Harper Brown✔ [ Sequel to Being McKenzie Prince]

Dear Diary

The summer things changed I was eight years old. I never really understood why it changed, all I knew for certain was that it was all my fault.

I was driving in the car with my mother. We were on our way home from my friend Brian's house. Usually I would walk home or a driver would pick me up. That day my mother drew the short straw. James, our usual driver, was sick and my father was at work. It was pouring outside. The sound of the thunder and wind was loud enough to make it difficult to hear the radio.

I think about this one moment very often. It is as if though I took a picture of this one moment and every now and again I would take it out again. Like a faded photograph in your jean pocket. Whenever I looked at it I wondered how I never realized before that moment that my mother did not love me.

If I could change one thing, I would change myself, every single thing about myself. I was always self-centered. I was not a good kid. At least that is what they kept telling me. I was a bad person.

We were fighting and I could see my mother slowly losing her patience with me. Her forehead was creased. I wanted the new Final Destination PlayStation game. My friend Brian had the older version and I wanted the newer version so that I could brag about it. Shallow I know.

She slammed her foot down on the breaks and stopped in the middle of the road. The safety belt almost choked me as I fell forwards. She observed me and her face was cold.

"Shut up Harper! Would you just shut up! All you ever do is nag, nag, nag! I never wanted a son. I told Eric that it was a mistake not to get an abortion, but no, he wanted a stupid son that would carry on the family name..."

I was shocked. My mother had never said anything so cruel before.

My bottom lip started to quiver while my mother spoke. I started to cry and she told me to stop crying. She grabbed my chin and made me look her in the eye.

"Stop being so selfish. You can walk home." She spat the words out. I stopped crying.

"What?"

"I said you can walk home."

"But...It is raining..."

She gave me a fierce look and I got out of the car. The rain swept over me and I was completely soaked in seconds.

There was silence as I walked home. I could not stop thinking about what my mother had said.

Did she really wish that I was dead?

I guess that is one thing that Harper Brown, the golden boy, does not have, his mother's love.