Bad Habits | Herophine #1

I

-Jersey Girls-

From the beginning, since I can recall, it was always my sister Logan, my dad and I, everything was in perfect order, as cliche as it sounds, the sun shone down on our little family, I loved my life or whatever I thought was my life, I loved my school, I had multiple friends in grade school, I went on play dates and as I grew those play dates turned to actual dates usually supervised by my father, I only knew what heartbreak was because the first person to break my heart was my mother, when she walked out on my dad.

 Logan and dad felt the emptiness too, and I'm sure it was just as hard on them but we got past it as a family and moved on as best we could, we knew not to speak about mom and dad knew to give us love, affection, trust and the best childhood within reason. I blinked and the rug of happiness was pulled from under my feet and my heart was broken once more, I was 17 years old when my father died, Logan was 19, our world was in shambles, but something shifted in Logan, she was forced to be a grown up before her time, she quit school, got two jobs and held it down for the both of us.

 Along with the money our father left us, she sold the house and saved enough to move us out. "We'll never make it here Faith, Dad always taught us to move on with everything that we couldn't keep up with, so that means we have to move." She would always say before we took the big step, leaving nothing but memories behind, that was three years ago and we were successfully settled in California. In three years, we gained a family member, my sister-in-law River Hutchens.

I have to admit Cali was quite a change from dad's cold and gloomy New Jersey town, there was sunshine, heat and palm trees here, Jersey was only trees and snow in the long winters. Logan still hustled with two jobs but she managed to graduate college which led her to a well paying job in the art industry and ultimately a better life, we aren't rich but it sure beat the crap out of our leaky ceiling back in Jersey, River was a popular artist on our side of the tracks and she contributed to the house expenses as well, as for me? I was a junior at Pomona college majoring in Linguistics, one more year and I'd make my sister proud and honor my father's memory by becoming a technical writer, but that's besides the point, my name's Faith Ambrosio and this is where my story begins.

***

I wish I was woken up by my own alarm but no, I was woken up by River's Guns and Roses medley coming from the spare room she used to paint in. I sat up in my loft bed, eyeballing my space and looking around my room for my phone, as fate would have it my phone was on the floor far from my reach, I whined internally and got down from the high bunk. "Yeah Faith, let's get you a loft bed, kill yourself every time you have to go pee in the middle of the night, that's fantastic." I spoke to myself in sarcasm, unlocking my phone finally, not panicking since it was way too early for any of my classes, I had plenty of time. I had a text from Logan telling me River would be painting in her spare room today, I replied that I was already up when a second text came in, it was from the only guy who'd been my friend after arriving to this heat carrying town and probably the only one who didn't want to get in my pants. Elijah Alexander.

Grammar and syntax quiz today! Good luck, I bet my head you didn't remember.

Elijah wrote, I swear that boy knew everything about me before I even knew about it myself, I'd completely spaced on that quiz, I shook my head and answered.

If you didn't remind me, I'd probably fail. See u in class?

I responded and set my phone on its charger, rummaging desperately for my notes through the sea of papers that was the desk under my loft bed. I looked at the time, set my books aside for my classes today and began to get ready, I reached for my robe and stepped out to the hall, leaning to the left I peeked into River's room from afar. All I saw was dark wavy and unruly waist length hair, brush strokes and a lot of subtle head-banging, she was probably in the zone, I laughed to myself when Motley Crüe's Live Wire came on, Motley Crüe always came on when she was in the zone.

"There's breakfast in the microwave kid!" She shouted at me, how the fuck did she always do that? I quickly went across the hall poking my head into the room. "I can always hear the hardwood floors from your room creak." She said looking back at me with a smile. "I forget you have super hearing." I teased. "Hey, River...?" I began. "Mmm?" She replied quickly not turning back to face me as she splooshed a streak of red over several tones of yellow. "I've got class late, can I borrow your car?" I asked her with an angelic smile on my face. "Oh, you don't want my car Faith, you want to go act a fool with Elijah..." Damn am I that predictable? I laughed. "Okay, okay, can I please use your car to go raid the LA streets with my best friend?" I said sarcastically. "Come on Riv! Pleaseeee I'm off tomorrow and I promise I won't wreck it..." She turned around and looked at me. "Mmhmm, that's why your car is still in the garage right?" She squinted at me but walked over to her art bench and went through the millions of pockets in her messenger bag tossing me the keys which I caught perfectly. "Let. Elijah. Drive." She squinted again as I let out a squeal and hugged her. "I will I promise!"

I ran off to the bathroom and showered quickly, getting to my room and called Elijah who picked up on the second ring. "Change of plans, I have River's car, can you drive? She doesn't trust me with it." It took some convincing but he agreed. "Fine, I'll take the bus to your house, on one condition." I rolled my eyes, "We go to Rooted tonight." I heard the smile in his voice. "I thought you'd never ask, of course I'll go to Rooted with you, what kind of friend would I be if I said no? I'll be ready in an hour."

I hung up the phone and went through the current chaos my closet was, I'm not this untidy I swear, but between finals, quizzes, grades and papers I haven't had time to view the repercussions of rushing in my room. I chose a red and black tie dye, short sleeved shirt, black boyfriend jeans and my go-to Vans, I let my shoulder length hair down and packed what I needed for class, light makeup and my own blessing as I walked out of my room, by the time I said goodbye to River, I got a chance to see my sister come home from work and Elijah was faithfully waiting for me with a huge smile on his face. "It's about time, I've been here for hours." He exaggerated as I gave him a quick kiss on the cheek and the keys to River's red Maxima.