A Million Pieces of Me

Chapter 3

I live about a mile or two from the school, so I got home pretty fast. I walked up the driveway to my house remembering the text I had gotten from my mom earlier,

 "Great. Here we go" I said under my breath.

 I looked up at my house knowing what was going to happen when I walked in the door, it was a very old grey and navy two story house with a very unnatural amount of windows, the roof was a little lop-sided and a few of the shingles had fallen off, the paint was peeling very bad in some places but in others not so much. It kinda-sorta looked like one of those creepy houses that your parents tell you to stay away from in scary movies. 

My mom tried to make it better by planting a flower garden in front and a few apple trees on the sides of the house. The garden and trees helped a little, but my mom so did not have a green thumb and most of the plants had died or wilted. 

Walking up to the front door I sucked in a breath and bit my bottom lip as I walked in. I surveyed the house for any sign of life, it was quiet other than the light hum of the sounds coming from the TV in the living room. 

Just like the outside of the house the inside was almost just as bad, the wallpaper was peeling off most of the walls in random places and where it wasn't pealing it was fading or there was water damage. The dark hardwood floors were scratched like an old forgotten thrown around DVD, everywhere you stepped made a sound. The old, creaky doors were painted white but the paint was slowly peeling off of them.

 The stairs were to the right when you walked in and led up to the four bedrooms and two of the three bathrooms in the house, the first bathroom was by the living room. It was a beautiful house if you really looked at it, but it really needed a lot of TLC.

 I heard running water and dishes clinking in the kitchen, I sat my book bag down by the door against the wall and walked into what I knew was my doom. Okay, so I may be exaggerating a bit, I wasn't going to my doom. However, I'm pretty sure my mom was gonna give me a piece of her mind, it wasn't gonna be pretty.

 I strode into the kitchen with my hands behind my back, my mom had her back turned towards the doorway washing the dishes off in the sink and loading them into the dishwasher.

 Her curly strawberry blonde hair was pulled up into a messy bun and she in her favorite pink fuzzy socks and wearing jeans and a grey t-shirt, she was short, way shorter than me, and very curvy. She had sparkling dark brown eyes and freckles randomly placed on her nose and rosy cheeks, she had a smaller top lip but a very full bottom lip, and a full face, she was very beautiful like a model.

 I looked nothing like her at all. I was tall, flat chested; and I had a few barely there curves. My hair was super long and dark brown, so dark it was almost black and was straight as straight can get, I had a small nose, full lips, and very freaky pale grey-ish blue eyes, I was the farthest thing from a model that you could possibly get. That's probably why I hadn't ever had a boyfriend, well that and I didn't want to waste my time on a guy destined to leave me in the end. My dad had left my mom when I was younger and I had told myself that I would never fall in love. I told myself that it would just be another person to get left and hurt by. 

"Hey mom" I said biting my bottom lip and rocking back and forth on my feet.

 She turned around and looked like she had been crying, "oh mom you put so much on yourself and I just add too it "I thought to myself, I looked down at the floor. Seeing her like this made me want to cry. I would not cry, nope. I don't cry. 

"So you spray painted the cafeteria huh?" she said leaning against the kitchen counter,

 barely a whisper came out of my mouth, "yeah..." maybe this wouldn't be as bad as I thought. 

I looked up but just barely, and I saw her shaking her head, "what am I going to do with you Emmaline?" she said with a sigh as she rubbed a hand down her face, "Can you go just one day without doing anything bad?"

 I heard hurt in her voice, no, it was anger; well actually I think it was a bit of both. "I don't know mom" I said, raising my head slowly, directly looking at her now.

 "I bet you could if you tried, I know it's been hard for you ever since your dad left, but things are hard for me and your sister too, do you think it's easy trying to juggle 2 jobs, school events, raising you two girls, and not to mention how hard it is on me dealing with the stunts you pull everyday all by myself without anyone there to help me?" She said as she choked back tears.

 I looked away and faced the floor, I couldn't look her in the eyes right now, I just couldn't.

 "I need you to step up and learn some responsibility and respect, your sister needs someone to look up to that wont steer her in the wrong direction in life. I don't understand why all of this is so hard for you Emmaline."

 Shes right but I don't want to change, I don't like change, it scares me. Things changed when my dad left, no, I wont change. I just wont. Not. Gonna. Happen. Ever.

 "Please Emma," My mom was saying, "just think about it, one step at a time not all at once, I really need to know I can trust you to be the responsible, respectful, and trustworthy person I know you can be." I looked up and my eyes met hers, big mistake, I saw the hurt and pleading in her eyes.

 I looked down at the floor real quick and slowly said, "okay Mom, ill think about it."

 I shifted my weight back and forth on my feet, "Thank you , I love you very, very much."

 I stopped and looked up, she really did love me and I loved her too, she worked so hard, did so much, she honestly deserved the world, she was so strong.

 "I love you very much too mom." She came up and hugged me tight and then stepped back, she cupped my face with her hands, 

"You are stronger than you know, and you can do anything you put your mind to, the only person in the way of you going anywhere in life is you. You are special Emmaline never forget that." 

She gave me a soft smile and then said, "Now get on with you, im sure you have tons of homework, and your sister needs help cleaning that hazard death trap of a thing she calls her bedroom." 

She shook her head and I let small laugh escape me, "oh geez, she needs all the help she can get." 

She smiled, it was rare that she ever smiled anymore, she was so beautiful when she did though. 

"For real, now go on" she said lightly laughing.

 As I walked up the stairs I heard her yell from the kitchen, "Your still grounded young lady, don't forget!"

 "UGH!" I screamed as I stomped up the stairs to my sisters room.