Chapter 1: The Day everything changed

(Ariana’s POV)

Dear diary,

​I hate calls so much; you might be wondering why I do, but I still remember that day like it was yesterday. I was prepping my leavers' day tshirt for graduation when my phone rang; it was my mom. I smiled and picked it up.

​“Hi Mommy, I need more glitter. Can you get some on your way home for me? " I said, and then I heard her crying. “Mummy, why are you crying?”

​“Ari… baby…” Her voice broke. “It’s your dad… he had an accident; you need to come to the hospital now, it's… It's bad.” The glitter pack on my hand dropped to the floor, and glitter poured everywhere. I grabbed my keys and drove as fast as I could to the hospital. I ran some red lights, but I didn’t care.

​Soon enough, I reached the hospital. I saw Mom crying on the chair in front of one of the rooms. "Mum… I’m here.”

​She pulled me in for a hug. “Oh, baby, thank God.” I glanced at the windows of the room. “Mum, where’s Dad?”

​“Oh yes, he’s in the room. The doctors said he’s running out of blood. I tried to donate my own blood, but I’m not a match. I think you might be a match. Please, we need to hurry,” she said as she tucked a strand of hair behind my ears. “Nurse,” she screamed.

​An older nurse came out of the room; she was scribbling something on the notepad in her hands. “Yes, Mrs. Cole.”

​“My daughter is here; she can donate the blood,” my mum said frantically.

​“Okay, we need to test her; your husband’s case is really critical,” the nurse said as she ushered me inside another room and took some of my blood. She told me that I could go and meet my mum.

​When I went back outside, my mom was sitting with Uncle Jason, his arms wrapped around her shoulders, while she cried into his chest. “Mum, I’m back.”

​“Okay, baby, I hope it wasn’t too painful.” I nodded. “It wasn’t.” Uncle Jason reached out for a hug. "Okay, good evening, Uncle Jason,” I murmured as he hugged me. “How are you, Ari?” he asked.

​“I’m fine,” I said as I walked to sit beside Mum. I took her hand in mine. “Mum, what happened to Dad?” She wiped her eyes with a tissue and turned to me.

​“It was a stupid drunk driver; he hit him and drove away. Lucky for us, the police caught him, and now he’s in a cell, but your father bled out a lot; it was some passerby who was kind enough to take him to the hospital,” she said as she wiped her nose. “I swear if anything happens to my husband, I'm going to sue the hell out of that driver till he’s left with nothing.”

​After some time, the nurse came back outside with a smile on her face. “Mrs. Cole, the test was a match; we can proceed with the surgery.” We both cleaned our tears and nodded. Soon enough the nurses wheeled Dad out of the emergency room; he looked unrecognizable. His face was red and swollen, yellow discharge came out of the side of his ears, and he almost looked dead. That sight never left my head.

​We waited in the hallway. My mother kept crying. I was already tired of crying, so I just sat there staring at the wall. We sat there in that silence for almost 6 hours; my mom panted across the room a lot, asking for updates, but no one would tell her anything. We watched more doctors and nurses carrying oxygen tanks and other equipment, whose names I don't know, rush into the operating room.

​Soon enough, a doctor wearing blue came out of the operating room with his blue cap in his hands. "Mrs. Cole?” he asked.

​“Yes…that’s me. How did the surgery go?” My mom said as she stood up so quickly that her chair scraped against the floor

​“The doctor sighed. "Mrs. Cole, I am so sorry, but I have some terrible news.”

​“Your husband sustained a lot of injuries. During the surgery, both his heart and his kidney stopped at the same time.” He took a deep breath

​“We did everything we possibly could to save him, but despite our efforts…" His voice broke. “We still lost him.” It was as if the world stopped spinning for a while; all the memories I had with my dad just flashed before my eyes. I turned to look at my mom; her face had drained of color.

​“No!" my mom shrieked as she fell to the floor. Uncle Jason held her by her shoulders on the floor. “It’s not possible, Doctor. Go inside that room and do your fucking job,” she screamed.

​“I’m so sorry; I know this isn’t what you wanted to hear. Please accept my condolences,” the doctor said as he put his cap back on his head and walked away, leaving Mum, Uncle Jason, and me alone. The world just kept spinning. I lost my balance and fell to the floor. “Arianna…” Uncle Jason shouted as he caught me before my head hit the ground.

​“Nooo…” My screams filled the hallway; Uncle Jason comforted my mum and me. He took us home. I slept in my bathtub filled with water that night. That day was the worst day of my life, and I will never forget that. Everything changed after that call.

​“Soon enough the day for the burial finally arrived. My mom and I sat in the front row. Uncle Jason was there with his son too. Mom tried to sue the drunk driver, but his family was rich, and we were already struggling with Dad's hospital bill and all. Anyways, we lost the court case and all our money; we were practically poor at that point. We practically had to sell most of our things; Mum and I cried every day.

​Then Uncle Jason started coming around more. He was Dad’s best friend since they were young. He helped us a lot. He fixed things in the house, took us out for dinner, and made Mom smile again.

​Two years have passed since that day, and life is kind of different now. I’m in my second year in college now; Mom found love again with Dad’s best friend, Jason. They got married last year, and we moved into his, and I met his son, Jackson.

​Jackson and I used to be childhood besties until he moved away to Switzerland for boarding school. He recently moved back to New York for university, but he wasn’t the same chubby, blue eyed boy anymore; he really changed so fucking much, and then there’s me. I barely even became taller; I just added some inches to my boobs and ass. Jackson is twenty five years old and kind of rude. He stays in his room a lot and barely talks to me. I try to ignore him for Mom’s sake.

​At first, it felt strange having a new father and a stepbrother. But Jason has been really good to me. He buys me things, helps me with school, and always asks how my day was. I even started calling him Dad.

​Tonight the house is quiet; Mom and Jason said they were going to bed early. Jackson went out for a frat party, but I still couldn't sleep, so I decided to go and watch a movie downstairs.

​The hallway looks so creepy; it is so dark except for the light coming from my parents’ bedroom. “How were they able to sleep with the light on? Let me help them off it.” I thought to myself.

​I carefully walked through the hallway so the noise wouldn’t wake them. The door was opened a little. I heard noises, so I walked closer and peeped through the door. My eyes opened wide with shock.

​