Romantic Deception

Chapter 1:

Dad still hadn't called us after the divorce. It's been 18 days and counting and he just seemed to disappear. I've been telling Kylie not to worry and that Dad was coming back someday, but I think she realized that that was a blatant lie.

Mom had also completely given up. She no longer tried to fill our heads with pretty fantasies anymore. The first week he left she told us nothing was going to change and we'd see him almost every day.

Again, another lie.

She tried to smile and stay upbeat, but I could tell she was shattered. Whenever she smiled, I could see a worried look in her eye. We'd been struggling to survive off of one income. His child support barely gave us enough to scrape by. She never wanted us to worry about money, but it became more apparent that we were running out of it. She stopped buying name-brand foods and sold a lot of our stuff. She sold Kylie's toys and told her she was a big girl and didn't need it anymore.

And Kylie did not shed one tear. More often than not, Kylie acted more like an adult than a child and it honestly saddened me. She deserved to have fun and enjoy being a kid instead of worrying about whether or not we'd have a home next month. I wanted to drop out of school and work full-time, but Mom wouldn't let me.

She said she'd fail as a mother if she didn't let me finish school and become successful.

It was apparent she was too prideful to ever let me help in any way.

I checked my phone again for any messages from Dad. Of course, there were none. I sighed and entered my school building; Pine Crest High School. It was a lime green, bricked school with three separate buildings in one, the middle one being the tallest. On the side was graffiti with the words "school sucks" written by a formal student, and windows were still mainly boarded up from the hurricane threat we had two months ago. I was not very excited to go into the mangled-looking building, much less stay in it for the next 7 hours.

I headed straight to my first period, ignoring the crowds of students heading in opposite directions of me. The insides of the school matched the outside. The lockers were all rusty and full of all types of ungodly stains. While the floors were bright and shiny vinyl tiles, the yellow lights shined on them and reflected onto our phones and textbooks. The smell was abhorrent, mixed with teenaged body odor and unwashed school floors. As soon as I reached my class, I was greeted with a dirty look from one of my classmates.

I wasn't surprised. Rumors had been spreading about me like wildfire. People that I never even heard of would come to me asking me about things I didn't even know about myself.

For example, how I'm a lesbian who's pregnant with my brother's baby.

I don't even have a brother.

I had no reason to clear them either. They weren't going to help me make money for my family or keep my grades up. Making friends just for useless conversation and shallow relationships that would end as soon as the bell rang. I wasn't interested in that type of lifestyle.

While deep in my thoughts, Ms. Solace marched into the class and slammed a stack of papers onto her desk to get our attention. Her chestnut brown eyes were filled with annoyance, which surprised me. Ms. Solace was usually cheerful and full of energy, which made me like her as a teacher and a person. Her sunny personality in this bright, boarded-up prison made the first hour bearable. Regardless, her flowy brunette hair was put up in a tight bun and crowfeet complimented her narrow eyes.

She sighed irritably and wrote "GIA" on the board.

"Has anyone heard of the GIA?" She questioned.

She scanned the room for an eager hand, but not one person moved.