My Match (Watty Awards 2013)

Chapter 6

Chapter 6

I shook my head to clear my thoughts. Anyway, it didn't matter. As soon as I saved enough money, I was hightailing it out of my house, away from my parents. It's not like they'd actually care; I once stayed at Kassia's house for a week without asking their permission, and no, they didn't even notice. I worked two jobs to pay for myself. My parents somehow had the money to pay the bills and pay for their stupid alcoholic ways, but me? I had to work to pay for my lunches at school, for school supplies, clothes, everything.

I worked as a singing instructor Saturday mornings and I just went to my students' houses to teach them there, not wanting them to go to my wreck of a house. The job paid a pretty decent amount; it was approximately forty five dollars per hour. At the local music store, they offer half hour lessons for thirty dollars so I suppose it made more sense to go to me. The rest of the time, I worked as a waitress at a small, homey diner after school from Sunday to Thursday. In order to do all my school work, I came to school two hours before anyone else did, and I stayed after for an hour and a half usually. Then I did what I could to finish it either at the library, where my parents wouldn't bother me, or in the woods, where they also wouldn't bother me. Hell, I've probably worked more in the past few years than my parents have in the whole of my life. The thought made me grind my teeth together.

"Hanna? Let's go see some more of the house before dinner starts," Max said. "Unless you don't want to...?"

"I'm coming," I called. Tearing my eyes away from the family in front of me, I hurried after him.

I saw a game room, a theater, a fully furnished and heated basement, the massive kitchen, dining room one, the breakfast area, the deck, another living room, an office that belonged to Max's dad, and a pool outside. He never told me he was rich, but then again...I've only known him for a day. It made me feel like I wasn't good enough for him. I came from a family, if you could call it that, that had no interest in me whatsoever and left me to fend for myself. His family was obviously well off, and everyone here seemed so happy. My smile slowly started to slip.

Max seemed to know what I was thinking. "Don't think that you're not good enough, because you are."

Mind reader much? "But you guys are so-"

"Money doesn't matter to me, hell, I wouldn't care if you were some homeless lady living on the streets, as long as I got to see you and talk to you every day."

By now, I was starting to come to the conclusion that Max was naturally sweet and stuff like that just came out of his mouth spontaneously. I wrapped him in a hug and whispered, "Thank you." I wasn't just thanking him for his words, I was thanking him for being there for me, for caring a heck of a lot more than my own parents would've, and for making me feel like I was wanted. His strong arms held me tight and I didn't want him to let go. It felt like he was holding the pieces of me together.

A bell tolling interrupted us and the people that were just hanging around got up and began hurrying in random directions. He let go of me with a groan. "Okay, let's get ready for dinner, we've got ten minutes."

"Ten minutes? But...I haven't got anything nice to wear and-" I felt the top of my hair, or rather, bird's nest. "I haven't fixed my hair either." I started to run up the stairs but Max swooped down on me and picked me up, running to my room with somewhat unnatural speed, but I was too panicky to notice it too much.

After I finally untangled my hair, I asked, "Max, I don't have any extra clothes with me."

He took my hand and I couldn't help flashing back to when he held it this afternoon. It felt nice. Dragging me in front of a walk-in closet, he said, "Pick whatever you want, I think this is pretty close to your size."