Waves

1

Growing up in Santa Monica, I had what you would call a "perfect family".

My parents, still married, my older brother, and then me.

I think my brother and I are the only things keeping my parents together.

I don't know why they won't just bite the bullet and separate, it's not like my brother and I need them both.

Honestly, my dad deserves more than that witch of a woman.

She fell out of love when I was born, she stayed for the soul purpose of raising me under a roof with money.

She never disciplined me or my brother, and that's how she got him to ultimately side with her no matter what.

But me? Oh no, I never showed her the loyalty she wanted, and so at age 13, she finally quit.

The affection stopped, and she even got my brother to turn against me.

It was hard, I was particularly close with my brother, and I'll admit, at first I was sad.

But eventually, I got used to the storm of being alone.

—

I only had my dad left, and I was so grateful that he still wanted me.

He worked a lot, so I was still alone most of the time, but when he was finally off, he'd make sure and spend it with me.

Even though my brother had my mom, he was insanely jealous of the affection I got from our dad.

All his friends talked about how their dads took them to games, did all the things a father and son would, and it made him mad that he didn't have that.

That divided our family even more, it was chaos to be alone in the house with him.

Always pushing me down the stairs, or throwing me into the counters, anything he could just to make himself feel better.

Finally, my mom had enough of what she called "favoritism" and got my brother and left.

That was the best day of my life.

—

My dads job wasn't a "normal" job.

He worked for a man named Steve Jacobs, he hired my dad to do little odd jobs, none of them being legal, for a whole lot of money.

It was dangerous, he made a lot of enemies, so he was sure to teach me not to trust any strangers, that I was a huge liability over him.

I understood, the only thing I had to sacrifice was the chance of being a normal teen.

Being 16 and in high school with no friends, is a bust.

It didn't hurt me that bad, I was used to the loneliness from my mom.

I wasn't picked on as often as you would think, the other kids didn't think I was weird, they thought I was stuck up.