As We Were

Chapter One

Diana~

I was desperate for his help. Good grades are the only thing I have going for me this year. There is a huge history mid-term next week, and my only friend, Sierra, isn't available to help me study, so he was my last resort. My teacher assigned him as my tutor. Jared is one of the most popular boys in school and he has a brain, which is a little strange, but you can't judge a book by it's cover. Walking towards the table, I can see the annoyed and pessimistic expressions projecting over his entire face. He doesn't seem interested to help me in any way, and I don't blame him, but his demeanor makes me apprehensive. I realize that he doesn't even acknowledge me once I reach our meeting spot because he is invested in his book, Jane Eyre.  I haven't heard of that particular book before, but it looks extremely long, longer than any book I've ever read. 

I clear my throat and he looks up with his aggressive eyes. "Are you Diana?" he asks harshly. "I'm Jared. Please sit so we can get started." I do as instructed.

"I'm sorry if I interrupted you from your book. Was it assigned for a class?" I asked quickly, letting my curious side slip out.  It was one of my many bad qualities, like they always say, curiousity killed the cat.

"No, it's one of my favorites," Jared explains. "Now let's just get this over with so we can both go home. What don't you get?"

"The mid-term is focused on early America and the Revolutionary War," I begin. "I have trouble understanding the concepts and remembering everything that happened; I have insanely bad memory. I have a paper right here with everything that we're being tested on." I hand him the paper and he skims over it, nodding his head. 

"All right, this will be easy enough. We can start by reading through the  textbook again and maybe making flash cards." Jared goes to grab a book and I take out a stack of index cards that I put in my bag earlier. 

The hour went by very quickly. He was able to explain everything to me in a way that I understood and had a lot of extra facts that you would never hear in a classroom. Although at first I was skeptical of his attitude, Jared was an okay tutor but possessed a much more interesting mind.  It's hard to believe that someone like that could be that intelligent, especially when they go partying every weekend and have so many girlfriends. 

I pushed in my chair to leave, rather harshly. This caused the table to move and the textbook fell onto the floor, "I'm so sorry!"

He glares at me, "It's fine.. Uh. I'll see you later." He limps towards the exit, and I feel horrible for dropping the textbook on his toe. That probably didn't help my social life at all.

The walk from school to my house is only about ten minutes, and when I walk up towards the door, I find my dad sitting out on the patio smoking a cigarette. He comes out here more and more every day that my mom isn't with us. It hasn't even been a month since she passed away, but she still haunts us with the memory of her. Everyday without her has been hell. I think my dad saw it coming, but I had no idea anything was wrong until I found her that day.

When I came home from school on a Tuesday, I expected it to be just the two of us for a couple hours since my dad works late on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I went to go to use the bathroom, but when I got in there, I found my mother passed out, or what I thought was passed out, laying on the tile floor. I shook her body to see if she would regain consciousness but then discovered a heroin needle placed on the floor next to her. I knew it was too late, but I still called 9-1-1 in a frantic hurry. The whole thing was a complete disaster; I broke down and cried my heart out for what seemed like days. Paramedics kept trying to ask me questions but I couldn't find a way to speak. I just remember my father and I in a big embrace in the E.R, wondering to ourselves how we could ever be the same again. The tragedy we both experienced that day has caused too much pain for any person to endure. As I struggled and barely succeeded to move on and go to school again, my father is still requesting time to adjust, and I think his boss is very sympathetic towards us, so he allows it.  I do wish that he will be up and working again soon though.

I drop my backpack on the sofa and go into the kitchen to fix up something to eat. My mom was the big cook in the family and would make every meal, and my dad worked all the time so he's not good at preparing food, and he wasn't used to having the reponsibiltiy to feed me.

I settle with a turkey and cheese sandwich and return to the living room to eat and watch Netflix, but I become startled as I see a strange man emerging from my bathroom.