"Nero."

Chapter 21

I had broken the news to my mum. I wanted to move out. Luckily, she didn't take it that bad. Sure it upset her at first but then she realised that I would not be a child forever.

It had been 2 weeks since Christmas and 1 week since I told mum I was moving out and most of my belongings were in my new house. I only had 1 box left along with my suitcase.

Now I was just waiting for James to get home so he could drive me. I knew the reason that he was late to pick me up was that he was adopting my puppy for me. A black Labrador retriever.

I would name him Nero.

I remember when I was 13 and my mum, Kaiden, and I went to Ghana and my uncle bought me and my brother a black Labrador retriever puppy and a Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever puppy. We named them Brownie and Nero. Brownie was a little bitch. Literally. But I loved her a lot. It killed me when I found out they had died. I tried to make it seem like it didn't bother me but deep inside my heart broke.

I was deep in my thoughts when I heard a car honk outside, so I hurriedly grabbed the last box in the living room with my suitcase. My dad was sat in his grey BWM with the windows rolled down and music playing quietly.

I saw that he made no move to help me put the things in the car so I sighed and opened the back door to put my belongings in then I slammed the door to make it seem that I was mad since he didn't help me and I sat in the passenger door.

The car ride to my new house was in silence. I knew he didn't want to say anything in case it made me upset or angry but honestly; I was just tired. I was tired of everything in my life. One of the major reasons I wanted my house was because I didn't want my family around me when I burst into tears because I couldn't have the guy I wanted. The guy I loved. When the dam in my eyes broke because my mum found out about what I did last summer. I didn't want her to look at me with pity in her eyes. I knew that if my mum found out, then she'd cry because she wasn't able to help me and I hated seeing my mother cry.

When Kaiden and I were 14, Kaiden had sickle cell disease. Kaiden also had anger issues. Sometimes he'd get so mad that he'd destroy everything in the living room and sometimes he'd even hit our mum. She'd cry so much but she'd try to put a brave face on when she saw him. Once, she didn't talk to him for a few days because when he hit her she got injured and it was terrible for her because she was diabetic and if she had injuries, it'd take a long time to heal. Luckily now, Kaiden wasn't like that anymore. After his bone marrow transplant which I was a donor for, he started changing. He had more patience, and he stopped going out as much and causing trouble.

I didn't even realise that we had arrived until I heard a soft bark. Nero was so small. I wanted to run up to him and engulf him in a hug but I knew that he wouldn't be comfortable with that as it was his first time seeing me. He was so skinny you could see his ribs.

I knew that James had somewhere to be, so I waved at him once I got on my doorstep and once I saw him drive away, I entered my house and sighed.

I was officially an adult.