her children. Our mother was never a part of our lives. What happened there? Nobody really explained it. From the bits of information I could gather growing up, through snatched conversations or arguments between our dad and Raina, it was obvious our mother never wanted to be a part of our lives.
So, when Dad died, and we were quite young then, it was up to Raina to take care of us.
She did everything in her capacity to give us a good life, but we lived in the south side. Our dad was involved in the drug trade, and we had a family history of drug abuse. All these factors hung on our backs like a dark shadow the whole time we were growing up.
I knew I would always carry them as my burden.
Raina wanted to make sure that Corey and I never got involved in anything like that. She wanted to give us a good life. She worked hard, even though she was just a teenager, to provide for us and to force a good education on us. No matter how much we resisted it. She had her mind set on getting us out of the south side, and she did.
Nobody would have ever predicted that I, Mac Jones’s daughter, would be in college. That I would prefer the library over getting drunk or doing drugs at some nightclub on a daily basis. Being in college made Raina proud. Corey wasn’t the college kind, and that was all right. At least she’d succeeded with one of us.
I told myself I was doing this to make Raina happy. After everything she had done for me.
But just because I was in college didn’t mean I had to live the life of a college student. Nobody could make me do that.
As I walked down the hall toward my dorm this evening, my fellow students passed me by in streams of chatter and good spirits. It was Friday evening, and everyone was going out. There was going to be a party in every corner of this building and everywhere else on campus. I was glad I hadn’t made any friends here.
Except Karen.
She was sitting up on her bed when I entered our dorm room. A dark lipstick in one hand and a small oval mirror in the other. She was putting on makeup.
“Hey, you,” she said, without looking up at me.
It had taken us a while to get along when we first found ourselves living together three years ago. Karen was outgoing and popular. I was quiet and had no friends. We were polar opposites and we clashed.
In time, Karen came to realize I was the only person she could actually trust in this place. I was never going to tell on her, no matter how strange her secrets were. I would never judge her. I always had her back. We relied on each other now. The only other person besides Corey and Raina whom I could trust was her. Even though I had no other friends in this place, I was glad I had Karen.
“Going out?” I asked, throwing my bag on my single bed and flinging myself on it too.
“I didn’t want to, but Jake is going to be there and tonight might be our night!” She sounded excited. She snapped her mirror shut and slid it into a shiny purse she was going to carry.
“Well, you look great.”
Karen had had a crush on Jake for several weeks. Just like all the other guys she’d had a crush on since coming to college, she wholeheartedly believed that Jake was ‘the one’ for her.
She jumped off the bed and gave a little twirl, showing off her new dress. “You like?”
We didn’t have the same tastes. While Karen loved flashy colors and always wore makeup, the only thing I adorned myself with was foundation to cover my freckles. Even eyeliner was a farfetched idea in my mind.
“It’s a lovely color, suits you.”
She was happy with that. She knew I never paid empty compliments. I wouldn’t have said anything if I didn’t genuinely think her dress was nice.
“Well, wish me luck too. If that boy doesn’t make a move tonight, I’m seriously going to give up.”
Unlike most other guys who were always asking Karen out, Jake was a stone wall she was repeatedly banging herself against. Even I couldn’t figure out what was wrong. He was single, straight, interested in spending time with her, but he had yet to admit he ‘liked’ her. It was