Daddy

Chapter 1

"Happy birthday, sweetie," said my mom, handing me a gift bag.

I opened it and took out a new Coach purse, a Tiffany necklace, and a pair of AirPods.

"Woah, how are you able to afford this?" I asked.

"I've been saving a little from each paycheck for the past 3 years, I wanted my baby's sweet 16 to be special," she said.

"Thank you mom," I said and I gave her a hug.

My mom works as an assistant to some business man. She works many long hours and takes business trips often, so she's never really home. She also barely makes any money, we only really have enough for bills and food. I couldn't believe she was able to buy me all of this nice stuff. I'm tired of being poor, I wish I could have stuff like this all the time.

My dad left when my mom got pregnant with me, she was only 16 and he was a few years older. I blame him all the time for her not being able to get a better job since she had to raise me. She always tells me that she wants to see me live a better life than she did.

My two best friends, Colette and Ana arrived at my house.

"Ready to go?" asked Colette.

I grabbed my new Coach purse and got into Ana's car.

"So, what do you guys have planned for me today?" I asked.

"First, we're going to the mall. Then, we're getting smoothies," said Colette.

"Then we have a movie to see and games to play at the arcade," said Ana.

"Awesome, I can't wait," I said.

"We also got you this, we went halves on it since it was expensive but we got some for ourselves too," said Colette.

I unwrapped the gift and saw an ID with my photo but a different name and birthdate. It looked very realistic.

"No way!" I said.

"We're all officially 18, and you turn 19 in a few months," said Ana.

"So we can go see a rated R movie tonight then," I said.

"Exactly," said Colette.

I looked at my alias, Cheryl Rose. I liked the sound of that. It was nice to imagine being a different person.

When we got to the mall, we went to the smoothie shop at the food court. We ordered our drinks and started walking around the mall, looking at all the different things inside the stores that we can't afford.

I tested some perfume at Sephora. Daisy by Marc Jacobs was to die for, too bad I can't afford it.

We also looked at all the lingerie and perfume at Victoria's Secret. Once again, way too expensive.

"Do you think we could maybe go to the book store across the street?" I asked.

"Of course, anything for the birthday girl," said Ana.

We drove over and went inside.

We started off by the music section, looking at all the records. I picked up some of the Lana del Rey records.

"I wish I could afford these but they're so expensive," I said.

"Well since we're all 16, we should all get jobs together," suggested Colette.

"I like the way you think," I said.

We went over to the game section next and look through all the video games.

"I wish you had a gaming system, Lucy," said Ana, "then you could play Overwatch with us."

"Yeah, me too," I said quietly.

Afterwards, we gravitated towards the graphic novels.

"DC Bombshells, my favorite," I said, "I think I'll buy one, it's within my budget."

Colette grabbed it, "it's your birthday, I got it."

"Really? Thank you," I said.

"I'm thirsty, you guys want to get something from Starbucks?" asked Ana.

"I could go for a frappucino," said Colette.

"You guys go ahead, I'm going to keep looking," I said.

They went to the Starbucks inside of the store while I looked through the young adult novels.

"So what's a beautiful young woman doing all by herself at a bookstore?" a deep voice asked.

I looked up to see a tall, handsome stranger in a suit. He looked older, a lot older, but he was so good looking. Play it cool, Lucy.

"I'm just looking for a new book to read," I said.

"I like a lady that reads for fun," he said.

I blushed, "my name's Cheryl."

"Cheryl, beautiful name, my name is Archer," said the handsome stranger.

"It's nice to meet you," I said.

"Likewise," he said, "I have to get going but I'd love to get to know you better. Take my card."

He handed me a very professional looking business card with his phone number on it and he walked away.

Archer Kensington, attorney. I stuffed it in my purse.

"Who's the creep?" asked Ana.

"Uh nobody," I said.

"He looked like he was 50," said Colette.

"Ew," Ana chimed in.

"I think our movie is about to start," I said.

"Yeah, we should go," said Ana.

We drove to the theatre and used our fake IDs to get into the rated R horror movie that was currently playing.

After the movie, we played some retro games at the movie theatre's arcade.

"So, how'd you enjoy your birthday?" asked Colette.

"It was amazing, thank you guys so much," I said.

When I got home, I picked up the business card from Archer and dialed his number. I sent him a text saying "hey, it's Cheryl from the bookstore :)," and then I went to bed.