When I, Kourtney, was ten years old, my father abondoned me, my mother, and my little sister Michelle. For ten years, I watched my father torment my mother. From the brusies on her skin, to the mental bruises in her mind, my mother went on with her life. After our father left, my mom sold the house of ours in New York, and moved us to Florida. She had this dream of living in the sun. Where all the beaches were. That's why she had moved us there of all places.
Michelle, at the time, had not understood anything that was happening with us. The three of us. When our father walked out she was only five years old. She had not remembered how are father was to us. One day, the day after we moved, my mom asked me to do her a favor. The favor was to never tell Michelle the truth about our dad. And to go on along with thie story she would tell her. What she had told Michelle was that our father was a great man. And that the reason he had to leave was becase he had to go work on a special project for the FBI. The story sounded silly to me, but Michelle believed it. She had never once second guessed our mothers explanation. She went on to believe when we got older, that the time that my parents were apart, while he was on the "FBI" case that they lost their love for eachother or something like that.
My mother raised us solo from the day he left us. She worked hard to keep the money flowing. I also worked to help out with money. Five years ago, my cousin Joey struck it big. He was in a music group called Nsync. Our family was very close so he started to help us with money. He kept us strong. He was always there for the three of us. Even when he would be on tour, he would call every Friday to see how we were doing. We would talk about everything with eachother. From the family, to guys and gals. I would always joke about how wanting to be JC's girlfriend because he was so hot and Michelle wanting to be Justin's girlfriend. Michelle never met Justin. I met JC once. He was very nice and so easy to talk to. After that one time though, I had not seen him again. He was to busy with his own life.
It was now twelve years from the day our dad left us. And we're all alone. Our mom was going through a two year battle of breast cancer. She finally lost it. We were both so afraid of this day. That it would arrive. Even though we knew it was near.
I was in my third year of college when our mom got cancer. I dropped out to come home and take care of her and my baby sister. I had a part time job working at night as an America Online Representative. I went from majoring in video production in college to working phones. I worked nights so I could take care of mom during the day, while Michelle was in school. I stayed home with our mom till Michelle got home from basketball at school. I would have dinner ready for her and then I would leave for work while she stayed home with mom. At the tops, if I as lucky I could get three hours of sleep if any a night.
I never let Joey know how stressful things were. I didn't want him worrying. If he knew how much more money we needed he would have given it to us. But, I didn't want charity. A little was fine. But I didn't want him taking care of everything.
Today is now the funeral. Everyone was gathered around her casket with tears in their eyes. As the preist went on, I stayed calm. I nudged my sister whowas standing next to me.
"Mic, I can't belive he didn't come." I said to mysister refering to Joey.
"He'll be here. I know he will." She wispered back to me. I couldn't cry because I know my mom wouldn't have wanted me to more than I already had. As we stood, continuing to listen to the preist I felt an arm around my shoulder as so did my sister. We both looked over our shoulders and saw Joey. He gave a weak smile showing sadness in his eyes as I gave him a weak smile back. The funeral session was soon over, and everyone had gone home. Joey came back with my sister and me to our house. We all sat together not making much talk. There was a long silence before Michelle broke it. She was sitting on the recliner facing me and Joey with whoms lap my head was rested upon.
"What's gonna happen to us now?" She asked us not
sure of our future.
"You're gonna finish the last quarter of school so
you can graduate, and I'm gonna get a new job working
days rather than nights now." I said with no life in
my voice.
"Kourtney, you can't work days. You have school."
Joey said running my hair out of my face with hishand.
"I dropped out two years ago when my mom got sick."
I said sitting up to look at his expression.
"What? You said you were working nights. I assumed
it was so you could still be in school." He said
shocked.
"Yeah. I was working nights, but so I could be home
to take care of mom."
"Why didn't you tell me?" he asked so confused
about the last two years.
"Because...we'll talk about it later."
"I'll be right back." Joey said getting up,
grabbing his cell phone off the coffee table, and
walking out of the room. He returned ten minutes
later with a smile.
"I have an offer for the two of you."
"Hm?" Michelle asked.
"How would you like to come on tour with me and the
guys. It starts back up in two days."
"Yes. Oh my god Joey. You're gonna take us?"
"Yeah." He said.
"We're not going!" I said sternly causing the two of
them to look at me oddly.
