Three Rusty Flowers

Delilah

This will be my first and last time ever telling this story, so please pay attention.

If I'm going to tell this properly, I should probably start from the beginning. I must warn you though, this story isn't a fairytale. It may feel that way for a while and trust me- for a moment, I thought it might have been. But it isn't. Nonetheless, it's my story.

So, anyway, the beginning?

I like to say my life started when I was six years old. Because truthfully, I don't care about anything before that. When I was six my parents got divorced. I know, whose parents aren't divorced? But, at the time it felt like my life was over. Funny. Looking back now, I can clearly see that's where it all began.

My parents met in college. I don't really care about the "love story" that were my parents, but I feel it's important to MY story, so bare with me.

My mom came from a regular working class family. She worked her ass off to get into college, she had a dream to be a psychologist and nothing was going to get in her way.

Except for my father.

My dad came from a very rich family. He was in college to become a lawyer. He was a junior, my mom a freshman. They met when they bumped into each other in the library. They were immediately attracted to each other and my dad just had to have her. He asked her on a date and she agreed. I assume the date went well, because they quickly started dating. They loved each other a lot. My mom a little more than him. She was young, she had never had a boyfriend, never even been kissed, never truly been loved. And, to top it off, the very handsome, rich man loved her? Yeah, she was happy. But, unfortunately-

She got pregnant.

My mom never wanted kids. Never once in her life did she ever picture herself having a child. So, when she found out she was pregnant, she was pissed. My father, on the other hand, was thrilled. He always wanted to be a dad. My mom loved him, deeply. So, to please him, she put on a happy face and decided to have this baby. Me, I'm the baby.

They got married a week after she found out she was pregnant. She tried to stay in school, tried her hardest. But, my father and his parents insisted she "take a break until the baby." So she did and she hated it. Almost as much as she hated the baby growing inside her. At first her mom tried to tell her that "sometimes it happens that way, but when you hold it, you'll love it more than anything else." But, deep down, my mom knew that wasn't her case. She didn't want this baby. When she found out that the baby was a girl, she hated it even more for whatever reason. I of course, didn't make it easier. She had the worst pregnancy, sick all the time, couldn't keep her food down, bitchy- you name it. She didn't want to do anything that had to do with the baby. She didn't want to buy baby clothes, decorate the nursery, talk about it, dream about it, she didn't even want to name it.

So, my father did all that. He named me Delilah after the Miss Delilah flower, my mom's favorite flower. You can laugh at the irony. Eventually my father graduated college and my mom was so happy for him. After all, she loved him more than anything. Shortly after, my father joined his dad at their law firm. He was making money, following his dream and my mom was sitting at home pregnant. Then the day came. October 31st I was born. My mom held me for the first time

And she felt nothing.

If anything, she was just even more angry. My father on the other hand, was happy. He cried, did skin to skin, the whole nine yards. He loved me dearly. That made my mom hate me even more. The years continued going, as they do. My mom was still a stay at home mom. She fed me, clothed me and that was it. She didn't teach me much of anything, definitely didn't play with me or love me. If I wanted attention or even to see my mom smile, I had to wait for my father to get home. That task slowly became difficult, seeing as he started coming home later and later every night..

He cheated.

I was six when my mom finally found out. Me and my mother were silently eating dinner at the table. She kept checking the time, watching the door. She finally spoke and said "something bad is going to happen, I just know it." I'm not sure if she was talking to me or not, but I didn't say anything. A few minutes after that, my father walked through the door. He wasn't alone though, next to him was a woman I had seen many times before, Vanessa.

She worked with him. Vanessa had picked me up from school before plenty of times. I always thought she was kind. This night, she looked slightly different than the last time I saw her, her stomach was bigger.

She was pregnant.

To make a sad story short. My father told my mom that he wanted a divorce. Vanessa was pregnant and he planned to marry her. My mom cried, that was the first time I ever saw her cry. She begged, that was the last time I ever saw her beg.

My father said he wanted me to stay with him. I fully expected to be saying bye to my mom. But, to my surprise she said no. "Delilah is coming with me" she said. Probably out of spite, who knows. My father didn't argue, he gave her a few weeks to figure it out, gave her a lot of money and we packed our stuff and left.

We moved to a town called Browley. It was a small, boring beach town. Not many tourists, except for summer and even then there wasn't a lot. There was practically nothing fun to do in Browley. My mother had spent a summer there with her friend when she was in high school. I guess she liked it, because this was the first place she chose to go. We moved into a house at the very end of street. The house was nice, it had three bedrooms, three bathrooms. Our rooms were on complete opposite sides of the house and we had our own bathrooms. The day we moved into that house, was the day my life changed.

We arrived at the house, mom hired movers that were shortly behind us. "Stay out of the way Delilah, go play in the yard or something." She said as she and the movers were taking our stuff inside. I sat on the edge of the sidewalk, opening my notebook. I liked to write silly little poems and draw when I was that age. I wonder when I stopped liking that?

I sat doodling and writing a poem about stars in my purple notebook. I didn't care that we just moved, didn't care that my parents were divorced. I didn't miss my dad or feel anything towards my mom. I was indifferent towards everything, emotionless in a way. As I continued writing, I heard some noise. I glanced over to the ground, only to see four shoes standing in front of me. I quickly looked up and there they were. Two boys my age, staring down at me. I looked back and forth between them for a second, before I finally spoke. "What do you want?" I said blandly. They looked at each other and then back to me.

"Do you want to play with us?" One of the boys said. He had brown hair, teal eyes and dirt all over his face. The other boy had blonde hair, blue eyes and a popsicle in his mouth.

"I don't know you" I said, looking between the both of them.

"I'm Rusty" said the brown haired boy. "And this is Finn" He said, pointing at the blonde.

"We're best friends, we've been best friends since we were two" Said Finn. "What's your name?"

"Delilah"

"Oh. Like the flower?" Asked Rusty.

I shrugged and just stared at the two boys. It was silent for a moment until Rusty spoke again.

"I live right there." He said, and he motioned behind him, to the home right across the street from the house my mom and I just moved into.

"Oh, I just moved here" I said, pointing behind me. "Where do you live?" I asked Finn.

"A few blocks over" He said smiling.

"So, do you want to play with us or what?" Said Rusty, growing impatient.

I stood up and dusted off my shorts. "What are you playing?" I asked.

"Knights" They both said.

"Knights?"

"Yep. We're knights that have to fight deadly monsters to save the princess locked in the tower" Said Rusty.

"The tower is our secret shed." Whispered Finn.

"Who's the princess?" I asked.

They both pointed at me. I hesitated for a moment, but I eventually gave in and followed them to their "secret shed"

The shed was in a small forest at the end of our street. When I went inside, I saw an ugly plastic crown sitting on a chair.

"You have to wear that" Said Finn. Rusty picked up the crown and placed it on my head. We played all day, and it was actually pretty fun. Eventually the sun started getting ready to go down and we all decided to leave.

"Wait" Rusty said before we left. "You have to sign your name" He pointed at the wall in the shed. It had "Rusty J." and "Finley T." written on it.

"Why?" I asked.

"Because if you want to be our best friend, you have to" He said.

I smiled, I had never had a best friend before, let alone two. I took the marker Finn held out and signed my name next to theirs. "Delilah D."

"So now we're all best friends." Said Finn. He and Rusty both stuck their pinkies out to me.

"What?" I asked, confused.

"Lock your pinky, you have to" Said Rusty. I chuckled and did as they said.

I went to sleep happy that night. Best friends? Huh.

The three of us spent every single day together. I'm not exaggerating when I say that. I do mean, every single day. We went to school together, played after school, met each other's families.

Rusty's family was fun. His dad, Dean owned a skate and surf shop and his mom, Hope owned a clothing boutique. They were so in love. Dean was funny, he always had a joke. The first day he met me, he gave me the nickname "Lilah" and it stuck. Hope was kind and soft. She loved getting me to help her in the kitchen when she was baking. She liked doing my hair in a cute braid or letting me paint my nails with her. Rusty's home was so warm, especially in contrast to mine that felt as if my mom and I were merely roommates. We spent most of our time at Rusty's, because Finn's home wasn't so warm either.

Finn's family was rich. His dad, Steven was a well known surgeon, coming from a long line of surgeons. His mom, Diana didn't work, she came from money herself, so she didn't need to. She just did rich people things- like palates and s**t. Finn had an older brother Jacob and a baby sister Madison. His home was usually empty except for the nanny and Madison. His dad was always working, his mom was always gone doing something, and Jacob was always with his friends or at some sort of practice. Finn hated being there, so he spent all of his time with us.

We spent every single day together, the three of us. Just growing up together. Joining middle school together, our first school dance together, my first period, starting high school, vacations with Finn's family, family reunions with Rusty's family, holidays, birthdays, everything. We did everything together.

Then we got to the first day of senior year. Things began to get interesting here.