Teen Life Troubles Part 1

         Hi, I'm Michael, and I'm 17.If people where given an instruction book for life, I missed out on my copy. Hell, some kid probably has an extra copy. Just during this past year my life has really struck down on me. My mom's been hospitalized twice this year for some drug overdose. I have to watch my baby sister everyday, since my moms out of the house all the time. Our father left my family over a year ago, which is pretty much when this all started. Let me start one year ago, starting when my father left me and my family.



June 12, 2009



         I awoke to the sound of a blaring alarm clock. I sat up and breathed in, smelling the air, but that morning something was missing from the air. The smell of my 46 year old father cooking breakfast. Thinking that he was still sleeping, I walked into his room and saw all of his clothes gone. Also his sheets and posters and everything, gone. I dash into my moms room. My mom at the time was 8 months pregnant and wanted to sleep alone. I woke her up and said "Mom, dad's gone." She just replied back "So he did leave this time." My parents had always fought over money. My mom, who grew up getting everything she wanted, spent almost all of our money on nothing. My dad was completely different. He always saved money, and enjoyed it. I would stay up for hours on end listening to them fight. It would never be anything physical, just verbal, but it got bad after my mom got pregnant again. Since it wasn't even my dads baby, it was some guy she had a one-night stand with. After my dad figured that out, the verbal fights happened more frequently. That morning changed my life, and my families.



         Well about a month after that the police called off the search, my dad had disappeared. No trace, no note, nothing. Soon after my mom went into labor. Only problem was that she suffered from terrible complications during birth. The baby lived, but it was a C-Section. The complication was that after birth and she went home the incision got infected. She was in a lot of pain afterward, and couldn't function without her pain pills. So she became addicted. She took them to often and took to many when she did. Her doctor had taken her off the prescription but she would steal them from friends, and eventually found a dealer. This left me with a baby girl to look after and a drug addicted mom. Along with no father in sight.



         In late Summer when school started, I found myself leaving at lunch and study hall to check on Annie. She was so young and my mother refused to take any care of her. I think she was in a depression and was addicted to those pills too at the time, but weened off them to buy more painkillers. I was working night shifts at local fast food places and the local mall cleaning the food court, just to make some money. I was practically paying all the bills, because my mom got "disability", even though she wasn't disabled.Then just spent all the money she had on more painkillers. It was hard for me to work 2 jobs, watch Annie, and do school. I had to drop my football and baseball for my senior year. I dropped in all my classes from A's to B-'s and C's. I never had enough sleep to pay attention in class, so I was often sent to the office about twice a week to talk to the principal. Also it was the same talk every time, it eventually turned into, "You know what I'm going to say" then I would say "Yes" and walk out of the room. My social life plummeted from popular to nobody over that year. I never went to parties, I never hung out with friends, and I never talked to girls. The reason for the girls was well I couldn't talk to them because I didn't have the time.



          So that's my past year, filled with changes, failures, surprises, and added responsibility, but my life took a slight u-turn when one night when I was working at the food court. It was a long day and I couldn't find a sitter for Annie. So I just brought her to work with me. While I was working I sat Annie down on a table and a girl I knew from school walked up and said, "Is she yours?"



I responded "No, she's my sister, I watch her a lot."



She said "Aw, I think it's sweet you watch her for your mom. Hey, If you ever need a babysitter just call me." She pulls out a piece of paper and writes down her number. "Here you go." She hands the card to me.



"Thanks" I said while taking the card from her.



"I'll work for free, just as a nice thing, and also because you look like you need the help." She says while walking away.



"Really? That's great, Thank you so much, wait what's your name again?" I ask.



"Kelly White." She says.



I get back to work, slipping the card into my pocket and get back to work.



That was the end of part one, I'll (post the link to the next one here).