"Today, however can change things for better or worse. The outcome depends on you."
When a marriage fails the residue trickles down to everyone in the family. Sixteen-year-old Daya Nicole Johnston must fight to understand what is happening in her li...
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* Olivia Saint-Charles *
Watching him safely climb down the tree I thought about him, my heart, and even Olivia. With these thoughts in the forefront of my mind I thought-well, I don't know what I am thinking. I directed my head from his silhouette and onto the snow surrounding me.
As he landed in front of me, our eyes immediately connected, and our bodies grew closer. I felt his shaky fingers place a stray strand of hair behind my ear causing a slight giggle to accidentally fall out of my lips as I noticed just how close we were. His forehead lightly crashes onto mine as I whispered, "We can't stand here forever. Take me away."
Slowly our faces drifted apart, and I took one more look at my lovely pearl before I heard my front door open, and a voice coming from that direction. I didn't stay to see who it was or what they had to say as I ran down the street with Jay following behind.
"God Daya, when did you learn how to run so fast," Jay remarked to me as I stopped in front of the Daralus home.
"Years of running away from my problems," I joked as we hunkered down on his front steps.
"Do you think they saw us," I asked looking down the street in the direction of my home, to see if any middle-aged parents were scampering down the street.
"I think we're good," Jay retorted as he leaned against the railing on his front steps, panting.
"Come on, is the little baby tired from running down the block," I quipped in a mocking tone and my bottom lip poked out.
"Ha-ha, I'll get you back for that later. I'm too exhausted to be witty."
Being in front of Jay's loving home was comforting to me, despite the resemblance to my discarded home down the street. The same type of home watched me as watched it, waiting for a thought to come into my head with a blank stare. My attention then turned to the broken bricks beside me on the stairs. A broken entrance to a full home, how ironic I suppose.
Jay had a beautiful, caring mom and dad and four energetic siblings whose face lit up when they saw him. His siblings and he all were adopted from different places in the country; Arizona, Illinois, New Jersey, Alabama, and Jay's from right here in Maine.
"Follow me," Jay said to me as he reached out for my hand.
I took his offer with a, "Hmm, acting like a gentleman today," as he laughed and imported me to a door towards the back of his house. Being that we have remained friends for years, this path into his home became well known to me.
Two years ago, he requested to move into the basement away from everyone to no avail his parents were upset with his decision as they should be, but they always check on him. His parents have always been outstanding parents to all of them and to me, and to repay them, he took advantage of how much they wanted to please him. They bought him a mini fridge, his own microwave, and anything that he asked in hopes to show him their love, unsuccessfully. I've tried to discuss it with him, but I believe it only drives him farther away.
