Chapter One: Taxi Love
With the fight of my parents still in the back of my head I slid into the backseat of the taxi cab.
“Where to?” the cab driver asked.
“The airport.” I replied.
While driving he launched into a polite conversation. “Where are you going from there?”
“Florida, I have family there. I need to get out of here. There is just too much drama here.”
“Strangers are the perfect people to talk to. They don’t judge as hard as people who know you. So what’s going on?” The balding taxi driver slowed to a stop in traffic. “We’ve got at least a half hour drive to the airport.”
I shook my head, “Let’s put it this way, my dad isn’t who he told my mom who he was. I’m going to stay with my cousin on their orchard for a few months. I’m going to be home schooled when I’m not on the farm. Hopefully, some real work will clear up my head.”
“You know I am an author who writes drama stories in my spare time. I don’t need this job. This job just gets good stories for me. You could help me out with my next book.”
“What will it be about?”
“Your so called drama.”
“You really want to hear about my drama?” He nodded through the rear view mirror. “Can I first have your name?”
“Mike Finchman”
“Lily Somerset, it’s nice to meet you. Now first my boyfriend got sent to military school.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be, he was an a**. I’m kind of the reason he got expelled. He wanted to do me in a janitor’s closet. I went to the principal and he got expelled. Apparently he’s done that to other girls at other schools. He tried to be the ideal bad boy and I like him for that. After about a month of going out he changed into a s** crazed animal. I’m actually happy he left. It beats me attempting to do the whole breakup speech. Oh, of the things I get out of. Second, my dad turned out to be a gangster and my mom is lesbian.” Mike gave me a weird look. “Hey! You should have seen his face when he saw my mom making out with someone on a park bench. It was pretty funny. Then later that day when they were arguing my dad’s right hand man stopped by the house and dropped something off. My mom guessed who that was.” I gave a cynical laugh. “Then I got sent away from my parents because apparently they didn’t want me around all the arguing. How’s that for drama for you? Oh wait, I forgot to tell you my best friend burnt her entire hand at a bonfire at the beach. So she is taking it out on me when she was the one drunk.” I burst out laughing at how s***ty my life must have sounded.
“Are you alright?”
“Eh, not really but I’ll survive. Oh, no, not I, I will survive! Oh, as long as I know how to love, I know I'll stay alive! I've got all my life to live; I've got all my love to give! And I'll survive, I will survive, oh go on now, go, walk out the door, just turn around now. 'Cause you're not welcome anymore. Weren't you the one, who tried to break me with goodbye? Did you think I'd crumble? Did you think I'd lay down and die? Oh, no, not I, I will survive! Oh, as long as I know how to love, I know I'll stay alive. I've got all my life to live; I've got all my love to give. And I'll survive, I will survive, I will survive!” I burst out into the song ‘I will Survive’ by Gloria Gaynor.
“Lily? How about I turn off the meter? Your story is the best I’ve heard for a while. I hope a free ride will suffice for the inspiration you’ve given me.” He looked back to find me struggling to breathe from laughing. All he did was shake his head. “We are at the airport now.” I quickly sobered up and gave him a quick thank you before getting my luggage from the back of the cab and tugging it through the airport. The flight was empty considering it was a Tuesday at 10 a.m. in October. I had my own row of seats until a woman with a young toddler boy sat in the seats.
“I’m sorry, please don’t mind him. He will just be playing with a few toys. He has been so excited to be going to see the beach. I’ve been saving up all my earnings just to take him on vacation. After his father got into a car accident I haven’t seen him happy.”
“I’m sorry for your loss.”
“Don’t worry about it.”
Throughout the plane ride he was fairly quiet. I was just enjoying myself on my Ipod touch throughout the ride. The ride flew by before I knew it. I got my luggage and called a cab. This cab driver was an old smelly woman who didn’t know where the orchard I was going to was. She charged three times the amount than a basic taxi would cost. After a three hour drive that should have only taken an hour I stretched out my legs with her yelling to get my stuff out of the trunk before she drove off with it. After I got out my luggage and she began driving off I flipped her the bird. I walked up the front door and rang the doorbell.
Here is the first chapter. Sorry its short. The next chapter will hopefully be longer and up in a few days.
