Little White Lies

Chapter 1
Izzy: Present Day

The ceiling looks a lot different tonight. I can’t seem to roam as freely with my thoughts as I’d like to. I know she probably heard me
come in, Ethan and Michelle insisted on making sure I got into the house safe, I just wish they could have been more quiet with their concern.

I know she’s probably really mad at me, I also know that I don’t really care. I’m too tired to care. I hear her bedroom door open and her footsteps approaching my bedroom. I pretend to be sleeping. I really wish she would just let it go and kill me tomorrow.

She knocks on my door. Weird. She never knocks when she’s angry, which is all the time. I wait for her to knock a second time before I crawl off the bed and open the door. I rub my eyes, pretending to be rubbing away the sleep. She laughs under her breath as she closes the door behind her and takes a seat on the edge of my bed.

“What’s going on? Is everything okay?” I ask as I yawn. The yawn is real; I’m exhausted. I’ve been going out every night this week, or is it these past two weeks? I can’t keep up with myself. 'Way to go, Izzy.'

She’s staring at me and I can tell that she isn’t falling for any of my antics, she never does. She looks down at her feet that are
dangling from my bed. My mother is absolutely stunning. She’s about 5’2 in height, she has olive skin (thanks to her Latin roots) she has dark hair that comes over her shoulders. She has beautiful dark brown eyes. We look nothing alike, or maybe I just tell myself that.

My hair used to be as long as hers, but I’ve made a point to cut and colour it when we moved in here. I used to be a lot of things
before we moved here.

“I’m getting really tired of this, Isabella. You’re growing up, I get that, I was young too once. But this is getting out of hand. It’s your
senior year, you need to start being more responsible for yourself.” She’s looking at me now. I’ve heard this speech so many times I
have it imprinted in my mind.
“Kaden asked where you were all night. This isn’t fair to him, Izzy.”

I stare at her blankly. She struck a nerve, and she knows it. I would hate for her to see my tears, so I suppress them.

My mother and I moved here when I was thirteen. She and her then-boyfriend-now-husband, Joel Shaw, decided to take their
relationship to the next level by moving in together. I had only known him two whole weeks before she told me we were moving.
When my father was sent to a wellness centre in Chicago that same month, she prohibited me from seeing him. Mainly because she
was afraid that I’d tell him the secret; the very same secret she calls a “little white lie”. It’s anything but little. It’s the biggest secret of
my life.

I can’t stand being in the same room as her so I barely spend any time in this place. This is all her fault anyway. How dare she talk to
me about what’s fair and what isn’t? The decisions she makes on a daily basis by still living with this man (whom I call the Devil
himself), is the epitome of unfair. She knows bringing Kaden into the conversation will get me to actually respond to her this time.

“What did you tell him?” I manage to say.

“I said you were out with a few friends, catching up on the homework you’ve missed.”

“Good.” I say, looking at the floor.
I’m starting to think that her new and improved speech was intended to make me feel guilty. If that’s the case: 'Well played, Mother.'

She’s tugging on a piece of string from her nightgown. “I want you to move out.”

What. Did. She. Just. Say?

“Excuse me?” I say, sitting up against the headboard.

“I’m sorry, honey, but Joel and I think that maybe its best because this is really affecting Kaden. Bella-"