SEALED FREEDOM

Ever since I was a little girl, my father would tell me about my mother who passed away holding me in her arms. Her name was Fable, so he named me Fable as well, so that way we would always have a piece of her.

I didn't truly understand growing up exactly what that meant, but as I got older, I began to understand more everyday. Between cleaning up the house, preparing dinner, making sure we both showered everyday, and that he was up in time for work, it was starting to make more sense.

By time I was sixteen, I was having to pick him up daily from the local bar up the street, drive him home, and make sure he was up and sober enough to go to work in the mornings.

When I was seventeen, I decided to go to a community college in town for psychology, taking early five a.m. classes so I could be home before he woke up, and took a part time job at the local bookstore up the street. That way, I could be home before he got off to make sure he didn't find himself stumbling towards the bar.

Turning eighteen was suppose to be the highlight of my year, but turned out to be the worst. The community college decided that I wasn't going to be able to keep my scholarship, and with the small amount of money I was making, I sure wasn't going to be able to pay for it myself. The last thing I wanted either were student loans under my name.

I reached out to other colleges, looking for online classes, one did reach out to me. They were located in New York, and loved the paper I had written. They were willing to give me a full ride, all I had to do was up and move to New York, live in the student quarters, maintain a 3.0 GPA at all times, and work part time in the student council. Unfortunately, I couldn't leave my father behind, I just knew it wouldn't be a good idea. So instead, I dropped out of community college, took over the full time position at the bookstore from nine till five from Nathan, so that way, I could manage to be at home before my father woke up or came home.

Nathan was my crush, and the one that gave me the job to work with my school schedule, which I might had lied to him about a bit because of my fatherly issues. He was six feet tall, Italian, had dark brown hair, green eyes, and the most handsome voice. He was a college student at the 

community college I was attending, and had just graduated with his Associates in social science. He had managed to land a research job in Washington, DC, and left three days after quitting.

We used to talk about everything, except for my father, I kept that part to myself, I guess to ashamed to admit my flaws. I wanted him to see me as perfect, even thought I wasn't anything close to it.

For our last goodbye, he told me to come visit him in Washington, DC soon, gave me a hug, a kiss on the cheek, and left. We kept in contact through email for a bit, and we even admitted to each other about having a crush on the other. He tried to get me to come out to Washington, DC with him, but I had to take care of my father, so I lied and told him it wouldn't be a great idea til I graduated. Eventually, we stopped messaging, and I never knew exactly why, but it probably had to do with a girl he had started to date, according to his social media.

Turning nineteen was great for a bit, I got promoted to manager, hired a few people to run the store so I had more free time for myself. I saved up enough money to take two classes at the community college, putting me closer to my dream job. Though like everything since the beginning of my life, it all fell through.