Alicia’s POV
“How could he do this to us!” I raged as I began to throw anything in sight across the room. “Miss, please calm down. Charges will be pressed if you go any further.” Our former butler, Samuel, told me. “How could you let this happen Samuel? Your were supposed to be our friend! I thought of you as family! And you let him drop us like this. Shame on you Samuel!” I yelled as I grabbed my mother’s hand and dragged her upstairs to her former room.
“Stop your crying! It’s over now, there’s nothing we can do!” I said as I sat next to her. “I thought he loved me!” She whimpered in a barely audible voice. “Mama! Will you stop! There is nothing to be done now! It’s all gone and done for!” I semi-yelled. “But-“ She began. “No buts.” I cut her off. “Now, get up and start packing your bags. They’re going to call the cops on us if we try anything. Hurry and get ready to go.” I said as I was walking out of the room.
Once I arrived to my room, I sat at my desk and wrote in my journal for the last time in that house…
“Dear diary,
Nathan recently passed as you know and he left us nothing in the will. Where are we supposed to go? What will we do? Our family disowned us as soon as they found out that my mother was marrying an older white man. I saw nothing wrong with it, but now I wish I would have went with my family. Whom we have no contact whatsoever with. I don’t know how we’re going to make it. We have no money or jobs. I’m too young to get a job and my mother has no working skills. She never had to work a day in her life. When she was younger her parents wanted her to work on her studies. Straight after high school, she met Nathan, he told her she would never have to work. So she didn’t. Everything has been done for us, our whole life. You might be wondering why I keep calling him Nathan, it’s because he’s my step father. I have no clue who my real father is. It was a hit and run with my mother. Pathetic. But now, I have to go before the authorities come. Goodbye for a while journal.”
I began to start packing my things after my journal entry, until there was a knock at the door. “What?” I snarled because I already knew who it was, Samuel. “What?” I yelled because there was no reply. I got up and stomped over to my door, “WHAT?” I screamed in his face. “What do you want Samuel?” I said out of breath. “I just came up here to tell you that you aren’t allowed to take anything out of the house. It says so at the bottom of the will.” He said in a low voice as a tear ran down his face.
“Not surprising! Just give me some time to say my goodbyes please.” I said. “Very well miss.” He replied. “Don’t call me miss, you don’t work for me anymore.” “Sorry, Alicia!” He said as more tears danced around his cheeks. My heart softened because I knew I would miss him, and I couldn’t leave without being on good terms with Samuel. “I’m sorry Sam! I really am! I didn’t mean to disrespect you or hurt you, I’m just upset and hurt and angry and-“ “I understand Alicia!” “I’m sorry!” I cried as I walked towards him. “Forgive me?” I said as I gestured to him for a handshake. He pulled me into a warm embrace.” Shhh! Don’t cry sweetheart! Everything will be alright!” He whispered into my hair.
“Don’t let them make us leave Sam! I thought you would always be there for me!” I whispered in his chest. “I will always be with you, but I can’t do anything about this. It isn’t in my authority. I’m just the butler. What can I do?” He reasoned. “You aren’t just the butler to me. You’re my uncle, brother, father, grandfather, my best friend. You have more power than you think.” I replied. “I’m sorry Leecy. I can’t do anything. Goodbye now!” He called me by my nickname as he released his grip from around me and walked away. “Please!” I pleaded as I fell to my knees. He looked at me, sighed, and walked out. I could see the hurt in his eyes. He really wanted to help me, but he couldn’t.
About ten minutes later I was still on the floor, bawling my eyes out. That is, until I heard heavy footsteps and yelling coming up the stairs. I hopped up from my position on the floor. I reached for my journal but it was too late, the police barged into my room. They wouldn’t let me grab my journal. Trust me, I fought for it. But I just seemed to get further and further away from it as the time passed.
I was now at the bottom of the stairs with my mother, being escorted out of the house. I looked back to say goodbye to Samuel and I did, but as I was turning my head back around I saw Nathan’s niece walking out of the kitchen with the phone in her hand smirking. She must have been the one to call the authorities. I knew I didn’t like her, now it’s more like I hate her. People say that hate is a strong word to use, but in this situation it is very weak. She disgusts me. She is the dirt underneath my feet. She can go rot in hell for all I care.
2 Weeks Later
It has been two weeks since we were thrown out of the house. That was basically all I knew, now I have to adapt to the horrors of the hood. Call me uptight if you want but this place is scary! I’ve never been around so much violence in my entire life. The children have no respect for the adults and people die here every day. I have never been so terrified to go to sleep. I really hope we can make it out of here and buy a nice house in the suburbs, at least.
“Good morning Ma!” I smiled as I walked in the kitchen. I got no reply but it isn’t a surprise. She hasn’t spoken since we left. “Do you want some breakfast?” I asked as I opened the mini fridge which only had mayonnaise. There was some bread on the counter though. I waited a while and still got no reply. I turned around to see her stirring around a plastic spoon in a Styrofoam cup of coffee, courtesy of the front desk.
“Ma, you’re going to have to eat. You’ve barely eaten these past two weeks.” No reply. “Please mama for me!” I said as I sat next to her at the table and pushed the plate in front of her. “How are we supposed to stay here in this little apartment? I only have money saved up for three weeks here. Where are we supposed to go? What are we going to do Alicia?” She spoke her first words since that day. “I don’t know mama, but right now you have to eat!” I reasoned. “Okay.” She sighed as she picked up the sandwich. Before she put it in her mouth, she put it back down on the plate. “What now?” I semi-yelled. “We need to save as much food as we can, we’ll split this!” She said as she got up and grabbed a plastic knife.
“I’m really glad that the front desk people let us have this place still furnished.” I tried to lighten the mood. “Yeah.” My mama said. It was an awkward silence until she broke it. “We need to go out and look for jobs today. We can’t be in debt after the money runs out.” My mother said in a tone of hope. “Okay, but I don’t know what job I’m going to find at fifteen!” I said. “We’ll just have to search extra hard. But when school starts again, I don’t want you working. I want you to focus on your studies. Okay?” She asked me. “Okay.” I replied.
The Next Day, 5 AM
Yesterday, we went job hunting. My mom found a job at a local restaurant as a waitress. I found a job at Gran’s Little Angels. It’s a nearby daycare. It’s going to be very embarrassing because I only have three sets of clothes, same for my mother. We’ve been alternating, switching between the three day periods. I hope this money comes soon because I can’t keep wearing the same thing over and over again. My mom and I are now getting dressed for our first day of work. I hope all goes well because we both need to keep our jobs.
“Baby girl, are you ready?” My mama called for me. “Yes ma’am!” I said as I pushed a strand of my hair behind my ear. I turned the corner to see my mother in black slacks with a white shirt and some flats. “Where’d you get the new clothes from?” I asked. “My new boss loaned them to me, he said I can work them off.” She replied. “Oh, okay.” I said kind of bummed. “I think we should save some of the money we make, since we get paid daily.” She suggested. “How much should we save?” I asked. “How about we save half and spend half?” My mom replied. “Okay, well let’s go before we’re late on our first day!” I cheered. “Good idea!” We walked out of our apartment building and went our separate ways.
That Day After Work, 10 PM
“Oh my gosh, today was the worst day of my life! I’ve never worked so hard!” My mom huffed as she walked in the house slamming the door behind her. “Come sit and tell me how it was!” I tried to sound happy to lift her spirits. From the look on her face, it didn’t work. “It was horrible! Being there from 5:30 until 9:30. Picking up dishes, washing dishes, smiling at rude customers, picking up food children threw on the floor. It was horrific. But there was this one guy-“ She smiled. “Tell me about him!” I smiled because I thought she would be stuck on Nathan for at least a couple months. “Well-“ She began before going off into a daze.
Shelly’s POV
He was so handsome. As I walked up to him he smiled at me. I swear he had the most gorgeous smile that I’ve ever seen in my whole entire life. “Hello sir! May I start you off with something to drink?” I asked him. “How about you sit and have one with me?” He flirted with me. “I’m sorry sir, but I can’t! I’m working!” I smiled as I looked down and blushed. “Well that’s too bad. But I’ll start off with some lemonade please.” He asked. “No problem!” I began to walk away. “Oh and my name is Shelly if you need anything.” I said before walking in the kitchen to get his drink. When I came back with it, he was ready to order. I took his order, brought him his food, and occasionally went back to his table to check on him.
Every time I went back, he would flirt with me. I found it very sweet and nice. He just seemed so perfect to me. He asked me out before paying for his bill, “Hey um, Shelly, would you like to go out this weekend?” He asked me. I smiled and thought before replying. “Sure thing! What’s your name?” I asked. “I’m Marcus, Marcus Smith!” He replied. “Well nice to meet you Marcus! I’ll see you this weekend!” I began to walk away before he called out to me again. “Umm, Shelly?” I turned around, “Yes?” “You never gave me your number!” He chuckled. “Oh, umm. Yeah. I forgot. Heh heh!” I replied nervously. I couldn’t think fast enough to come up with a lie so I wrote the number to the front office downstai-“
“You WHAT?” Alicia yelled into my ear. “We don’t have a phone yet and I didn’t know what else to do!” I tried to reason. “Well, that wasn’t smart. They already loaned us all of this furniture. Now this man is going to be calling all the time and they’ll kick us out for blowing up their phone bill!” She panted. “Honey, calm down! It isn’t that serious. He’s probably not going to call anyway-“ I was cut off by a knock at the door.
I got up to answer it and once I did, I saw Mr. Bradshaw from the front desk with the wireless phone in his hand. “Ms. Jones, there is a call for you!”
A/N: So, I took a break from writing but not a long one. I actually wrote this a week after me saying that I was going to take a break from writing. I think I just got tired of writing ‘You and I’ it just wasn’t going anywhere and it became boring and all over the place. So I stopped it. I know some of you are very upset with me for that and I’m sorry. But I’m back with a new story and a new start. Hopefully this book will go a lot better than the last two books that I’ve written. I know this first chapter is kind of bad, but the story will get better. That’s a promise! Comment, Vote, Fan, and tell other people about me please!