the chapter you've all been waiting for!!
Chapter 8
Sitting in her box on the asphalt, Sydney felt depressed. She shouldn’t have gone to Michael’s home, it just made her feel like she wasn’t wanted again. She had had that once. She had had the nice clothes, the nice furniture, the regular meals, and the steamy showers. But she lost it all over a stupid fight with her parents.
Sydney and Adam were curled up on the couch watching a movie one night. They had been dating for three months in secret. Sydney’s parents didn’t approve of Adam being the big baseball star at their school. They believed that he wasn’t the type to hang out with a girl like Sydney who had ‘so many other choices’. Sydney disagreed and continued dating him, even though she told her parents she broke up with him.
They were currently making out on the couch when a faint noise was heard from the front of the house. It didn’t register with the two teens that it could be her parents coming home.
“Can you believe Ms. Robertson isn’t married yet? She’s going on forty and she always has those men around. It’s so scandalous.” Irina Bristow told her husband as they walked into their home together after stopping by the grocery store on the way home from work. Sydney and Adam only became aware of their presence too late and were caught.
“Sydney Anne Bristow!” Jack yelled, furry blazing in his eyes.
“Daad…” She whined, disentangling herself from Adam. She fixed her top and stood up, glaring at her parents for interrupting their make out session.
“I thought you dumped this boy when we told you he wasn’t good enough for you.” Irina chastised. This stung both of the teens, as they both believed otherwise.
“I can choose who’s right for me mother.” Sydney said indignantly.
“No, you can’t.” Irina replied stubbornly. It was a trait both mother and daughter shared and it always led to problems.
“God! I’m so sick of you telling me what I want! I’m old enough to make my own decisions!” Sydney yelled, grabbing Adam’s hand and trying to leave the room and go up to her bedroom where they wouldn’t be disturbed.
Jack intervened and held Adam back. It was one thing to be kissing his daughter in the livingroom, but it was totally different to be left alone in her bedroom. He didn’t trust any man or boy to be left alone with his only daughter.
“I don’t think so, buddy.” He said threateningly.
“It’s my space, I can do what I want.” Sydney said, trying to pull Adam away from her father.
“I own this house young lady.” Her mother reminded.
“It’s not my fault I live in this shithole.” Sydney yelled, getting more worked up that her parents weren’t just dropping this. They were also embarrassing her in front of her boyfriend.
“Then maybe you should leave, if you hate it so much.” Irina retorted.
“Maybe I will.” Sydney replied indignantly.
“Fine.”
“Fine.”
She had left the next day, intending to stay with Francie for a while. Francie of course, let her stay for a while, but soon she overstayed her welcome and got kicked out there too. She had nowhere else to go.
At the time she believed she could sell some of her stuff and be able to afford to rent a cheap apartment, but when her stuff turned out to be worth only about one thousand dollars, she spent it too quickly and was left on the streets with very little money to get anything.
Then she wanted to prove to her parents that she was responsible and applied for a job at a local grill. When they saw that she had no current address, they refused to let a ‘homeless’ person work there. That was when she first realized that she was alone.
Leaving Michael’s apartment, Sydney felt the same loss she had as she left the grill after being rejected and finding herself with no other place to live than a cardboard box in an alley.
TBC...
