this is the start | gilinsky

Chapter One

    The heat of the sun hits my shoulders first as I slowly slide out of my mom's blue minivan. I take a deep breath, close my eyes, and count to ten. This is what I do when I'm nervous. Why am I nervous? Picture this: you haven't seen your dad in four years (that meaning the last time was when you were thirteen) and you're now standing outside of his house preparing yourself to live there for the whole summer. 

    "Mar..." My mom's stern voice breaks me out of my panic. "Let's go." She shoots me a small smile before turning towards the walkway leading to Dad's front door. I clench my jaw really tight (another thing I do when I'm nervous) and start to follow her. A million thoughts flood my mind. What if he doesn't like me? What if he gets sick of me and wants to send me home early? What would Mom think of me then? What if he thinks I'm too weird so he ships me off to some insane asylum? What if-

    "Christine! Marley!" I nearly choke when I hear Dad shouting our names. I watch him lean over to hug Mom and that's when I realize how sweaty my hands have gotten, so I quickly wipe them off on my jeans and force a smile on my face. When did we even reach the front door? When did Mom even knock? A loud bark causes me to jump and I look down to see the most adorable German Shepard.

    "Hello, cutie!" I squeal with delight. Bending down to pet the dog I let it lick my face for a bit before standing back up. I'm already in love. Something nudges me in the side and I look up to see Dad staring at me. I can feel my throat closing. He looks much older than I remember. What did I expect? For him to look the same as he did four years ago?

    "Daaaad." I manage to croak out awkwardly. His eyes are filling with tears and I'm afraid I did something wrong so I tell him that I'm sorry. Both of my parents start to laugh which makes me feel even stupider. Dad shakes his head and pulls me into a really big hug and now I feel like I'm going to cry but I make sure I don't. 

    "I missed you." He mumbles into my back. "You've grown up so much." I swallow hard and tell him that I've missed him too. When we part from our hug I see Mom staring at us with a distant look in her eyes, but as soon as she catches my glance she breaks out of it. 

    "I should get going now..." She says as she squeezes my forearm. I nod my head and give her a squeeze back then say goodbye. 

    "See you in a few months, Christine." Dad waves as she walks back to the minivan. Mom doesn't even turn around. I furrow my eyebrows in confusion but decide not to ask any questions. After all, I just got here and don't want Dad thinking I'm a total snoop. 

    As soon as Mom drives away I see a group of boys glancing over at me and Dad from two houses down. My face instantly reddens so I advert my eyes back to the ground. I hate when people look at me and especially hate eye contact 

    "You ready for the best summer of your life, kiddo?" Dad punches me playfully in the shoulder like he did when I was younger. I smile up at him and before I can remember that Mom hates it when I talk in this manner I say, "Hell yeah." Cringing, I'm ready for Dad to say something to me about it; instead he beams at me and leads me inside the house. I think I'm going to like it here.

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before you move on to chapter two if you wanted to keep reading:

the first few chapters of this story may seem really boring or not fun if you're the type of person who likes to get right into the relationship sort of part. Keep in mind that Marley is way too awkward and timid to just jump right in like that, so now that that's out of the way, continue to my end of the chapter A/N:

Okay sorry if that was boring af it's only the first chapter! I promise it'll get better as the story goes on I'm just trying to lay out the whole beginning so you guys know why she's at her dad's and what's going on, stuff like that. Also sorry for any grammar mistakes I'm not the best at picking up on those lol thanks for reading and if you have any suggestions for me don't be afraid to help a girl out! I'll be posting the second chapter soon (I'm typing this on my laptop so I could have any emojis so <3333 much love) - gilinskyshigh