Ophelia's Promise (First 4 Chapters of a Young Adult Novel)

Ophelia's Promise (Chapters 1-4) **Young Adult**

What would you do if your life was a mess? Would you pack up and runaway from home? What if you made a promise you couldn't break? For 17 year old Nash and 7 year old Ophelia, their life is anything but perfect. Marred by the pain of their brother's death, their family has been torn to shreds. The only hope for Nash and Ophelia is the summer they are force to spend in California; 3,000 miles away from their messed up parents they left back in Virginia.

Away from the only home they know and living with their paternal grandparents, Nash and Ophelia are forced to face their fears, find their inner strength, and learn what it feels like to be a family again. Will they embrace their summer of discovering who they are, or will Nash and Ophelia fall to the opinions of others? They have two and a half months to find out...before they go back home to Virginia.

~Nash~

Chapter 1

When mom’s voice cracked, I knew what was coming next. Dad was home late again—third night this week. Doors slammed and the sharp rumble of their argument swallowed the entire downstairs before it ricocheted up and devoured the simple, open space of our bedrooms.

The only person that consumed my thoughts was Ophelia. I needed to protect her from their unfiltered damage. Find a way to keep her dreaming about kittens and rainbows long enough to shelter her from another one of their fights.

I made it my job to protect her. She was seven and I was over two and a half times her age. She didn’t understand the complexity of our parents’ relationship, hell I didn’t grasp the reality of it. But several years ago I had made a promise to protect her, no matter what.

I pushed her door open and crept into her room. The air was hot and stale; nobody had bothered to open her window. Twisted in her pajamas, her legs were heavy on the outside of her blankets and she was sound asleep. I stood over her for a moment before I sat on the floor next to her bed. I had to be there if she woke up.

Ophelia and I had our disagreements. We would argue like any other brother and sister. I would call her names and she would punch me. I’d push her and she would go and tell our parents, but when it came to protecting her, I would do anything—even take a bullet.

I never wanted her to live through the messed up bullshit of our parents’ screwed up lives. They were the type that believed staying together and playing the happily married couple was the right thing to do. There was nothing right about their stagnant, murky, tainted relationship; if they only saw how fucked up and twisted their relationship had become; they’d wake up and realize it was the worst thing they ever did for us. I’m not holding my breath.

Morning came fast and yet again, I woke up on the floor of my sister’s room.

“Nash, what are you doing here?” Ophelia asked as she dangled off the side of her bed. Her usually pale face hung red and the ends of her dark brown hair danced against the carpet.

“I thought I heard dragons trying to break into your room last night.” I grabbed her waist and held her as she flew through the air.

“That wasn’t dragons, it was a huge group of freedom fairies,” she lisped through her missing two front teeth as she flapped her arms and pushed out her chest.

Ophelia had a great imagination. It’s what saved her from the disappointment of our parents. Nights when the fights got bad, I would sit with her while she would tell me stories about pixies riding dinosaurs and aliens who took over dogs’ souls. If the fights were long, I would make sure she kept telling me stories until she’d fall asleep.