A Year Without You

Chapter 1

Five, Four, Three, Two, One. My alarm goes off and my eyes open wide.

I take in a few deep breaths before I get up for the day. It's been hard being all on my own. My parents died in a plane wreck when I was 16. I'm 18 now, and I basically have to do everything myself. Pay bills, clean the house, wash clothes, work. It's difficult, all of my other family lives in Canada, and I'm stuck here in California. Don't get me wrong, I love Cali, it's just that I wish I could be close to my family. But they kind of lost communication with us about 5 years ago.

I go downstairs, make myself a cup of coffee and sit down in front of the tv. I finished school earlier this year, and while all of my friends went to college, I stayed home, I worked most of the time, but I quit. I had a boyfriend who would help me around the house... And something I didn't mention before, he left me after our son was born. I know, how foolish I was to have a kid at my age. Actually, that was a year ago, Grayson is 1 now. He's the only person I have left.

I hear Grayson cry from upstairs. "And so my day begins." I sigh and go upstairs. I take Grayson out of his crib and take him downstairs. "Are you hungry?" I ask him. He nods his head, "Alright, i'll get you something."

He sits in his baby chair banging his hands on the table. "Grayson, stop." I say as I cut up some bananas.

After Grayson finishes, and I get ready, I put him in his car seat and I take him to his babysitters house. After I drop him off, I usually head to work. But since I quit, I have to look for a new one. I would love to go back to school because I want to get a job to help support Gray.

By the way, if I didn't mention it yet, I'm Jen. And this is basically the beginning of this part of my life, where I have actual responsibilities, that aren't just washing dishes or taking out the trash. It's much more than that.

Let's start off with the basics of my life. I was actually born into a pretty wealthy family. My parents bought a pretty big house, not exactly a mansion though, and now I own it. I know what you're probably thinking. Like 'Wow, she's rich, why does she need to work to support her family?' but it's true. I just want to feel like a normal person, work like everyone else, clean their house like everyone else. I like doing things myself, I feel more accomplished that way. I've saved all the money I inherited and I gave most of it to charities. Anyways, let's move on.

Before Gray was born, I was in a relationship with this guy. He was what you'd call "popular" yeah, well we dated, and he helped me out so much, and I'm grateful for that, but once Grayson was born, he left to Iraq, and I haven't seen him since. Before he left, he had proposed, I said yes, but you know, all of a sudden, he was gone.