Hard Knock Life

Chapter 1

Izabella

I was running late and I was still trying to figure out what the hell I was gonna do with this hair of mine. Walking into the bathroom that was attached to my room I decided on a simple ponytail. I rushed, trying to finish doing my hair as quickly as I could. I was meeting Olivia and Emaleigh. My two best friends.

Triple checking that I had all my necessary items in my bag, I threw on an olive green Nike hoodie and pulled on my chestnut Ugg boots over my matching sweatpants. I grabbed my Burberry bomber jacket while walking out of my room, down the steps and into the kitchen.

My mom was making dinner, while my father sat at the table that was covered in papers. Probably of his latest case. My dad is a lawyer/business man, he owns his own Law Firm in Lower Manhattan. My mom is a pediatric surgeon, one of the best in the country. She works at Mount Sinai hospital but she's always on call for other hospitals around the country and sometimes they even fly her to different countries if the case is special. I have an older brother as well, Joshua. He's away at college right now he goes to Buffalo State so he's mostly here on the holidays.

"Where are you going Izabella?" my father questioned in a thick Spanish accent without looking away from the paper he was now reading. I rolled my eyes as I sighed, "I'm going to meet Olivia and Emaleigh on 34th street. We might watch a movie or do a little bit of shopping, then I'll be spending the night at Olivia's house."

"Okay mija have fun and be careful" my mother said as she dried her hands. She walked over to me and pulled me in for a hug. "Necesitas dinero?" My father asked me finally looking up. I shook my head no, "It's fine dad I have some money saved up."

He nodded and went back to working on his case.

I kissed my mothers cheek, hugged my father good-bye after grabbing my things and headed out of our home.

When I got off the A train at 34th street, I pulled out my phone texting the girls to see where they were. Literally seconds later, Em texted back saying they were in McDonald's. As soon as I approached the McDonald's they were walking out.

"Bitch, ya ass stay taking forever damn. We been waiting on yo ass for like 45 minutes" Olivia half yelled, smacking her gum. I shook my head, "You always dragging shit Olivia. I bet ya wasn't even here that long. Am I right Em ?"

She laughed loudly, "Listen don't be putting me in the middle of y'alls drama"

"Yeah yeah, whatever" We responded at the same time.

We began shopping as we talked about any and everything we could possibly think of.

After a few hours of shopping we were finally on the train, making our way to Olivia's house. She lives in Harlem in the housing projects on Lexington, with her mom and older brother. Her parents had been divorced for years now. The only time Liv seen her dad was on some birthdays and the rare holiday but he was mostly in and out of her life. Emaleigh on the other hand lived in Brooklyn with her grandparents and they didn't really like us over there a lot so we were hardly ever at her house. Her mother is a drug addict, she's been addicted to heroin since she was a baby and was always to drugged up to take care of her. Her grandparents got custody of Em when she was 2 since her father was in prison. I lived in the Upper Eastside, in a townhouse and went to private school but that never mattered to me. Even though we all live completely different lifestyles we weren't just best friends but more like sisters, with money being the only thing separating us from each other. We all met when we were 8 years old, we use to take ballet classes together and since then we were kind of stuck at the hip. Eight years later and nothing has really changed.

Getting off the train I shoved my hands deeper into the pockets of my jacket as the late night September breeze picked up. We were all cracking jokes, being silly together while we walked to Olivia's house. As we were approaching her building, we collided with a three other people.