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❤ Fine Lines ❤ 25/2/18 ❤ Ever After Part 8
xJojox
Posts: 6,878 Member
WHAT GENRE: Romance, Drama, Self Discovery
Abby Greene : Drama Queen, singing star, brat, diva or just confused ... take a pick! Abby has reached the stage of maturity or let's say immaturity? And her life has taken a massive turn for the worst. The only way Abby can deal is continue down a road of rebellion against this brand new life change. But in the meantime, making mistakes, finding love, and finding herself. This teenager is still unsure what she wants, and is striving to find it as she is growing up. It's only a matter of time before Abby begins to realise how many fine lines she will cross between love, hate, loss and gain.
This story was completed in 2006 when i was playing The Sims 2. It was very popular at the time. And since i spent countless hours on it ... I had a read through and decided i wanted to re create it and re write it again. Though i am sticking to the main plot of the story and characters, i have made it a little more in depth. The original first chapter had a page and a half of words. After re-writing, it has extended to 3 and a half. I have found that re recreating the pictures has been incredibly hard. So bare with me, I am still in the middle of re-writing and getting my pictures up.
I recently had a friend proof check the first chapter for me. And she immediately asked... Is this story about you? Did i go through this... The answer is no. This story has no real relation to me whatsoever. Though cities and things like that are relevant to characters etc.
This Story is currently on WORDPRESS if you care to take a read
Alternatively you can follow me on tumblr to be alerted of my updates!
Feel free to comment here or there ... either is fine.
*Note* My Wordpress version is NSFW.
CHAPTER TIMELINE : Several chapters will be released weekly.
READING CIRCLE: Willingly Writing.
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CHAPTER ONE - No News Is Good News ...
My Name is Abby Greene : Drama Queen. And this is my story.
Well life officially sucked! Actually, my life was over … I was completely happy and comfortable with my life as it was. And now my family life is all strung apart. I guess you could call me naive, but everything isn’t easy like it is in the movies. You know that happily ever after stuff? Bah, I don’t believe in it ANYMORE! I thought things like this happened to other families ... but not mine. I know every little family have their speed bumps, but I never thought that my life was about to be uprooted and changed forever. How was I ever going to understand how to fall in love if I didn’t understand the ones ‘in love’ around me.
It was barely 10a.m when I arrived home. I had been at my friend Rachel’s house over night and didn’t even sleep. We did our usual girl thing and pulled an all-nighter talking about boys, how we would get famous one day, painting each other’s nails and braiding each other’s hair. No matter how groomed I was from last night’s makeover, I still looked like a train wreck when I returned home. Usually everyone was up when I returned early in the morning, but the place was dead quiet. The peace was kind of strange, but I didn’t let it bother me since all I wanted to do was lie down. As I walked to my bedroom I could hear a sobbing and sniffling from upstairs. On Sunday morning my mother is usually blasting music and doing her thorough Sunday clean. Something just wasn’t right and I knew it when my dad approached me with a weighed down look on his face,
“Mum needs some alone time Abby, shush,” he said placing his finger over his mouth.
Alone time? I knew it wasn’t going to be good. Maybe someone died?
I was ushered into the lounge room and I sat down and prepared myself for something serious. I actually began to panic because my dad is a generally a cheerful kind of guy.
“Abby, mum and I hate to tell you this but …” He said as his voice kind of sunk. I impatiently closed my eyes and sighed out preparing myself for a bunch of tears. My eyelids fluttered open again and I cringed slightly because I was certain he was about to announce a death in the family. Mum’s tears and dad’s gloominess, was a dead giveaway.
“We’ve decided to get a divorce,” The word ‘divorce’ just kind of hung there … and it almost echoed through the house even though he said it softly.
What?! I thought someone was dead! Way to give me a bloody heart attack dad!
I couldn’t actually react. I almost ignored it. ‘Divorce’ didn’t seem bad, but the results always were. A million thoughts went through my head at once. My emotions felt scattered. I didn’t know whether to laugh it off, or burst out crying.
Mum and dad were a very quiet couple, they lived pretty separate lives. Dad travelled a lot on business, and their work schedules clashed all the time. Probably the reason I was an only child. I knew they were distant to each other, but I didn’t think it would result in this. Dad patiently waited for my reply, but different thoughts kept coming over and over. The announcement hit me like a ton of bricks when I thought of our family living apart. I was used to my school, my friends and my parents just being picture perfect. Now it just felt like a shattered portrait of our family. I was 16 and I thought I’d take it well because of my age, but I wasn’t.
What was the point after 19 years of marriage? They are old now was it worth splitting up? Everything seemed pointless because all their life and love was down the drain …
I could feel my head twitching and shaking ever so slightly as I returned eye contact with dad. I blinked fast, and opened my mouth to say something but all that came out were guttural sounds as I stumbled on words.
“Abby?” Dad asked, “Are you alright love?”
“When did this happen?” I finally managed to say.
“We can talk about that another time honey, we just thought it was time we told you.” Every time he stopped speaking, my mind went into over drive again. I took a deep breath and kept my head down looking aimlessly toward the floor just trying to contemplate the next direction our family was going to take. Dad cleared his throat which prompted me to look up at him.
“I’m going up to Queensland in a week or so, to stay with your Aunt Eva until we can sort some things out.” I was in a state of shock and looked at him wide eyed and confused.
You’re going without me? I am your daughter! Just because you’re finished with mum, are you finished with me too?
My dad was always so cool and so simple to get along with and it was easy to call him my favourite parent. He was always fair and rarely opinionated. I felt a little freedom growing up with not many restrictions because dad always trusted me. He was different to mum, mainly because he supported me and encouraged me in everything I did. But at this moment I felt a weird distance between us, one that I hadn’t felt before. Dad and I always had the ‘daddy’s little girl’ cliché relationship but suddenly I felt abandoned by him. Dad went away a lot sure, but was this for good? I felt angry wondering the reason for all of this. Who was responsible for splitting our family apart? I looked up at my father angrily as he raised himself up from the chair he was sitting in. I followed him for a moment and gasped to say something but nothing came out again. I wanted to ask him why he didn’t want to take me with him, but I just couldn’t ask because he seemed to be on the brink of tears.
The quietness of the house was deafening except the sound of my heels hitting the floor. Dad turned and looked at me with apologetic eyes as he placed his hand on the wall near the stairs. I wanted to cry, but my tear ducts seemed to be fused shut. He turned on his heel and hung his leg over one step of the staircase and didn’t even look at me to say,
“I’m sorry Abby; this is hard on me too. I need some alone time as well.”
“Dad I…” I attempted to say. But he sighed and proceeded to go upstairs.
I fought back the questions that needed answering and was left there at the bottom of the staircase feeling left in the dark. I stood there holding onto the knob of the stairs and leaned on it for a little comfort. Finally, I let go of the stairs and swung my arms down by my side walking slowly to my room. I wasn’t tired anymore, because my head was plagued with thoughts. I sought comfort in someone, but everyone I needed was either asleep or ‘needed alone time’. I lie on my bed with my phone just wanting to call Rachel. But I knew she would be asleep by now. I had other friends but none that understood me like her. I flicked my phone open and shut constantly contemplating who to call.
Open and shut, open, shut... locked out, locked in ... kept in the dark, kept in. How long my parents were falling apart before they let me in on it?
Amongst my thoughts my brain finally gave in and I fell asleep.
Bump, bump bump. Shut up! For goodness sake! Trying to sleep here!
I sat up angrily feeling really under rested. I grabbed my phone off the bed and it was 6:03pm. I heard some rumbling in the hall that usually came from someone coming down the staircase. My door was shut, so I tiptoed across my bedroom and sat with my back to the door and tried to eavesdrop anything that was said. After waiting for nearly 10 minutes by my door I crept out watching my dad throw some pillows on the lounge. I gulped down hard feeling a dryness in my throat knowing that he was setting up his sleeping arrangements. My heart sank when I saw my mother with puffy red eyes holding a blanket over her arm. She handed it to my father as if he was a stranger in our house and walked out the room and into the kitchen. I stood by the stairs watching dad sit on the edge of the lounge with his hand up to his face looking deep in thought.
And then I looked at mum in the kitchen. I felt in the middle somehow, but I was barely acknowledged.
Why weren’t they talking to me?
I was the child and I didn’t feel like I should be the one to initiate the conversation about their relationship. But I deserved a proper sit down and explanation. I felt anger boil up inside me before I snapped,
“I’ve had enough! Will someone just talk to me?” I demanded flailing my arms up in the air. “I’ve said nothing all day, I’ve been dwelling all day, so what the heck is going on?” I felt warm in my cheeks, my heart was pounding and I almost felt out of breath.
“Abby not now,” My mother said lazily from the kitchen.
“Yes now!” I said entering the room, “All I know is you guys are getting a divorce, and Dad is moving to Queensland! What about me? Where am I going?” My dad followed behind me and my parents looked through me and at each other. Dad flopped onto a kitchen chair seemingly defeated by my words. Dad decided to chime in first taking control of my little hissy fit,
“Mum and I have already put the house on the market, and mum has taken a job in Perth,”
Why didn’t I know any of this? Had I been too self-involved to even know what was happening? They say things happen behind closed doors, but I had been here behind these doors too.
At first I sniffed out thinking I was attempting to cry fake tears, but they were real. They were selling the house. The house I grew up in, my comfort zone, and the place I held all of my memories, GONE and given to someone else? I bowed my head in sorrow and looked to my side eyeing a family portrait on the hall table. I wanted to smash it into a thousand pieces, but I didn’t. I just huffed out loudly and ran to my bedroom. I slammed the door as loud as I could to make a statement that I was angry. I needed to scream or something to release my frustration. But the first thing I saw was my piano. I attempted to walk over and play it to escape and just forget everything, but I didn’t make it. I suddenly felt weak and dropped to my knees.
I was moving to a total different state. Queensland may as well be a half a country away from Perth. I was never going to see dad, or my friends again for a long time. Tears uncontrollably came and I broke down feeling the full blow of everything that I was told and that was about to happen.
I stopped only for a moment to catch my breath after loudly bawling. Neither of my parents had bothered to come in. And I wanted them to. I wanted someone to care about what I was going through too. I wanted my tears to make them feel bad.
I closed my eyes imagined that for a moment that I came home this morning and just passed out because I hadn’t slept the night before and that this was a dream. I opened my eyes again another tear fell. I lightly tapped my face and comforted my body by wrapping my arms around myself.
This was no dream ... This was a nightmare.
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It had been an exhausting week. I was sure I was developing some kind of mental illness because my moods were so erratic and I was intensely sad. I still no one to talk about it with because everyone else was more important than me. This was their divorce and I was just 'the child' that got dragged through it. If they saw what was happening through my eyes then they might feel a little more sympathetic and not be so self involved.
This week I had to tell my best friend that I knew nearly as long as my parents that I was leaving her. Mum and dad had only 4 extra years on Rachel, and she was like my sister, my fam. How could I leave her? We broke down together, and did a lot over the week every time I spoke of going away.
The days just flew past. Too quick for my liking. It was one of them weeks where it was already Friday and the boxes just increased by the day. The first day there was one. And now there was at least 15 stacked in the lounge room. I actually refused to pack my room, but mum had been packing things while I was at school most days. I felt it was the was my only way I could protest the move.
Only yesterday I had an argument with my mother about moving, but her words were, “We’re moving and that is final!” If only I was 2 more years older, I wouldn’t find my life in so much turmoil right now. It just wasn’t fair. I wanted the choice to be able to pick where I was going. There was nothing for me in Perth and I knew that finding friends there would be next to impossible considering my how old I was now. Everyone would already have their cliques and have friends from the start of high school.
Before school on my last day in Adelaide, I was sitting in my room with an open box of my belongings that mum had packed the day earlier. I got upset looking at some of the memories that I had come to treasure. The pile in the box was just getting higher and I couldn’t avoid the inevitable because it was getting packed for me.
I was still not accepting this rubbish!
I grabbed pieces from the boxes and threw them back in angrily when it linked me to something here. I didn’t even care that I smashed things when I threw them in roughly. I flew off my chair and saw another slightly closed box. I flicked open the flaps and peered into a box full of clothing. They were perfectly folded. But It didn’t stop me scrunching up a huge pile and jamming them back in my closet. I slammed the closet drawers closed several times, trying to squash them all inside.
Go and pack it again Mum. Quit touching my stuff!
I was still in a fit of anger when Rachel turned up in my door way. She always showed up the same way every school morning. With her head glued on her phone screen and barely making eye contact with me. But the obvious clicking of her nails against her phone screen was enough for me to know she was there. I didn’t want to go today. I had done all this week and this was my last full day in Adelaide. I didn’t want to spend it going to school. Finally Rachel looked up from her phone,
“You ready woman?” she asked. Giving me a look up and down. “I mean you’re not even in your uniform hun,” she continued. I fell asleep last night in my after school clothes, and the only thing that had changed about me today is that I had tied my hair back in a ponytail.
I stared in the mirror as my best friend pulled the band from my ponytail and began brushing my hair. She always did give me a final beauty check before we left for the bus stop. She looked at me in the mirror as I looked at myself.
“I’m not ready Rach,” There was a double meaning to what I said. I wasn’t ready to go ... to leave, and I wasn’t ready for school, though the first statement was truer.
“I can see that. But you should try. Don’t you want to say goodbye to peeps?” Rachel asked.
“Goodbyes are hard, I’d rather avoid it. I’ve cried enough this week.” Rachel grabbed some makeup remover pads and shoved them at my chest.
“Take your makeup off, your mascara is everywhere …” This was Rachel’s way of trying to get me to go. Some mornings were just like this. She was a good motivator normally, but not today.
It was supposed to be my last day at Adelaide High ... and personally I didn’t really care about going. Of course I was a popular girl at school, but most people were just fake and didn’t feel like my ‘real’ friends. Most of them would back-stab me at the first chance they got or just bring unnecessary drama into my life. It was actually a pretty normal thing for me to go through a different bunch of girls every semester. Rachel was my only constant friend. I had no plans to even bother to say good bye to my teachers because I wasn’t going to miss that h*** hole at all.
Anyways, If I did go to school I would have exited the place with a cheery good riddance!
“So I guess we aren’t going to school today?” Rachel asked after I hadn’t bothered to remove my makeup.
“I’m seriously considering not ...” Rachel shrugged and sat on my bed and peered into the box that was unopened. She rolled her eyes and gave me a half grin before looking somewhat glum.
“So want to skip your last day?” she asked again.
“Yeah. I am depressed as.” I said coming to sit on the bed. Rachel patted my shoulder and replied,
“No worries hon, I’ll stay and help you pack if you want. It’s not the first time we’ve skipped school. And this is your last day here. Mum won’t care if I don’t go…”
“I don’t want to pack Rach, packing is like accepting and considering this change. The only thing I’m considering right now is running away!” I said crossing my arms.
“And what will that do? You will get found and still end up having to go anyway.” I kind of wanted her to say YES! Do that. But she was right. But it did seem like such a great idea. I know I could run away but I really had nowhere to run to. And I couldn’t even contemplate living on a street. I shivered at the thought of it.
After 9am, it was definitely set in stone that I wasn’t going. I got texts galore asking where I was but I ignored all of them. I got off my bed and picked up a few decorative boxes from behind my piano. I sat it atop of my piano and began throwing things away that were pointless to keep. I stared over at Rachel on her phone and scoffed at her.
So much for helping me pack Rach. Your hopeless girl.
Rachel was the kind of girl who had never lifted a finger in her life. I swear she opened a garbage bag for me and then was distracted by a text and hadn’t continued doing anything with the bag since.
“What?” she said looking up. I put my hands on my hips and shook my head.
“Are you wagging school today and texting or did you really want to help me? I could use a hand because I’m totally suffering here.” Rachel closed her phone and came over to me,
“I am, sorry babe. I am so yours now. I just got a text from a cute guy from school. He sent me a picture without a shirt on. It was so hot!” Her comment made me sigh out loudly. She giggled and just had to show me. I looked into her phone as she had to get my approval.
“Ok, okay. It’s gone. Helping 100% now promise…” Rachel said placing her phone in her pocket.
To my surprise she helped me fold and pack … even scrub my walls from where band posters were. I was shocked actually. Over all the years of us being friends, I’d never seen her do so much cleaning. The surprising part was her cleaning under my bed. I hadn’t even done that in years. She was down on her knees pulling things up and even building a sweat. Suddenly, Rachel’s mental cleaning frenzy came to a halt. She frowned and turned a thick book around that had “Abz and Rach” on it. I watched her from my piano when she was flipping through. I headed over when I saw her get emotional. We started looking through pictures and began to reminisce about all the good times we had. I put my arm around her and assured her,
“Rach, it’s not the last time were going to see each other. There are always school breaks. Plus you’re my fam …” She frowned and forced a smile. Rachel was such an optimist about relationships, she had even rambled on about the thought of my parents getting back together during the week. I was so negative about everything now that I couldn’t consider any positive idea.
I mean how I could be positive about a reconciliation when there was a huge for sale sign on our front lawn.
Later that night when Rachel went home I hit my box of sheet music. I had written so many sad songs, in the past. I felt the need to play something that reflected how I felt. I gathered the sheet music for every depressing song I had played on piano for the last 5 years. I wanted to get upset; I had barely said a word in the last week. And I wanted to break the silence.
Mum came in to check on me; she always did when she heard my piano. She was looking a bit happier today than other days. I figured it would be a good time to question her because she wasn't crying or looking upset.
“Can I ask what happened mum? What went wrong…?” she sighed out loudly and gave me one of them I don’t want to talk about it looks. Which made me sigh too.
“Look we will talk about it later, I just don’t think you will understand.”
Dad said the same thing last week! No answers again. I’m not dumb!
I had a few little boyfriends on my own, but I wasn’t about to try and understand adult problems and why they couldn’t just figure it out. I had to know … Did they grow apart, did someone cheat, it was a mystery.
Was it that bad that they couldn’t just stay together for me?
I just wondered why two people who had spent nearly two decades together wanted to just go separate ways now? The only way I could compare it to my life is me not being friends with Rachel and never seeing her again. We had been friends nearly as long as they had been married!
How do people just walk away?....
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Thankyou for your comment. I really appreciate it
Broken CC list (Sims 4)
I'm sure I will...I'm going to read it later on today when I have time to enjoy it! **getting popcorn**
Chapter three is coming today ...
The following morning was moving day. It almost rung my head the minute I opened my eyes. I stared at my ceiling for a long time before even considering the day ahead. It was 7:30am and I could already hear movement out in the lounge room. It was moving day, and I knew I could lay here all day until I was prompted to get out of bed. But I didn’t want my last memory of this place go to waste. I wanted to remember it because I wanted to take some good from all this. Mum and dad were likely finalising all the moving arrangements and I did not want to be included. I wanted to be with Rachel. I wasn’t sure how long it was going to be before I saw her again. I kicked myself off the bed and opened a box near my closet finding a cropped hoodie and a pair of jeans. I decided not to shower and throw them on quickly and get out of here before one of my parents had me moving boxes or packing.
As I stepped off the porch, all my emotions begun to spill over. I looked backwards at my house and gulped down hard knowing this was the last day I was going to be in it. As much as I wanted to treasure my last day in the house, I just couldn’t. It was empty, and everything made me feel comfortable there was gone or packed up. This was the only house I had ever lived in. And i knew being in another house was going to take some getting used to.
Leaving the garden gate I stared ahead and appreciated all my neighbours’ houses and their gardens. It normally wouldn’t even faze me on my way to and from school each day.
When would I even see this street again? And why did it take so long for me to be appreciative of my house and what I had.
I made it to the end of my street. I wasn’t even sure where I was going. I knew I could just keep walking and like being in my neighbourhood. Around the corner I sat at my school bus stop and thought about me being here twice a day catching it and getting off. It was the last time I was going to be at this stop with Rachel before school as well.
At that same moment, I texted Rachel hoping she was up and asked her to come to the school bus stop. I sat there for nearly 45 minutes just watching traffic go by when Rachel arrived. I stood up when I saw her and gave her a hug,
“Hey you…” I said letting her go.
“Hi..” she said with a sullen look on her face.
“Mum and I are taking a train to Perth at 7. I guess I’d have to be home by about 6. So that leaves us about 8 hours together.” Rachel’s eyes welled up.
“Don’t put a number on it. Please. I’ve been crying all day. I don’t want to count down my time with you. Because we won’t be having fun. And I want that today,” Rachel said sniffling and wiping her nose with the side of her hand. My natural reaction was to cry with her. We didn’t have to really say anything, because our tears said everything that we wanted to.
“Okay let’s get on a bus and just see what happens.” I said wiping away my tears. Typical Rachel pulled out her phone and opened her camera to look at herself in it. Her makeup was a mess, and all I could do was laugh about it because I knew she had probably just done it. We sat down and she started re touching her mascara and pulling some more powder on her face.
“You need some of this lady, do your face a favour” she said pushing the mascara bottle into my shoulder. I was kind of glad we were doing this because we would often do our makeup at the bus stop before we got on the school bus. Rachel always had to look her best before we saw all the hot boys on the bus.
Just as the bus was pulling up my phone rang,
It was home. I knew it was going to be mum.
“Yeah what?” I answered without saying hello.
“Where are you, you’re supposed to be helping pack today?”
“Yeah well I’m supposed to be sleeping in too, not moving, or worrying about any of this stuff…” I said smugly.
“Don’t get smart with me young lady! I’m not in the mood today Abby.” I rolled my eyes. Even though she couldn’t see it, Rachel was making a hand puppet miming “blah blah blah”. I smiled at her while mum continued, “We have to be at the station by 6pm to check our bags. So please be home by 5.”
“I’m spending my last day here with Rach, I’ll be home later. Don’t get your knickers in a twist,” I said feeling annoyed.
“5pm, Abby. Bye.” I snapped my phone shut and groaned out loud. Rachel smiled, though in my head I was screaming!
Please save me … I have to go and live with this woman!
Rachel had so many suggestions about where we could go. We definitely would be going out to lunch that was a sure thing. Even if it was McDonalds, we didn’t care. But I was feeling rather nostalgic about places I had been to with Rachel and things we had done there. I past our junior primary school and pointed out the window at it. She smiled back at me and pushed the stop button. I wanted to go here because it was where we first met. We sat on the play equipment that had not changed since we were kids. We laughed about things that we remembered and how long it had been since we were last here.
It was unfair that I had to say goodbye to Rachel. Why were their relationship choices ultimately making me make choices i didn't want to make? What if I got up one day and never wanted to see them again?
Rachel and I walked to our high school together from our primary school. The memories there were good and bad. I wondered who was going to be her friend here when I wasn’t. The thought almost made me feel jealous. I was her friend, and she was mine… and it had been like that forever. I didn’t even know how I would feel when she wasn’t around every day. I wondered if Rachel felt the same as I did. Knowing Rachel she would just find a boyfriend and spend all her time with him to fill the space that I usually did. I let her have all the boyfriends because I liked hearing the gossip about them because I found it really funny. Sure I had boyfriends, but nothing ever more serious than stealing a kiss here and there and holding hands. Rachel however, was a different story.
After a non-stop day of laughs, tears and reminiscing it was 4pm and we began to head home. My first thought was to not go home and intend to miss the train so we would have to go another day. But I knew my dad would be disappointed with me if I did that. And I really hated disappointing him. Rachel and I didn’t talk to each other much on the way back to my house. We would look at each other with glassy eyes and frown a lot. We knew that if we said anything about how long it was until I had to go, or anything that even said goodbye in it, we would break down. I knew that’s where I was anyway.
When we arrived at my house I sat on the garden bench and watched a courier truck taking boxes out of the house. Rachel’s bottom lip was quivering.
This is supposed to be me Rachel. I’m usually the one who is a mess. You’re the strong one.
She was the strong one. She was the one who kept it together when I fell apart and be the positive one in our friendship. Tears fled my eyes, but I didn’t breakdown. I knew something had to be said about the goodbye. Because she was dying inside. I needed to make her feel better.
“We are going to text every single day ok?”
“You better. And when I’m 18 I’m coming over there to rescue you! I Promise.” She said placing her arm around me.
“See Rach, it’s only a year. And I’ll ask dad to fly me over on school break. It’s not forever babe.” She forced a smile and cried out a short laugh. Taking a deep breath she nodded.
“Your right. Just don’t go finding someone better than me.”
“No one is better than you…” It was true. I knew already that I wouldn’t have a friend again like Rachel. And it was pointless to even try to replace her. When she mentioned about being 18 and leaving home, it made me feel good even though our friendship’s future was still unknown. I wanted to be hopeful about it still. Suddenly I heard the screen door screech, and I saw mum.
“C’mon Abby you better start getting you’re the last of your carry on stuff together, we have to leave for the station in about an hour.” Rachel smiled at Mum and stared down at me. I looked at Rachel; I snapped. I bawled. I sobbed with my head in my hands. Mum turned to go inside and said,
“Rachel you can come on in and stay until we leave,” Rachel nodded and gave thanks as she placed her head on my shoulder holding me tight. A year just seemed too long. Rachel held out her hand and helped me up. As we went into the house, my uncle Kevin turned up to take Mum and I to the train station. Rachel and I headed to my room passing my mum lugging suitcases to the car. I sat on my bed and looked around my bedroom. My room was completely bare except for my bed frame, bare mattress and my grand piano. I looked over it knowing that it wasn’t going to make the trip. I wasn’t even sure when I’d see that again either. I got up from my bed and sat at my piano stool. I played every day, ever since my 10th birthday when they bought it for me. It was my favourite thing in this entire house. I was sure that they were probably selling it because I could see the shipping of it costing more than the actual piano itself. I decided to play it since it might be the last time I ever played it. Rachel sat beside me and watched.
“Abby, what on earth are you doing?” I heard my mum bellowing from the hallway. I just kept playing, my fingers struck the keys viciously. I tired blocking out everything that was happening.
“Would you just stop?!” Mum yelled. I thumped my hand on the piano hard.
“Why don’t you just stop,” I hissed. “Stop all of this, this is my piano,” I screamed. I had completely lost it now. My anger came bursting out of me like an erupting volcano. “There is no way it’s ever coming with us … dad is just going to sell it, I want it and I want to play it!” I finished. I hadn’t had a tantrum in years and mum gave me a look as if to know exactly how I was feeling, but a little stunned at the same time. We stayed there looking at each other for a moment before Mum pursed her lips together and gestured for me to keep playing. I started playing a familiar song, one my dad used to play to me to get me to sleep. I cried when I played every note. It was almost soothing, I felt someone’s hands on my shoulders, and I assumed that they would have been Rachel’s but they weren’t. It was dad. I reverted to a child again and held him close.
“When will we see each other?” I asked,
“In your next school break in July,” he said pulling away.
Gosh that’s like 3 months away!
“After I sort things out and get some money together. But don’t worry I will call you every chance I get.” I had barely been away from my dad since I was born, and here he was telling me that I wouldn’t see him for 3 months. I was beginning to be a drama queen again as 100 thoughts raced through my head.
What if? What if he finds another girlfriend? What if he forgets about me? What if he has other kids and is too busy with a new family?
The thoughts teared me apart inside, but I thought that maybe I was over reacting a little too soon as well. But it did stay in the back of my mind momentarily. My dad asked me to play and sing for him. It was a time where dad and I bonded the most.
“You’re going to be a star one day darling, never give up on dreams,” he added as I played.
My dreams meant nothing right now. My only dream was that he would just stay. That we all would just stay.
Our goodbye was long and very teary. Rachel came in shortly after my dad left my room. She announced that my mum and uncle were waiting in the car. I held Rachel tight and hugged her for more than 2 minutes just crying. It was almost hard to let go of her hand, as I settled into the car. My dad wiped his face and turned away with his hand over his face as our car slowly indicated off the curb. It was just one of them cliché times people usually look out of the back window. I wasn’t going to at first because I knew it was so hard, but I had to … There they were with that goodbye look, the heart-wrenching look.
Rachel and dad stood side-by-side and waved. I watched them until they looked like dots in the distance. Mum was whimpering in the front as her brother placed his hand lovingly on her shoulder.
Who was here to hold my hand through all this?
Love your writing, can't wait to see where you take the story next