Never Say Goodbye

•Chapter Four• Growing Up

Tristan

The first two years Andie lived with me were hard. I could see how hard it was for her to trust me given that she had been abused and abandoned. She had problems sleeping at night, she would either break down crying or would have terrible nightmares. I would end up falling asleep in her bed after comforting her.

But as time went on, she settled in nicely and before long, it was like we had always lived together. It was great having her around, much like having a little sister. Most of the time it was like she was the older sibling since she cooked, and did all the household chores. Andie also scolded me, much like a mother would.

Four years after Andie came to live with me, my parents died in a freak accident. They ran out of alcohol and walked over to the local liquor store for more. While doing their shopping, a garbage truck lost control and plowed through the front of the store. They were the only two people struck by the truck and died on impact.

By default, the house and what was left of my father's inheritance fell to me. I spent some of the inheritance on Andie, buying her clothes, shoes, and anything else she needed. There was still a little more leftover so I did what a responsible big brother would do and put it into a savings account for her.

I sure as heck didn't need the inheritance since I had my own money. The money I had worked hard to make and saved to support us. I'd begun writing children's storybooks after submitting a short story to a literary contest at school when I was fourteen and took the top prize. I was signed on by the best publishing house in town that same day.

At eighteen I was still working as an author but I was also going to the local university. I'd grown tired of children's books and wanted to write novels. I only wrote those books after I made them up on nights Andie remembered her past and they helped her to fall asleep. She was now fifteen and did not need them.

"If you're not up in five minutes, " Andie threatened. "I'm gonna dump a bucket of cold water on ya!" Knowing Andie as well as I do, I jumped out of bed and raced to the bathroom to get ready for school. She had already dumped a bucket of cold water over my bed and me on two occasions.

I grabbed my backpack and made my way into the kitchen to see Andie dressed for school and making breakfast. I couldn't get over how beautiful she was now. Andie had changed so much from the underweight, abused eight-year-old I met. I wouldn't be too surprised if she had a boyfriend... Ugh, I wanted to punch the unknown guy at that thought.

I didn't understand why that thought bothered me. It really shouldn't since she was old enough to have a love life. Did I have some kind of a little sister complex or something? That might be it. I was feeling overprotective of Andie like any big brother would. Shaking my head at my stupid thoughts, I decided it was time I got a girlfriend and concentrated on my own love life. It was time to ask out Destiny.