The Eighteenth Birthday

Chapter One

“...I- I just want you to know that I love you...” Then her breathing slowed and her eyes rolled back into her head. I wanted to scream. I won’t be able to live with myself. I let them kill-

I woke up almost immediately. I can’t stand these kinds of dreams. They try and get inside your head and make you paranoid. What makes it worse? I actually am one of those jocks with a sensitive side. I’ve been having them a lot lately, and more often as my birthday gets closer. Oh, my name is Cole by the way. Cole Donnelly. I have three brothers and a sister. Caden & Caine are both twenty years old and are away at college, so that makes my home life a little bit easier. I still worry about them though. Then there’s Callie, who’s fifteen, & Cody, who is eleven and from my mom’s second marriage. I’m the middle child from my bunch & seventeen years old; I will be eighteen next week.

So I guess that’s it for who I am. Not really much to tell. Nothing extraordinary. Just...well, me.

I got out of bed and got dressed before my mom yelled up. It was really annoying when she did that. I headed downstairs just in time to catch my step-dad on his way out the door. Yippie.

“Oh, hey sport! Have a good day. I’ll see you tonight okay?” said Will. Ugh! I hate it when he calls me that...only my dad can do that.

“Yeah, whatever. Bye.” I reply flatly. God, I hate him so much! Why did mom have to marry him of all people on this earth?! Well, at least one good thing came out of it. I finally got a younger brother to tease. I kinda can’t do that with two older brothers. Especially twins. They’ll kill me. No joke. They almost did before....when my dad was still here. It happened two years ago. I was sixteen then, Caden and Caine had both just turned eighteen. I was pushing their buttons, and all of the sudden they both just flew at me. Dad walked in and easily got them both off of me. They broke a few of my bones, but I was alright. That was around the time my parents got divorced. Probably because my mom thought my dad didn’t know how to be a parent, and taught us violence, which isn’t true at all. There's also the fact that my dad found out that Mom was cheating on him and had a son with another man for nine years as of then. I’ve always hated my mom for that, and I’ll never forgive her. Ever since the twins kept their distance from me, and everyone else. I think that there’s more than just that one reason...

“Let’s go Cole! Callie! You’ll miss the bus! Out the door now!” my mom yelled, even though we were both a few feet away from her. Dammit mom, you made me lose my train of thought. Oh that’s right, I was thinking about hating you. Nothing lost. “Cole! Move it! Now!”

“Alright Mom! I’m going dammit!”

“Watch your mouth or you’ll find yourself without a birthday celebration next week! Go!”

I rolled my eyes and walked out the door. I just made the bus. Time to start another freaking awful day. Thanks Mom.