Everything Has Changed

Bad Blood

Chapter One

Bad Blood

Her

My house was a safety hazard. I wasn't supposed to walk into the kitchen and be afraid that the floor would swallow me up, but I suppose that's what happens when you stay holed up in your room studying for finals, barely acknowledging what was happening in your surroundings.

The floorboards had all disappeared, and I internally shrieked knowing that nobody was home to shriek at. My mother had texted me a measly 'Happy 18th darling!' this morning, but that was about as far as the festivities went. And I was fine; birthdays weren't really my thing. It was a depressing reminder that another year went by, and I felt like I was achieving absolutely nothing. Which I knew wholeheartedly wasn't true. I was graduating high school this year – well, in three weeks.

I used this year to wonder what I wanted to study in college, and I knew that most people had no idea what college they wanted to do, much less their freaking major, but I would freak at the idea of not knowing what I wanted. I took a week off school and travelled around the country, looking at different colleges.

The sad thing? I really loved the University of Vermont, a mere fifteen minutes away from home, and the same place where my parents worked. So I was staying right here – majoring in English, which I had received lots of disapproving "Oh..." in response, most people thinking it was a waste of a major. But I really wanted to teach English, not for high schoolers but at a college level. It would require more than four years of education, but for the moment, I was willing.

I forgot what I was in the kitchen for, and just as I turned around, I remembered the packed lunch Jenson had asked me to drop off to work for him since he forgot to grab it on his way out this morning. I was heading for the mall, shopping for a prom dress. Usually, school should have had it a few weeks ago but a pretty bad car accident in the student lot made them decide to postpone it.

After almost tripping over another missing floorboard, I grabbed the paper bag that held Jenson's lunch and hopped into my car. I was making a stop at Kelly, my best friend's house, before I arrived.

"Hey," she grinned as she hopped into the car, "you excited?"

"Mmm... kind of." I groaned. "Just wish I didn't have to rise at the crack of dawn."

She rolled her eyes as she buckled herself up. "Have you not had coffee yet?"

"Apparently my parents decided that a kitchen renovation was due and failed to mention it to me."

She gaped at me, laughter swarming in her eyes. "You seriously had no idea your parents were redoing the kitchen? Even I knew about it!"

"Well you've probably seen them more than I have over the past few weeks." I grumbled.

Now she laughed. "Perks of ditching college and jumping straight into an internship."

"You mean to tell me hanging out with my parents is the only perk you can think of?"

"They're cool people. You need to recognise your luck with having young parents and not being the youngest of five kids. My mom can barely send me a text."

I cocked a brow. "Having the knowledge that both me and Jenson were accidents is not cool."

"They handled it pretty well though. What with them being in med school."

"Yeah, handing us off to our grandparents was the light of our childhood."

Just that one word – childhood – and it brought a twisted pain in the pit of my stomach. Although I was talking about the very early years of my life, that one word resounded years of friendship with the one person that I never wanted to think of. I failed often, of course, but the thoughts always came with burning pain that I wished I had never had such a childhood.