Luxury ✔️

12 | Chapter twelve

Chapter 12 | Intimate

" Family is supposed to be our safe heaven. Very often,
It's the place where we find most heartache. "

L U X U R Y

I've never been to the beach.

Or a water park. I've never been to a concert or went camping. I've never laughed so much I cried. Sometimes I think I cry more than I laugh. Do you?

I've always wanted to jump seven waves for good luck, and collect cute shells hidden in the wet sand. I heard that even if you close your mouth while swimming in the sea, you taste salt in your tongue. Or make a sand castle and put a small broken branch on top as a flag. Or feel the beach sun burning your cheekbones even if you put sunscreen on–maybe seeing your freckles turning darker.

My grandfather said he was gonna take me to the beach one day. Just me, him, mom and dad. That was his last promise before he had a heart attack and died–during summer. The summer we were gonna go to the beach. I was so happy my parents were going on vacation with me and grandpa I had already packed my bag and bought so many bikinis I could barely fit it in my suitcase, a week before going to the airport. We were going to California.

But then he died, two days before our vacation.

It was early, about seven in the morning. Mom and Dad received a call from the hospital saying he had a cardiac arrest. I was fourteen. I didn't cry when I saw him on the hospital bed. I didn't cry for the whole day. It was like the worst nightmare of my life. Grandpa was my hero, as bad as that sounds. He understood me. That's why it must've taken so long for my brain to register what had actually happened.

Mom and Dad stayed at the hospital while Harry drove me back home. I was so angry with the doctors who didn't save his life.

The next day I threw my bag prepared for our vacation out the window with so much force it hit a small blue bird. Until this day, I remember how the bird made a rough sound as my red bag hit him, then it fell on the ground, my bag falling on top of it. I looked down the window, and then, I finally cried. I rushed outside, with tears streaming down my cheeks as I moved my bag away from the tiny bird. It was still alive but his wings appeared to be broken. I cried so much and stayed outside for hours, holding the bird in my hands until Harry, my driver, carried me inside because I couldn't bring myself to.

I never cried so much in my whole life. Mom and dad got mad at me because they couldn't sleep due of my sobbing, then, they moved my bedroom to the third floor, just so they could sleep in peace. Eleanor was hired to watch me while they were at work, instead of grandpa George. I hated her because she reminded me of him–the same eyes and the same wrinkles on the forehead.

Grandpa was my favorite person in the whole world, without a doubt, and I couldn't imagine living without him until I had to. Being an early teenager with terrible friends, I started drinking, even if only fourteen. Peer pressure, I guess. I'd stay over people's houses, passed out, to the point mom and dad would have to call the police because I wouldn't show up home for four days straight. I vandalized the hospital where my grandfather died, and got "arrested". Harry was the one who showed up to get me out of there. I was so scared of staying in jail I stopped doing everything I was doing before. It was the worst summer of my life, but I met Larissa and Elizabeth at a party.

We became good friends after I almost went to jail. Larissa was the nicest girl ever, and so was Liz. But she was quiet and shy. I don't think me or Lari know how she turned out to be like she was today. I guess in some kind of way, we made her confident. She told me my short bangs looked horrible and told me to let them grow. It was a great advice, because I did looked terrible with them. As months passed, she became more and more herself, and I became less and less confident. She grew, and I stopped.