Don't Let Me Go.

Chapter One.

"Daddy, I'm home!" I called up the stairs as I walked inside the house on my last day of eighth grade.

My dad slowly walked down the stairs, smiling when he saw me and attempted to pickup some speed so he could get to me. "Lauren, my little girl." He said as he reached me, finally, and hugged me tightly.

I was their only child, my mom and dad's. I actually would be considered a blessing to them because my parents thought that mom couldn't get pregnant. But fourteen wonderful years ago, give or take a few months, my mother was pregnant with me, Lauren Maggie Lovett. I know Maggie is a strange middle name to have when your first name is Lauren, but my parents couldn't agree on what to name me, so they settled with Lauren Maggie.

"How does it feel to finally be a mature high schooler, Maggie?" I heard my mother ask as she walked inside of the house, taking off her scarf and coat, setting them on the coat rack, that was right next to the front door, making sure they were put there neatly, as she always did, when she came home from work.

"Mother!" I smiled as I ran to her and hugged her tightly. "It feels good, I mean I don't feel like I'm any older.. But I am. Thankfully." I chimed in, smiling up at my tall mother. She slowly brushed a few strands of my blonde hair off of my face, walking over to my father with ease, after she let go of me.

"How are you feeling today, David? I hope you did rest like the doctor suggested.." My mother said to my father.

"Maureen, those doctors don't know what's best for me. Rest won't cure cancer, you know that. I know that." He replied as he gracefully pulled my mother into a hug.

I looked at my mother and father and couldn't help but whimper.

I can't lose my dad. Who else would be able to torment my boyfriend, if I get one, when I get into high school? Who would walk me down the aisle when I get married? I need him. Mom needs him.

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That was almost three years ago. I lost my dad a few months before my fifteenth birthday. On my birthday that year, it was different. I stayed in my room for the whole day because it didn't feel the same without my dad there. It didn't feel right to be living here. Hell, it didn't feel right to be breathing in this house without him here.

Now I'm a Junior and I'm attending Rainier High School, home of the Panthers, in Los Angeles, California. My life is hell; I shut people out, including my caring mother who even lost all of her moxie and spirit when my father died.

Everyday I walk into the high school and sigh. No one understands what it's like. This school is big, but as far as I know, no one else's parents have died, slowly and painfully, due to cancer. Especially when they are at such a young age.

I still was around my normal group of friends, keeping my rank in popularity at the school, not that it even mattered anyway, but even they couldn't help but to offer their depressed friend a joint now and then. Now, I'm not saying that I would say no to it; although now I wish I would have. Weed, Marijuana, Mary-Jane, Grass; whatever you may call it, I smoked it and with my friends whenever they offered it to me.What was a little drug going to do to me? I mean it is a good drug, after all. It actually is grown, it's a plant, so it must be good for you, right? Wrong. Marijuana is known as a 'gateway drug', which people who smoke it might think, "What? I would never consider sticking a needle into my own body just for the pleasure of getting a different high." Or, "What? No, I won't do any other drug other than smoke a little grass. It's healthy for you. Plus, it must be a good thing if it was created by "God Himself", at least that's what my religious friends had told me.

And I'm not saying it's a gateway drug to everyone, but it was for me, Lauren Maggie Lovett, the small blonde girl from Los Angeles.