Reality Ruined My Life

Chapter 1

Jade’s POV:

There it was again; the constant screams, the constant fighting, the constant abuse. I don’t know how much longer I can take this. I slowly walked downstairs to see my parents throwing things at each other; cursing at each other. I tried sneaking past them and to the door making sure they didn’t hear me or see me.

“Where do you think you’re going?!” my dad yelled at me from down the hall. So close.

“I-I have class in twenty minutes…” I said not being able to look at him. He came close to me and pushed me up against the wall gripping my wrists.

“I want you home as soon as you’re out of school, got it?” he said looking at me with those fearful eyes.

“Y-yes I got it” I said tears threatening my eyes. He let go of me and pushed me out the door. I stood there for a minute as the tears fell down my cheeks. I started walking down the street towards my school when I heard my best friend calling my name.

“Jade! Wait! Hold up!” Eleanor said running towards me. I stopped and turned around smiling at her. She was the only person that could bring a smile on my face after going through such awful things at home.

“Hey love” I said giving her a hug.

“Ready for another long day at school?” she asked me. I just nodded my head as I entered first period and I got the stares I do every day. It seemed like everyone knew me as the girl who went through hell at home; the girl who had no friends and no one liked. I ignored them and sat down at my seat ready for this day to be over already. I wasn’t about to give up on everything; I’m a month away from graduation. That day will be the best day of my life; no more putting up with anything at home.

After one long day full of taunts I started walking towards my sister’s school to pick her up. I found her sitting on a bench looking at the ground. I walked up to my six year old sister and sat down next to her.

“What’s wrong cupcake?” I asked her.

“I don’t want to go home.” She said looking at me with tears streaming down her face. I took her in my arms and just held her there for a bit.

“I know you don’t, neither do I” I said kissing her forehead. We both took a deep breath and stood up ready to face another fight. Once we got home I quietly opened the front door to find my dad passed out on the couch drunk and my mom outside on the balcony smoking a cigarette.

“Ok Lizzy quietly go upstairs; I’ll let mom know we’re home” I told my little sister whispering into her ear. She quietly walked upstairs without hesitating and asking any questions.

“Uhh, mom me and Lizzy are home…” I said walking outside where she was standing. She turned around looking at me with a black eye and bruises covering her arms.

“A-are you ok?” I asked moving closer to her and examining the wounds.

“Yea I’m fines, just don’t touch me.” she said turning her back to me again. I was really starting to get annoyed and frustrated.

“What the hell is your problem?! I’ve done so much shit for you and you treat me like a piece of trash?! You pretend that me and Lizzy don’t exist?! I’m the one who’s raising my little sister! Well face reality you have two children who you barely acknowledge. You sit here and watch dad as he beats us; as if it doesn’t bother you at all. You don’t deserve the ‘mother’ title!” I said now yelling.

“Well what do you expect me to do?! I get beat up every day! I’m sick of my life! I’m sick of everything! Believe it or not I love you two, I’m just so scarred that I don’t know what to do anymore. I don’t know how to keep your lives from falling apart when my life is already shattered into a million pieces!” she said with tears in her eyes. I didn’t know what to say so I just turned around and walked upstairs to mine and Lizzy’s room. I walked inside to see her lying on the bed flipping through her Cinderella story book.

“Hey Jade look at this! One day I’m gonna get a dress like Cinderella’s” she said running up to me and shoving the book in my face. I laughed at her as we got through the night without any yelling or fighting; now this was a good feeling.

I woke up from yelling once again at 5:30 a.m. I peeked downstairs to see what was going on and sprinted towards my mom. My dad had a belt in his hand and was about to swing it at my mom. I jumped on her taking the whip for her as she held me weeping. I looked up at my dad and threw the first thing that I got a hold of. The vase shattered on his face leaving scratches and cuts on his forehead and cheek.

“You bitch!” he screamed pulling me off of my mom and throwing me against the room. My mom tried standing up but fell back down. He came closer to me with the belt and whip me with it while punching me and kicking my sides. I cried out in pain for what seemed like hours till he walked out the door with a bottle of wine in his hand.

“Jade! Mom!” Lizzy said running down the stairs. I immediately put on a happy face pretending that nothing was wrong.

“Hey cupcake, why’d you wake up? Go back to sleep.” I told her giving her a kiss on the cheek. She looked at me with fear written all over her face.

“Y-you’re bleeding” she said running to the kitchen to get a paper towel. She gently wiped the blood off of my lips and gave me a tight hug. I don’t know what I would do with my life if I didn’t have Lizzy. She gives me a reason to wake up in the morning.

“Go see how mommy is doing” I said pushing her towards my mom. She slowly approached my mom being afraid and observed her very quietly. My mom pulled her into a tight hug and cried against her shoulder. I joined in and the three of us sat in the middle of the living room weeping because of how horrible our lives were at the moment.

“Jade, I want you to promise me that if anything ever happens to me then you will take care of Lizzy; like you already have been doing.” She chocked through the sobs. I nodded my head as we sat there for what seemed like hours until we heard the doorbell.

“Lizzy will you get that? Me and mom need to go get cleaned up” I said getting up on my feet and helping my mom up. She nodded her head and ran towards the door to see who it was.

“Hey! Who are you?” I could hear Lizzy talking in her loud high pitched voice to the person that was standing on our doorsteps.

“Oh hey there! I’m Niall, I just moved in down the street yesterday and I found this small wallet lying on the side of the road. I opened it to see the ID on it. Is there a Jade here?” the anonymous person said.

“Yes! I’ll get her right now!” I heard Lizzy say as I heard her running towards to the bathroom where I was getting cleaned up. I wiped the dry blood of my face and dried my face.

“Jade! There’s this really cute guy standing at our door! Hurry!” she said pulling me towards the door. Before I could pull away and get away from her because of my wounds I was standing in front of him.

“Oh hey I think this is yours, I found it—oh my god! Are you ok?!” he said observing my face.

“Uh-yea, I kind of fell down my stairs earlier; I’m just a really clumsy person” I said with a weak smile.

“Oh, well that must have been quite the fall; I hope you get better! By the way, I’m Niall; I just moved a few houses down yesterday.” He said giving me his hand to shake. I shook his hand taking a minute to observe his beautiful features. He had the most gorgeous blue eyes and I swear I thought I saw a tint of gold in them. He had bleached blonde hair but I could see his original brown hair starting to grow back out. He had braces and when he talked his voice gave me this feeling that is indescribable.

“Uh…you ok?” he asked still holding my hand. I snapped out of it and flushed red from being embarrassed; looks like I’ve been observing his features for too long.

“Yea, I’m sorry. I’m totally fine” I said pulling my hand back. I heard someone walk up behind me. I turned around to see a very worried look on my mom’s face.

“Hey I’m Jade’s mom. Jade I think it’s time for our guest to leave and for you to get ready for school before your father gets home” she said giving me a stern look.

“Oh, I’m sorry I think I took up too much of your time. I’ll see you some other time” Niall said walking away. I turned around to look at the clock and rushed upstairs to my room. I had to get ready for school and leave before my father came home. I hopped into the shower turning on the warm water. As I stepped in I yelped in pain as the hot water stung the wounds on my back and waist. I quickly got out of the shower and got dressed in a blue long sleeved shirt and threw on some jogging pants. I went downstairs to see Lizzy already ready to go and eating breakfast I grabbed a bagel and kissed my mom on the cheek as the both of us ran out the door. Lizzy’s ride was waiting for her out front and I started power walking towards my school. I heard someone running towards me and turned around to see Niall. I stopped, waiting for him to catch up.

“H-hey…I-I…” he trailed off trying to catch his breath. I laughed at him as we both continued walking towards school.

“Ok now that I can breathe, it’s my first day today. It really sucks having to switch schools when I was only about two months from graduation, but hey its life” he said smirking.

“Well maybe you just needed a change” I said smiling at him. He winked at me as we walked the rest of the way in silence; at least till Eleanor came running up to me.

“Jade! Sorry I didn’t meet you outside of your house today I was with Louis. He had to talk to--.” She stopped what she was saying when she saw me with Niall. She raised her eyebrow giving me a suspicious and confused look.

“Eleanor this is Niall, he just moved into my neighborhood a few days ago. Niall this is my crazy best friend Eleanor.” I said introducing the two of them.

“Hey Niall! It’s great to meet you! Ok now as I was saying, Louis asked me to prom! I know it’s a last minute thing and I wasn’t gonna go because proms in like a few weeks but I couldn’t say no! I’m so excited! You have to come now!” she said with a huge grin on her face.

“El you know I can’t afford going to prom. Plus are you forgetting that people actually like you in this school? They don’t even know I exist.” I said walking in between Niall and Eleanor.

“Ugh fine! You really suck!” She said walking away to her first class. I looked at Niall and just shrugged my shoulders.

“You probably don’t want to be seen with me. I’m the laughing stock of the school” I said looking at the ground.

“I really don’t care, from what I know about you, you’re a great person; don’t let anyone tell you otherwise” he said looking at me. I smiled at him as we both walked inside together talking about random things and laughing.

During lunch I sat in my usual seat looking around for Eleanor but she was nowhere to be seen. I sighed as I played with my lunch not really feeling hungry. I had a very bad feeling about something; just don’t know what. I was disturbed from my thoughts when someone sat across from me.

“Hey, where’s Eleanor?” someone asked. I looked up into those gorgeous blue eyes to see that it was Niall. A smile appeared on my face just from looking at him.

“I have no idea, she’s usually here.” I said looking around hoping to see her.

“Well I think I see her walking in with someone” he said looking towards the cafeteria entrance. I looked up to see Eleanor holding hands with Louis Tomlinson. I looked at her in shock as they both came down and sat with us at our table.

“So are you guys like dating now?” I asked the both of them looking at their intertwined fingers. She had this huge grin on her face and I knew the answer right then and there. I smiled at her real big being happy for my best friend; she finally got the boy she always wanted.

“Yes” she finally replied.

“So why are you sitting with me?” I asked Louis. I just wasn’t getting what was going on. Louis and I never talked before and he never picked on me but he did hang out with a few people that didn’t really like me.

“Well you’re my girlfriends best friend so it’s just fair to try and get to know you; you seem like a really fun person from what I’ve heard .” he said winking at me. I glared at her knowing that she must have said something about me. Me and Eleanor talked about this event that’s coming up soon as the boys talked about video games; typical guys.

After school I walked outside about to go pick up Lizzy when I realized that it was raining; great I forgot my umbrella at home.

“You’re gonna get soaked!” Niall said running next to me with an umbrella.

“You need to stop scaring me like that!” I said looking at him holding my chest all dramatically.

“Nah that’s no fun” he said winking at me.

“Yea whatever; I’m gonna get soaked anyways because I gotta go pick up my little sister from school” I said rolling my eyes at him.

“Well I’ll walk with you I don’t want you getting sick” he said putting his arms around me and pulling me close so I don’t get a drop of rain. I don’t know what it is about this guy but he gives me butterflies every time I talk to him or see him; he makes me feel safe. No. I can’t think of him like this, my dad wouldn’t only kill me if he found me talking to a guy but he would harm him too. I had to stay friends with him no matter what I felt towards him. Plus he would never like a girl like me; someone whose completely broken.

“Jade! It’s raining!” Lizzy said running up to me.

“I’ll carry her so none of us get wet” Niall said picking Lizzy up. I looked at him and smiled; this guy was too nice and generous. I took Lizzy’s backpack as we headed towards my house. Niall pushed me to the side of the road as there were ambulances and police cars racing down my neighborhood. My heart rate picked up as I got closer and closer to my house.

“NO!!!!” I cried out as I ran towards my house where there was an ambulance and about six police cars. I ran as fast as I could till I got to the front door where a cop stopped me from going any farther.

“Ma’am I can’t allow you to go inside” he said holding my arm tightly.

“This is my house! My parents are in there!” I spat at him and let myself in. What I saw next was one image that would never leave my mind. I fell to the floor in shock; not being able to say a word, I just cried like I’ve never cried before.