My Life

    My name is Maddelyn Pereira. I am twenty-three years old. My mom is American and my dad is from Italy. Making me fluent in both languages, Italian and English. Now let me tell you a bit about myself.     When I was eleven, my parents were going to have a baby, but they lost her after five months. That really hit our family hard.     I have an older brother, Cristiano, and a little sister, Isabella. Cristiano is twenty-six years old, and Isabella is twenty-one.     The moment I started high school, I changed. I had friends who I thought wanted the best for me, so they took me to parties, and they told me to start drinking. I was only fourteen years old. I just wanted to fit in.     When I was a sophomore, the next year, I lost my virginity to some guy on the football team. He was a senior, and it was a drunken mistake. But a mistake I remember.     After that, I kept sleeping around with strangers at parties, and I started smoking and drinking. I would sneak out of my house, and I would always argue with my parents. I was out of control, and no one could stop me.     It all changed when I was a senior. I would graduate in three months. I was only seventeen, three weeks before I turned eighteen.     I went to a party after arguing with my parents. I just started to drink, and drink. Then someone had brought some weed, and I took some. I was never really into drugs, but only on bad nights did I take some.     The party wasn't even really a high school party. One of my friend's brother was having a college party with a few friends, and my friend invited me and a few others.     By the end of the night, I ended up naked in a bedroom, with a naked stranger beside me. He had fallen asleep, and I decided to get my things and leave. I was so tired, so I called an Uber and went home.     Then the following week, I didn't get my period but didn't think much of it. Five days later I woke up and ran to the bathroom to start puking my guts out. I was nauseous for three days straight. That's when I started freaking out. My mom took me to the hospital because she was worried I had caught a bug or something. But by this time I knew it wasn't a bug. It was a baby.     After the whole afternoon at the hospital, the doctor told us that I was two weeks pregnant. My mom was majorly pissed.     We got home, and she just started to yell and yell at me. My mom has always been the strictest parent in the house. My dad was more loving and lenient. He was just disappointed, but he wasn't mad. But my mom always bossed him around. She convinced him to kick me out of the house. My siblings were not okay with this, but there was nothing they could do.     I packed up all my things. I grabbed all the money I had saved after working at Starbucks in our town. It was only about $2,680. It was all that was left after I bought my car three weeks earlier. It was a brand new Honda Civic. I bought it without the help of my parents, so they couldn't take the car away from me.     My dad met me outside and gave me about ten thousand dollars so that I could survive. He whispered in my ear to drive up to his family's house up in Virginia.     See my dad's parents and his siblings never got along with my mother, they always thought she was a good for nothing b***h. And I agreed. But my dad always made sure that Cristiano, Isabella, and I always called them, and visited them when my mom was out of town. So that we always had family there just in case. Always behind my mother's back.     So I drove from Louisiana to Virginia in three days. Before I left home, I went to Starbuck where I worked to see if I could get my money from the week. It was only two hundred dollars, but I needed anything I could get.     I said goodbye to my only true friend, Carla. But I didn't tell her why I was leaving. Before I left, my dad told me he would go to the school, to get my transfer papers and send them to the new school I would be attending in Virginia until I graduate.     A year later, I had graduated from high school. It was perfect because I wasn't showing until after graduation. I made a few friends before we all went separate ways.     I started my own business. I was always into designing, so I designed a whole fashion line, and it sold like crazy online. That's when I just started to do that all day. It was good money, and it was something that made me happy.     My grandparents convinced me to do college online so that I could get my business degree. That's exactly what I did.     I had a baby boy. Now that time had passed, I started to remember things from that night. I remember talking to him, and he had an Italian accent. He even looked Italian. Ever since I remember, I haven't been able to stop thinking about him. I may not remember his name, but I remember his face. And I see it every time I look at my baby's cute little face.     So I named him Adrianno. An Italian name. I love him so much. I couldn't be happier.     Isabella and Cristiano visit us once every two months. My dad not as often, but now and then, all behind my mother's back. I want to know nothing about her, she doesn't deserve to know anything about me or my child.