✔︎ | Gold Digger

Chapter 1 - Past Years

Chapter 1 – Past Years

Jessie Venganza

My mother left me alone with a man I knew would hurt, and I was alone when he did. I screamed and cried for help as he touched and hit me, but I was alone, only a twelve-year-old child, and he began taking bits of my innocence. "Jessica, Jessica, Jessica," he repeated my name as I screamed for help, but soon everything turned black and...

"No!" I scream out, pulling myself from the darkness, but this time I wake up in another new bed instead of the one in the hospital.

I cry softly as I plop back down into my puddle of sweat, ripping the wet covers off of me. I wish it was all just a nightmare, but sadly it happened, and I am forced relive it almost every night, even five years later.

"Jessie, keep it down!" My mom yells upstairs from the kitchen, and I roll my eyes.

I feel like I hate her, but I pretend as if she's the most important thing to me because I'm stronger than her, and she's been through so much too.

Luckily her days as a hooker are over, but now she's gone down an even more disgusting road.

Marrying for money.

If I could, I would say she's not a gold digger, but I can't. That's exactly what she is, and recently she's been married to an old man with white hair and lots of doe, enough that if he wanted to, he could use a hundred dollar bill as toilet paper. It disgusts me, but I don't say anything because she has her hopes up for me in the family business too.

If only gold digging were a profession and not just a terrible habit. My mom and me would be queens at the very top.

And my mom, my mom is beautiful with her soft brown hair and gorgeous glowing eyes. Any guy would fall for her, and that's exactly what happened with Mr. Thompson. She married soon after her latest husbands funeral and we moved to a city in Michigan to begin our new lives.

Luckily I don't get out much, so it's not a drastic change for me.

I sigh after my mom yells, and swallow down words I want to scream back at her. I get out of bed instead and take a quick shower to wash away the sweat and the memories, but the thoughts I have will never go away.

"Jessie!" My mom screams once again as I step back into my room, pulling on a pair of tight black jeans and a white shirt. "Come down here!"

I follow her voice to the kitchen, where she is sitting eating a big breakfast, no plates set out for me to join her.

"Good morning," I say kindly, but she rolls her eyes at me.

"Yeah, you'll be late for school if you don't hurry up."

I almost snort in her face. "Late?" I ask, leaning against one of the chairs. "That's not really possible when I'm home schooled."

My mom stops chewing her food. "Homeschooled? Didn't I tell you I'm sending you to high school?"

"What?" I stammer.

"High school," mom repeats, continuing to eat casually. "Winter break is over, and I can't be hiring any more homeschool teachers to come help you because they all say that you don't try. I thought I'd give a public high school a chance with you, and see how it ends up from there."

I stare at her in disbelief, but she has no care for my opinion. "I mean," she adds, "you only have a few months of senior year left. High school will be a good change. And you're almost eighteen. People in this city are rich Jessica, I think you should try to start finding a man."

"I'm not interested in a relationship, mom," I tell her.

"Fine," she hisses, standing up and walking into the kitchen. "Then I'll set you up with some of my new friends. Wouldn't you like to marry a man who's old enough to be your father?"

I almost choke. "You're right. I should get my life together."

I can almost see my mom's smile through the walls. "Good," she says, "school starts in a half an hour. They'll be expecting you in the office. Make sure you wear a sweater though, it'll be a cold walk."

"Walk?" I ask her. "Can't I take my car?"

"What car?" My mom laughs. "That old thing from Chicago? I got rid of it. You can't be driving something like that around here."

I clench my jaw tightly. "Have a good day," I tell my mom, rushing back upstairs to pack my school things into a bag and pull a trench coat overtop of my outfit.

I walk to the school without my mom saying goodbye to me, only giving me directions on how to get there. Luckily I find it easily because we've driven past it a few times, and I'm so relieved when I get inside, out of the snowy weather.

I arrive late though, and the secretary in the office scolds me and hands me my package: textbooks I'll be in need of for my classes, the school guidelines, and of course, my schedule.

I'm too embarrassed to ask her how to get to any of my classes, and only open the package once I'm walking down an empty hallway with my coat tucked underneath my arm. For a school with over twenty-five hundred students, it's exceptionally quiet and everyone seems to be in their classes.

Except for when I turn a corner.

There is a cute little boy, probably half a head shorter than me, inching closer to the lockers behind him as two other guys talk to him. Unfortunately, they don't look like they're just planning on talking.

"Why are you even here?" A blonde guy, wearing a football letterman jacket, hisses at the boy. "I think coming to this school is enough for me already, and now I have to see your fag face around here too!"

The other boy doesn't say anything to the kid, which actually makes him twice as scary. He has the body for a football player as well, but instead he wears a jean jacket and black pants with boots, like all of the scary guys in movies do.

I stop in my tracks at both of the boys' beauty, but also their insane cruelty.

The other boy, the one with bleached blonde hair and extremely good style, flinches at the boy's words, but doesn't say anything to defend himself. All he does is stretch out his arm when the guys circle in closer, and lightly shoves the blonde one with long hair.

"Ew!" He jumps back, wiping off his shoulder. "How dare you touch me? Do I look like I want to pick up the gay sickness?"

I've had enough when the guy finishes his sentence. Who the hell do they think they are? Before I know exactly what I'm doing, I drop my things and run up to the boys, who look at me just a little too late. I shove the brunette harshly and he stumbles back into the blonde one, who makes an opening for the poor boy to run through.

And he runs, and I regret intruding because now I'm left alone with the boys' angry glares on me. I haven't been this afraid in a while, and my heart almost sputters. The boys' eyes pierce into me, and I'm happy my mom kept me from these places for seventeen years.

"Go," the brunette finally speaks up, but I know he's talking to his friend and not me. He doesn't even look at him though, and instead watches my every move, and adds, "I'll deal with her."

The blonde cusses and rolls his shoulders, walking in the opposite direction in frustration. I watch him until he turns the corner, and slowly let my eyes wander back onto the brown haired boy with bored eyes.

He walks around me, checking out my size and probably my ass, and laughs to himself. And then he stops halfway, blocking my path to my belongings, and crosses his arms.

I make a run at him, trying to pass him or push him over but he catches me with one arm. He picks me up in once swift move and swings me against the lockers. My back hits them in pain and arches, but the boy, who is still holding onto me, flattens my body by pressing his against it.

I gulp when he grabs my jaw in his other hand and tilts my head up, whispering into my ear.

"Where the hell do you think you're going?"

This school is going to be the beginning of a terrible future.