First attempt at a story SIMS VERSION Chapter 1 Part 1

This is my first attempt at a story. I apologize for my horrible picture taking skills. Any advice is more than welcome!!!

“You are going to your Aunt Claire’s for the summer.” It was not a question, it was not a suggestion. It was a statement; a command. When my mom decided I was going to do something, I was going to do it. There was no questioning it. No challenging it. I was being forced to spend the last summer of my high school years at my Aunt Claire’s in the middle of nowhere. Just what every high school senior wants. I sighed. Dare I ask why?

Just as I opened my mouth to do so she continued. “I need this summer to myself. I don’t want to worry about where you are, who you are with and what you are doing. Claire will take care of you and make sure you don’t get into trouble this summer.” She said. Oh, please. I thought, It’s not as if you didn’t spend last summer by yourself or with some new guy drinking the day (and night, for that matter) away. I’m the one usually watching you. It was at that moment that I realized she was sending me away so she could have freedom, so that she wouldn’t have to come home to me asleep in the living room. Waking up to ask her where she was and who the guy hanging all over her was. All the while wondering how long he would last.

Since my father’s death 3 months before I turned 14, my mom had turned to a life of drinking and partying. She dated a new guy almost every week. At first, I had been glad she had gone out to drink and met a new guy.

The first 6 months after his death, she had quit doing everything. She sat at home never showering, hardly talking, barely eating, and never moving. I worried about her. The seventh month, everything changed and for a while I quit worrying.

Until I noticed that the drinking and partying was just covering up her sorrow. I tried to get her to see someone and talk to them, but she refused. She was stubborn, and although our roles were reversed from that point on, she still had an air of authority around her. When she made a decision, it was final; there were no ifs, ands, or buts. 

She hadn’t kept me from experiencing my freshmen, sophomore and junior years of high school, my worry had. I didn’t have to sit at home at night waiting for her, I didn’t have to clean the house even though I knew she wouldn’t, I didn’t have to deny myself the privilege of sleeping over at my best friends or doing anything after 9 at night. I just did. I liked to claim that it was for my father’s sake; to keep my mother safe for him. There were multiple times that had I not been there, the guy would’ve killed my mom or my mom would have drank herself into a coma. I was there and I praised myself in saving her life, even though she seemed to think otherwise. At family gatherings, I kept her from drinking; I made the family believe that we were doing okay and that my mom had made the food and planned an event, when in reality I had. I kept her little secret from everyone, including her. After two months of trying to convince her to go talk to someone, I gave up and learned to live with it.

I grew up fast after my father’s death. Although I was too young to get a job, I started babysitting and started using the money I earned and the money I managed to steal out of my mom’s purse while she was passed out to pay for groceries and the bills. My best friend, Katie, became even closer and I talked to her about everything. When I told her about not knowing how to pay the bills and being so far behind that they may take the house away from us, she told her parents. When they came to pick her up from my house one day after school, they asked if they could come in. When I said yes, they sat down and explained how to do bills and budget and told me that if I ever needed help, they would be more than willing to help out. As they left, I put a fake smile on my face and thanked them. Katie was the last one out the door, she looked embarrassed. I grabbed her arm and asked why she had done that. I was so mad that she had betrayed me that I refused to speak to her for an entire month. After a month of having no one to talk to, I forgave her and began understanding why she had done that; I never told her anything that was going wrong financially, though.

Within a week of my mother’s oh-so-wonderful news, school ended and within a week of that I was to leave to go to Aunt Claire’s. The day before I was supposed to leave, I hung out with Katie and tried to pretend that I wasn’t going to be gone all summer and that I wouldn’t miss hanging out with her all throughout the summer days when my mom was not home and was off doing whatever she did when I wasn’t there to babysit her.

As I left her house, she told me I was more than welcome to escape the boondocks and stay with her if need be. I knew that I would probably take her up on that offer but I needed to at least see what Aunt Claire’s was like for a little bit first.

The next day, I was off to the train station with no actual parting words aside from the loud snores coming from my mom as I left. The train station wasn’t all that big and it wasn’t hard to find the platform where my train would pick me up.

Almost as soon as I sat down, I was asleep; I’m the type of person who gets tired in a car very easily so a train made it even worse, it was a 4 hour trip, I slept for 3 and a half hours. I awoke when I heard someone clear their throat near me, I figured the train was full or it was my stop so I jumped up with one of my bags in hand only to see someone sitting across the aisle from me. He was giggling. “Uh, what’s funny?” I said, confused and angry. He didn’t reply, just continued giggling for what seemed like forever which caused me to get even more angry with him. I was already upset that I had to leave home for the entire summer, I was tired and rudely awakened and now I was being laughed at by some idiot I didn’t know? All this added together was not a good combination.

“I said, WHAT IS FUNNY?” I half yelled. Instantly, he stopped laughing, gave me a serious face and started laughing again. In between laughs I heard something along the lines of, “Dude…hilarious…so high…” I understood enough to know that he found something hilarious (which was no surprise based on all his laughing) and that he quite possibly could be high. Great, just what I wanted. I turned to the window and checked my wristwatch for the time; only 15 minutes left, I could not wait. As I was doing that I heard the click of heels down the trains hallway, I figured it was just a train attendant going down the rows collecting garbage until I heard, “Shaunny, what are you doing way back here!? I missed you, come back?” in a whiny purr.

I never thought a sound like that was possible, it was halfway between something you could call a purr (similar to the ones women use in old movies to try and talk men into things) and a whine. I turned and looked only to see a girl in high heel knee high boots, a mini skirt and purple tank top on straddling the boy who had just been laughing at me. This day just kept getting better and better. She turned around just as I was beginning to look back out the window.

“Oh, hello! So is this why you came back here, Shaunnyyyy? To flirt with some girl?” I snapped my head back in her direction, ready to deny that this was happening. The last thing I wanted was some confrontation with some hussy. Then I saw her face, she was smiling and just joking around. I breathed a sigh of relief and went back to facing the window.

 “I’m Marilyn. He’s Shaun, if you couldn’t guess. He’s a little below the influence of multiple things, if you couldn’t tell that. When is your stop? Ours is the next one. We just spent a lovely two days in the city shopping and partying. It was quite wonderful. Now we’re heading back home to bumfuck nowhere. Just so fanFUCKINGtastic, I can’t wait.” She said quickly. I could barely understand anything she said, it was as if it all came out in one breath. “I’m getting off on the next stop as well; I’m staying with my Aunt for the summer. “ I replied quietly. For some reason, Shaun found this hilarious and started giggling again just as the train started stopping. The three of us prepared to exit the train.