Chapter 4

"Alyssa honey, come here." I hear my mom's command. Her voice seems to be coming from the living room. 

"I'll be right there." I say. "I'm just putting everything I used back in place." 

I place my ham and cheese sandwich on a plate and pour myself a tall glass of mango and orange juice. As I walk to the refrigerator with the bottle of juice in my hand Madison comes strutting into the kitchen. The grimness on her face makes our encounter less likely to be pleasant.

"Well well well, if it isn't little miss attention hawker." Madison says, her voice more cunning than usual. 

"I don't have time for this, Madison." I say as I open the fridge door and place the juice in the cabinet located on the door situated on the right, before I close it again.

"Alyssa, I told you to lay low. Not to dress for attention, but you did the exact opposite." She says as she steps closer as she throws her  Gucci handbag on the dark marble island, situated in the centre of the kitchen.

"Madison, if you hadn't noticed by now, I'm a grown woman. This year I'll be turning eighteen years of age. I think that is an appropriate age that gives one the power to be acknowledged as quite capable of making decisions  of their own, decisions that most five year olds make already." I say walking past her to where my sandwich and juice stands on the edge of the kitchen island, on the side facing the exit into the hallway. 

Sometimes I wonder how the decor in this house ended up being so dark, modern and neat. The complete opposite of the people it houses.

"It doesn't give you the right to make decisions that affect me negatively." She says as she grabs her water bottle from the fridge.

"How does dressing in jeans affect you negatively?" I ask her in disbelief. This girl really seems to amaze me each time she opens her mouth.

Slamming the fridge door shut, she spins on her heel with her hair flaring in the air to face me as she speaks, "Alyssa, you are even dumber than I thought you were. You got the whole school talking about you today. If the guys talking about you during the summer wasn't enough, you certainly done it this time." 

"That still isn't a reason that affects you negatively." I throw a counterattack. 

"James fucking Witherdale embarrassed me today infront of most of the school today and you still don't see how this stunt of yours are causing my popularity to end up in a shit show?" Madison says and I swear if we were cartoon characters, smoke would be coming out of her ears.

"Not everything always has to be about you Madison. If you were to be interested in my life just a little bit more, you would know that James and I are both on the swim team and we have been since he moved here in tenth grade. So I would suggest you get your shit together and take a reality check. I have a life too and I'm gonna start living in it." I say as I grab my food and walk out of the kitchen, leaving behind a fuming Madison.

If Madison wasn't enough as it is, mom is waiting for me and by the smell of it I can tell that she's been smoking. 

As I enter the living room I'm greeted by mom sitting on her black recliner. Dad bought it last year as a birthday present for mom, because she would always complain about the couch being uncomfortable. In her hands she held onto a glass filled with a dark brown liquid. 

Her eyes are rimmed a deep red. Redder than usual. It's difficult to distinguish between if she had been crying or just using more than usual, but from the auroma in the air I can tell she's smoked something else than just her good weed. 

"Hello mom," I greet her as I take a seat on the sofa nearest to her. "You've called for me." I say and as I'm placing my juice down on a coaster on the glass coffee table I see the bottle, Jack Daniels. 

"Your father filed for a divorce." She says. The hollowness in the tone of her voice broke me. 

My mom can be a lot of stuff. Yeah, she and her good weed have an unhealthy relationship and sometimes I'm not even sure if she's present with us, but there are two things I'm damn sure of and that is that this woman loves her husband and both her daughters with all of her heart. It may not always be rainbows and roses, but nothing could have ever prepared me for this.

"His lawyer said that it would be in both of our interests to settle and get the case over with as soon as possible." She says and I can't help to feel my heart shattered to bits as tears start to pour down her cheeks.

I stood up from my place on the couch, took the glass out of her hold and placed it on the table next to her. My arms made their way around her body, clenching her tight against my body. 

The smell of weed liquor and perfume danced around in my nostrils as her tears seeped through my shirt I am wearing. 

"Everything is going to be okay mom." I say. Why I said that I have know clue, because all that resides in me at the moment is the bitter feeling of loneliness and disappointment.

Disappointment due to my father's actions. He has always been my hero, telling me to believe in all things wonderful, but today he shattered one of those wonderful things I believed in. 

Their marriage. 

The walk from home didn't take as much time as I hoped it would, I think to myself as I step foot into the pool house of Castleburry. 

The huge pool fills up the centre of the building, with bleachers decorating the walls on the left and right of the pool.

Large windows and glass areas in the roof reflect light into the pool, extenuating the beauty of the clear blue waters that fills up the pool.

"Hi, Alyssa. It's nice to catch you here." I hear a voice say coming from behind me as I halt in my tracks on my way to the locker room. 

As I turn around I'm greeted by the face of Ryan Williams. His red hair is slicked back with precision, his blue eyes still as piercing as ever, completed with his signature smile plastered on his lips. The biggest mystery is only why he suddenly decided to acknowledge me after a lifetime of knowing each other. 

But the kind person that I am I greeted him, "Hello, Ryan." 

"I'm hosting a party this Saturday at my place." He says. "My parents will be out of town and I would like for you to swing by some time." 

To say I'm taken aback by Ryan's invitation is probably one of the biggest understatements. He is one of the most popular people to reside in Castleburry, while I'm just a wallflower, known to be a bit out of place. 

"Ryan, I don't know what to say to you." I say truthfully. 

"Well I may have a suggestion," He says with a smile. "Just say, I'll see you on Saturday."

"I'll see you on Saturday." I say with a smile playing on my own lips, before I turn around to proceed my walk to the locker room.

My mind is literally filled with a whirlwind of thoughts and my heart with a whirlwind of emotions. 

I'm happy to be finally seen by people, to be acknowledged and invited to the social events Madison raves about all the time, but at the same time I'm experiencing grave pain and sadness due to my mom and dad's plan to divorce.

As I reached my locker, twisted in the password combination, the blue metallic door swayed open only for me to find a white envelope placed inside on my spare bathing suit. 

The black ink scribbles are evident from my position in front of the open, enticing me to see what it says, but also infuriates me due to the mystery of how it got there in the first place. Our lockers didn't have vertical ventilation gapes, but rather small circular cutouts for securing the owner from receiving unwanted mail.

Well we can now see how well that security measure helped. 

As I take the crisp white paper envelope into my grasp, my warm touch is met with its cold exterior, indicating to me that it has been sitting there for quite a while.

'To: A. Aveya' stands written on the front of the envelope in neat handwriting. 

I turn it over to look on the back for any further information on whom the author of this letter can be but to my misfortune. 

The next best thing I could think of is to actually open the letter, therefore I peeled it open with the utmost care. Within I found a piece of old yellowish paper, reminding me of a letter from the 1900's. 

I take the piece of paper into my hands and unfold it to its regular size. The same neat handwriting is used as on the front of the envelope. 

It reads:

Dear Alyssa