To Live a Good Love Story

Chapter One

So long story short, my family is cursed and love isn't real.

"Oh Cassia, you're just being overdramatic." 

No, I'm not! If I'm so overdramatic then tell me why it's become almost impossible for anyone in my family to hold a stable relationship for more than twenty years. I'm not just saying this because my parents got divorced last summer; this "curse" goes way back to my great-great-grandparents. Since it's become clear to me that no one bearing my last name is safe, I have decided to make my life easier and skip the romance.

I watched how my parent's divorce tore my mother apart then left her cold and alone, and I refuse to put myself through that much torment. I'm already pretty good at being alone anyway;  I somehow managed to skate through high school pretty easily and unnoticed.

But don't take me for a prude. I allowed myself to make friends and have fun, I just never let anyone get too close.

I've had a grand total of one boyfriend my entire eighteen years of life.

His name was Jackson and he was nice enough. He stood about 6 feet and was an active player on the tennis team. Don't get me wrong, it was nice to have a date for school dances and plans on Saturday nights.

But tennis matches are surprisingly boring and I am a woman who enjoys her free time. He gave me the experience I always wanted to try: a first kiss, a first date, bringing someone home to meet my parents, the usual high school rundown. He was good company, but I never saw it ever going further than high school.

And when I ended things the summer of junior year, he tried to throw a tennis ball through my car window. Of course, it bounced off and broke his glasses instead, but I still felt kind of bad for him. Now that I think about it, maybe he was kind of a jerk.

This year's a fresh start though. New school, new friends, and a new degree plan. I'm excited to get a move on with my life and starting college is the first step. I'll finally get a taste of independence even if it will be in a dorm room on campus. I've opted for a double room to make my mother happy, she thinks I'll turn into a hermit if I'm left alone for too long. Even with a new roommate, it will be nice not to have my mom breathing down my neck.

She's always seen me as a sort of "golden child" and loves to spend her days after office hours bragging about me to the 'Single Ladies Club' she formed at work. Ever since my dad left she's been hyper-focused on my grades and wants to be heavily involved with all my decisions about college.

The fact of the matter is that I want to do these things alone. So when I told her I would be living on-campus, she had a full-on meltdown in the living room for an hour straight.

After a week of nonstop arguing, I was able to calm her down with a compromise. At the beginning of each month, one of us could drive down to stay a weekend with the other.

I was very unhappy, but it was a small price to pay for freedom I guess.

'What about my dad' you may ask? Well, he seems to be doing just fine enjoying his newfound alone time. Also known as, living it up every Friday night, hammering down shots, and crashing every night club with his work buddies all while shoving two middle fingers in my mom's and I's faces.

He hasn't called me in weeks.

It's all good though, I'm not mad. He can finally do what he wants to. And when he realizes what a good thing he had with a supportive family who loved him, I'll take both of those middle fingers and shove it right up his ass.

Do you ever wish you could rewind time? Sometimes when I'm alone in my room right before I'm about to fall asleep, a thought will crawl out from the back of my mind and make me wish my life was normal.

I want so bad to be the girl with a supportive family and a perfect social life. I want to go back in time and stop it just before my dad left us, when I was still with Jackson and things weren't so confusing. But you can't live in the past or you'll miss out on the future as they say.

And I personally believe that trauma builds character and adds flavor.

Whether I like it or not, move-in day is tomorrow and I'm actually a little nervous to leave my mother behind. But she's got to learn how to do things without me.

Oh god, I sound just like her.

Maybe this will be good for both of us, we can both learn to become independent. I expect things to go about the same as the majority of my high school years. I'll focus on school, maybe join a club or two, and I might just make a few friends in my study groups if I'm lucky. I guess we'll see how it all plays out.

I am currently trying to sort the mess that is my life into boxes and pack up what little last-minute items I have left in to my car. I've been slowly tearing down my room and neatly tucking it away into tubs and cardboard boxes these past few weeks.

Clothes and shoes litter my floor and pieces of packaging tape stick to the bottoms of my feet as I pick up the final tub I'll be taking with me. I jog down the hall and out the front door where my little blue Honda Civic is waiting for me. I squeeze in that last box and shut the door. I agreed to let my mom help haul my things to campus, so both of our cars are filled to the brim with the remnants of my old room.

I look up towards the sunset sky and let out a deep breath. A cool autumn breeze flows through my hair and turns the tip of my nose cold. The trees in my front yard are beginning to turn all shades of golden brown and some of the leaves are thrown about with the breeze.

I would miss it here, it is my childhood home after all.

Memories of the past eighteen years flood my mind and I find myself starting to get emotional. I shake it off a little too quickly and begin to head back inside, eager for my new life to begin.

*Authors Note*
Hello Wattpad! I've been an avid reader on here forever and recently I found a draft I was working on back in 2019. I finally decided to revise it, then said 'what the heck' and posted it! If you liked this first chapter, please let me know! I'd love any helpful criticism (please don't hurt my feelings) 🙂