8Chapter 1I never really understood what Ryan saw in my mother.
There was no denying that she was beautiful, but they were polar opposites and didn’t seem compatible in the least.
While he was laid back and easygoing, she was uptight and neurotic.
She always seemed to find fault in everything I did.
My grades were never good enough, my room was never neat enough, I was never pretty enough.
After years of hearing those kinds of things coming from your own mother, you start to believe them.
Thankfully, he entered my life when I was seven and defended me from a lot of that.
I honestly think that sometimes he purposely drew her negative attention away from me and toward himself.
There was no doubt that my life got better after he and my mom started dating.
I know that there’s no way I could ever express my appreciation for him being there for me.
My protector.
My Daddy.Ryan and my mom got married when I was eight, so we’ve been living as a family for over eleven years now.
I just graduated high school a couple of months ago.
Last week I found out that I was accepted to my dream college that is 8 whole hours away from how.
Part of me was terrified to move so far away.
At the same time, I was glad that I finally had a reason to get away from my neurotic mother.
I knew that I was really going to miss Ryan, though.
I would miss him far more than I would ever miss her.I was also going to miss my boyfriend.
He was really close with his parents and siblings and he didn’t want to move so far away from home.
His college of choice was only an hour away from our hometown, close enough to drive back and stay at his parents’ house every weekend.
Unfortunately, that would put a 7 hour drive between us, and I had no plans to be visiting home except for when the dorms kicked me out over the holidays.
The further I could stay away from my mother, the better, even if that meant not seeing Daddy.Sean and I had been dating since our freshman year of high school.
We were each others’ first loves, but I just didn’t see how our relationship was going to work out.
There would be too much distance between us, and we would both be busy with school.
Mom also told me that she had no plans to support me through college since I picked one so far away, so I would need to get a part-time job once I moved.
Last weekend Sean and I talked about what was going to happen to our relationship once that happened.
It was not a fun conversation to have, but we both agreed that once this summer was over, so was our relationship.
Until then, we were going to continue dating and try to enjoy our last month together as much as we could.Part of enjoying each other as much as we could meant that we had plans for tonight.
Big plans.
Plans that both thrilled and terrified me.Sean and I had never gone all the way before.
We had messed around a little, but we were both too afraid to take it any further.
Now, with the end of our relationship looming just weeks away, it seemed like the perfect time.Neither one of us wanted to go off to college as virgins.
It made sense for our first times to be with each other.
No one better to experience something like that with than someone you love and trust, right?Tonight, my mother and Daddy were going to be visiting some of her friends that lived about an hour outside of town.
If previous visits were any indication, she would be getting sloppy drunk on cheap wine before dinner was over and would pass out in the guest bedroom before 10 p.m.
She got even meaner than usual when she was drunk.
If she fell asleep, the best thing to do was to let her be.
Waking her up would mean incurring her drunken wrath.
They usually spent the night at her friend’s place to give her a chance to sleep it off and so that he didn’t have to carry her drunk ass out to the car, drive her home, and put her to bed at our house.
Sara LiliSara Lili is a daring romance writer who turns icy landscapes into scenes of fiery passion.
She loves crafting hot love stories while embracing the chill of Iceland’s breathtaking cold.