Rough Road Ahead (In Progress)

Chapter 1 - Preface

            He had recently dyed his hair a raven black that seemed more like a dark blue than anything. "The parents want you," he said disgruntedly. He barely made eye contact.

            My brother and I had never had much of a relationship. Ever since I could remember he seemed to have a grudge against me, as if somehow my existence sickened him. Maybe it was because we were so different - he had tattoos that littered almost every inch of exposed skin and piercing that covered the rest, whereas I had a light pink bedroom and stuffed animals covering my floor space. Not exactly the makings of best buds.

            "Must be important, they made you come out of hiding," I said with a smug smile. I took a step closer to him, but he didn't look at me, he just stared out my window as if the sun rays shinning through the glass was more interesting than the words coming from my mouth.

            He bit his lip, "yeah, I guess..." he paused, then looked right at me. Our eyes interlocked. "Ask them," he said, "you know, there are about a million other colors you could have picked to paint your room." Leaning forward he whispered as if what he was telling me a secret. "This color is what nightmares are made of."

            While rolling my eyes I picked up a Hello Kitty plush and threw it at him, "don't like it, don't come in!" I yelled as he fell backward onto the carpet and I closed the door behind him. I could hear him grumbling behind the closed door as he climbed to his feet.            I wondered what my parents wanted. It was rare we had family meetings and I supposed it had something to do with the counseling my parents had started earlier that month.

            My family was far from picture perfect; my dad was a drunk and a cheater. My mind jumped back to the day I caught him in the act about a year ago with our Korean maid. It is a traumatizing experience to walk in on your parents doing the nasty, but to walk in on your father and another woman is totally different story. I had stayed out of it, deciding not to tell my mom about my experience. However, she had found out anyways through some sexual texts. My parents had been trying for over eleven months now but my father continued to drink, so my mother gave him an ultimatum: get out, or go to marriage counseling. He had chosen the latter of the two.

            I pulled off my night pants and replaced them with a tank top and some tights. My blonde hair was naturally straight so I rarely had to brush it, a quick shake and it was good to go. After I was fully dressed, I descended the stairs of my old Victorian styled home.

            It had been built in the late 1800's and it was originally a Nunnery. It was huge and had a church right in the heart of it, but it had since been renovated into a very large living room that we used to entertain guests more than ourselves.

            The house was worth over a million dollars, but that wasn't a big deal for my parents that were both very well off. My dad was a historian that specialized in preserving old houses, while my mother was a very qualified plastic surgeon. She had even done work on multiple celebrities.

            My parents were always busy when I was a child or out at work until the wee hours of the night, so I mostly grew up with nannies caring for my every whim.

            "Hey!" I said as I stepped onto the first floor of my house and saw my parents seated in the living room with Max, my younger brother who had a video game in hand. When I walked in he looked up for a brief moment, but quickly diverted his eyes back to the small black screen. Even though there was a perfectly good sofa, Max was seated on the hardwood floor.

            He was thirteen, so he was in that phase where all he wanted to do was sit at home, eat bonbons and play video games. He and Brad were pretty close, and I was the outcast among the group.