Invisible Pain

Chapter One

    "Oh my god, I sure hope I'm ready for this", says Karissa as she's packing away her things for her adventure to live in New York City. "You'll be just fine my dear", replied her mother who was helping her stack banker boxes on one top of the other. "Yeah...I think I'll be okay...this is just so sudden" she sighed breathlessly, "I didn't expect to get the Secretary job at that law firm you know, but it's a start!". "Yes exactly, who knows? maybe in a few years, you can maybe be the CEO of that firm Honey, could you imagine?". Karissa laughed sarcastically believing the way her mother had said it, she wasn't going to bet on that.
    For Karissa, this move was going to be a huge impact on her since she's always been a small town girl and never had dealt with the life in the big city. She grew up in Beacon, New York not far from the Big Apple. She came from a family of five: two older siblings, a brother and a sister, and a mother and a father who are divorced. As being the youngest of her family, Karissa never really seen eye to eye with her brother Terrence and her sister Jamie. She was abused mentally and emotionally and they would pick on her telling her several times when she was a child that she's "retarded" and that she's the reason why their parents became separated when they did.
    There was a big age gap between the three of them, Terrance was ten years older and Jamie was eight years older. With the reason their parents had divorced was Irreconcilable Differences and decided to stay as friends for the sake of their children.
    Karissa was known to be very bright in school and had made her parents proud which it had made her siblings become more jealous of her. An honour student with a certificate in becoming an Office Assistant. To her, she always wanted to go for something more and something bigger but she was happy with what she had accomplished at the moment. She would always be hard on herself and doesn't always give herself credit to what she has done already in life.
    "I wish Dad could see me off" she said sadly, "I know sweetheart" said her mother "He would have wanted to be here so badly if he didn't end up working extra shifts down south". Karissa nodded slowly and continued on packing up her things and began to haul it into the cargo box of her blue 4+4 Ford truck. It was getting to the point that the more things were getting packed in the truck, the more emotions it was getting to be for her. Her mother was more of a wreck than she was but she tried to hold it in until the very end.
    By the time everything was loaded, Karissa and her mother walked outside slowly arm in arm not sure what to say to each other since she's lived at home until up to Twenty-Two. "Baby, I want you to call me everyday so I know you're not being kidnapped or getting hurt.", "I'll be fine mom, I'm a tall girl, that may scare some people." The two hugged for a long time and the next thing she knows, her mother was giving her a kiss on the cheek and walked backwards from her and Karissa started to drive away from the house that she had always known. She looked in the rear view mirror seeing her mother wiping her eyes with a Kleenex and looked on ahead knowing she's going to be from now on a city girl.