on boys and go shopping with her. I never went on first dates and got no first kisses. I did not have to go through the hassle of making myself look beautiful for someone; I mean what is the point? I looked at my dad and I realized that love was the last thing I wanted in my life, because love ruins things... Love is overrated anyway, and happily ever after is just something we read in fairytales and watch in movies. So, I lead a very lonely life, except for one person.

I homeschooled myself. I used to borrow books from the library and just read or practice. I developed a few hobbies and passions that I only read about, because I didn't have the time to practice them.

I spent all the money I made on the house and Dad; all my jobs required uniforms, so I didn't need to buy myself new outfits. I had a few that I wore on my days off when I sat home or when I helped Adam with his work.

Adam... Maybe the only hope I had in this life.