A loud knock on the door wakes me up from my dreamless sleep. I sit up and hear another knock. I quickly run over to the door and open it, seeing a tall man in a black business suit looking down at me. This doesn't look good, I think to myself.
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I sit at the kitchen table counting the seconds until Aiden gets home. I can not believe what I have just heard, when was Aiden going to tell me? I hear the door open and then close, Aiden walks into the room with water dripping from his wet hair and I realise that it's been raining all day. I stare at him and I guess he realises that I'm giving him a death stare because he asks "hey, what's up?" I chuck a few papers on the table and he picks one up reading through;
"when were you going to tell me that were bankrupt?" I shout. Aiden doesn't even answer my question, he simply replies saying "how did you find out?"
"some business guy came this afternoon. You know we have to move out now, we don't have enough money to pay for the house and bills" I say sadly.
"I'm sorry, I was going to tell you but I thought that if I work longer shifts then I'll get enough to keep paying for this old place" he says patting the wall.
"it's okay, but if something like this happens again please tell me." Aiden doesn't reply, he just looks down at the floor.
"How long do we have to move out?" He finally asks.
"2 months, they heard about us not having any other family so there giving us an extra month to get everything organised before we leave." I say. "Where do you think were going to go? We have no where else besides here," I say starting to tear up.
"Jena..." Aiden comes over and hugs me, repeating a single scentence that for some reason calms me down, "It's going to be okay, I promise..."
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"hurry up Jena, your gonna be late for school" Aiden shouts out to me.
"ok ok, I'm almost done" I run down the stairs and swallow the last bit of my toast. "can't you drive me? Oh wait I forgot, you sold the car" I say bitterly. I don’t mean to be angry but I can’t help it, with all the things that’s been going on I’m just so frustrated and plus it’s that time of the month.
“We need the money to rent an apartment or do you wants us to live on the streets for the rest of our lives?” He asks with a hint of sarcasm.
I just groan, grab my coat and call out “see ya this afternoon” before I walk out the door into the cool morning breeze. As I walk to the front gate I’m greeted by Chastity who’s leaning against the wall. Ugh why is this girl so obsessed with me?
“Hey, do you mind if we walk to school together?” she asks
“Na, let’s go” I respond. We walk to school together in silence until Chastity breaks that awkward silence. “Do you want a cigarette?” She asks, I look at her as she pulls out a packet of cigarettes and hands one to me.
“You don’t seem like the one to smoke” I say lighting up my cigarette.
She does the same, “It may not seem like it but I have some of my own problems as well” she says as if she knows that I’m not 100% either. I don’t reply and after what seems like a long moment Chastity speaks up. “I’ve seen you in the halls at school; you always look too tired to function, drunk or high and you never seem to know what’s going on. Are you alright? I mean is there a reason why you seem really depressed all the time?” She inhales her tobacco and watches me carefully.
“Wow, is it that obvious? Well, my parents died when I was 6” I say
“Oh. I’m really sorry” Chastity says.
“It’s okay, I don’t really remember much about them” I say sadly, “So how about you?” I ask trying to change the subject off me.
“My mum left when I was 2, I didn’t know her well either” She pauses, “she left my dad to look after me by himself, we were really close.” She explains looking down.
“Were?” I repeat
“Well he died 3 months ago, I live alone now. I only have my Uncle left but he lives in England”
“But aren’t you under age to live by yourself?” I ask. Wait why are we talking about this stuff? Where not friends… are we? No were not, I don’t need a friend; I had a good friend but she left my life and she’s never coming back.
“Yeah, but like I was saying about my Uncle. He’s a huge business man in England, loads of money and stuff. He talked to the Australian government and convinced them to let me live by myself without needing any foster parents,” She replies.
"How do you get enough money to pay for everthing though?" I ask, hoping that there's something I can do to help my brother and my money problems.
“My Uncle sends money over to me every month to help me pay with school, the house and stuff like that. How about you, how do you pay for everything with your parents… gone” She asks.
“Well my brother Aiden dropped out of school early to work so we can pay for our house and my school fees but on the weekend some business guy came and told me were bankrupt. We have to move out of our house by September in 2 months” I explain
“That’s terrible. So you don’t have any other family?”
“Nope” I simply reply. For some reason it feels easy and comfortable to talk to Chastity. Maybe we could be friends. No we can’t! But maybe we should, I’ve been alone for too long; I don’t even think it’s healthy to be that alone. I war between two goes on inside my head. Just shut up and stop thinking Jenna!
“If you can’t find a place you and your brother can move in with me,” Chastity’s voice snaps me to reality.
“Um, I don’t know. I wouldn’t want to be a pest” I say innocently.
“Are you kidding?” She asks “My house is huge, you could have one room let alone a whole level to yourself and you still wouldn’t be a pest” She laughs. Hmmm maybe I should give this chick a chance, I mean she lost a lot too and she knows what I’m going through.
“I’ll talk to my brother tonight then, but if there’s any problems just tell me”
“Na, there won’t be problems. I’m practically going crazy living alone all the time” She laughs again and this time I laugh with her. Maybe she’s right I should give her a chance, were both starting to go crazy anyway so why don’t we just go crazy together?
“Ok, I’ll definitely talk to my brother now” I say
“And if you get homesick just think of it as a really long sleep over, or a camp… a fun camp!” She corrects. “This is going to be so much fun!” She squeals. I just watch her and laugh. We quickly throw out our cigarettes before we get to the school gates.
We say “see ya later” to each other and run off for first period. As I reach my locker, I realise this is one of the first times I’ve come to school either happy, sober or not stoned.
YOU ARE READING
Broken
Teen FictionJenna has lost almost everyone she cares about, her mum, her dad and her best friend; she only has her brother left. She's been through things no teenage girl should of been through and when she thinks she can't handle life anymore someone steps int...
