My story for Rachel’s contest

Hey y’all! So the creator of the Author’s Press blog, Rachel Vincent *gives round of applause* is holding a writing/photography contest. I entered and so here is my story for her contest, Enjoy!

I held the frostbitten flower to my chest. “Get out of my house right now!” I had heard loud screams of that nature for about an hour now. My mom and dad were fighting, AGAIN. It could be a soft and peaceful morning, like today, with chilly wind and frozen dew on the grass, everything would seem perfect. I would perform my daily routine to get ready for school and hope and pray that my parents wouldn’t fight today. But, despite my prayers and hopes they would always fight. Sometimes they would fight for so long I’d have to call my best friend, Lizzie to pick me up and take me to school. Most people hate highschool, and trust me I’m not to fond of it myself, but it beats having to stay home and listen to arguing for hours upon hours.

As I held the frozen flower to my chest tears streamed down my face, and you could see my heavily panting breath in the air. I was tired of it. Today was the day. I was finally going to speak up and tell my parents how I felt. I would finally tell them to quit arguing. I made my way up the brick porch steps and I inched closer to the door, while the screams kept growing in volume. I reached my shaking hand out for the door knob and I was just about to twist it when I heard, “Why don’t we have money in the bank Jen? Is it because that stupid teenage daughter of mine keeps spending so much on clothes?” I looked down at my attire, leggings, an old/grey sweatshirt, boots that were too tight, and socks that were barely white anymore. Yep, that was definitely why we didn’t have money in our account. “Rob, I wish you would stop blaming her! It’s your own fault we have no money in our account. Everyday you come home, grab my keys, and you take the car off to the casino to gamble and drink all our money away!” Mom spoke truth.

I leaned my ear closer to the door. School didn’t start for 45 more mins, I had time. “My daughter is the reason all of our money is gone! She’s always going out with friends!” Well let me see, the last time I went anywhere with Lizzie was about 9 months ago. She would always invite me along to other events, but with barely enough money to live on, I would always decline. I didn’t want Lizzie to keep paying for me, she had already done enough. Mom apparently stood there stunned at what she had heard because she didn’t retort at first. Then I heard her whisper something. Dad heard it too and he yelled “For God sake speak up woman!” And she did. She exclaimed “You want me to speak up? You want me to speak up Rob? Then fine. I want you to stop saying things that are untrue!” “And what might those things be Jen?” “Stop calling Hunter your daughter! She isn’t your daughter!” I stood there stunned. I had heard enough. I bust in the door with tears streaming down my face. “Mom?”, I cried. She couldn’t find the words to say, “Sweetie… I, I, I can explain.” But I didn’t want her to explain. The horrible man who I thought was my father, wasn’t. And who knows maybe my mother wasn’t really my mother! I ran out the door, fumbled down the steps, grabbed my backpack lying on the grass, and I picked up the little frozen flower. Nobody knew who I was. Nobody knew what I was. And worst of all, I didn’t even know who or what I was. But somehow and someday I was determined to find out. No matter what.

Hoped you enjoyed it!