Problems

You know my life isn't easy. No one's is, but mine is extremely hard. Knowing the fact that my mom is a stripper and my father a ex-criminal drug dealer isn't the best feeling in the world. Especially when you're only fourteen years old. And to top it all off, my grades in school are slipping and my sister is doing a boy she just met a few months ago. Things used to be normal, until my dad came in touch with drugs. He got started when I was ten. Brought it into the house where my sister and I could easily pick it up and get into it. Mom lost her job as an accountant because her office did a surprise drug test and sure enough, she was positive. So then she went to the only place in town where she could get a definite job at, because of her looks. Her eyes are dark brown, and she has light brown hair to match. She has a creamy-colored skin with a firm bone structure. She knew she wouldn't have to be told twice if she got a job as a stripper.

As for my dad, he still does drugs. He sells the drugs, does them, and gets the money for them. He pays his supplier not even a third off of what he makes, which is unfair, but it puts more money in our household. I try and stay away from his customers when he brings them around the house, because I don't want to get caught with what I already know. He buys us nice clothes, he put a nice roof over our heads, but he doesn't do nice things for us. He's always yelling at my sister, my mother, and I. Even if we did nothing wrong, he just yells and yells. One part is the alcohol talking, and the other part is the drugs. He needs to chill it before something bad happens.

But my sister is the worst. She has changed so much since my mother lost her job. She thought since they were too busy with their drug addictions and jobs that she could do whatever she wanted to. She got a nose ring on her fourteenth birthday because she didn't have anyone to come and stop her. She's always had her grades in a terrible position, which is causing her to fail every class and making it look bad on her academic record. She started seeing this boy Laser who is eighteen, two years older than her, a few months ago. She instantly knew that she would fall for him, and they would run away together once she turned eighteen. Their breaking the law by doing some stuff they shouldn't be doing in her bedroom, but I'm not going to snitch on her. Not yet anyway.

You could say I'm the good one. The one that is always staying silent so they don't get in trouble for saying the wrong thing. The one that's always home in time for curfew. The one that always does everything that everyone tells her to do. I mean yeah, my grades are slipping, but that happens to every teenager eventually. I'm getting help from my two best friends, Ashley and Kevin throughout this whole stage in my life. It's been really tough seeing my parents and sister turn into human beings I don't even know anymore. We all used to be so close, sing songs together on road trips. Eat with each other at the dining room table during dinner. Tell each other about our day. But all that has changed, changed a lot.

Sometimes I question my life too much. What if things were different? What if dad never got back into doing drugs. Mom would still have her old job, dad would have a better job, my sister and I probably would be happier and do what they said. We would do all the stuff we used to do. Things would be normal.

But maybe things were mean't to be this way. I've always heard my teachers and other people say "Everything happens for a reason," which the person as a point. But i don't know why all this stuff would happen. No teenager wants to see her family turn into a train wreck. No neighbor wants to see their neighbors see this. No one wants to witness it. But I'm forced to witness it. I'm forced to live it for another three years and a day.

I'm Cammie Sullivan, and this is my messed up life.