"Hello? Miss Eva. This is your 7 am wake up call."
I rolled over and ended up falling off the side of the bed. "Okay, I'm up. I'm up." I said as I crashed back onto my pillows and my blankets.


The heat outside is awful. It feels like I'm in an oven. I better get used to it though. This means I will have to go shopping to get some new clothes for the heat here. I'm almost at the place mom told me to meet her at. Maybe another twenty minutes or so. I'm pretty excited to be seeing her. It's been so long since I last saw her. I was probably around two years old. My dad ended up taking care of me because my mom was going through some hard times. She always said that she would come and get me one day. I sometimes would talk to her on the phone every once and a while and she would say those words every time before we got off the phone. I tried to believe that she would, but after years started passing by, my faith started to decend. I love my mom, don't get me wrong, it's just that she would sometimes build my hopes up when I was little and then something would always end up happening and then they get shattered. I would often feel alone and like nobody wanted me. Then, my dad brought home a dog. She was a dalmation with chocolate colored eyes. Her fur was soft and short and the spots all over her were perfectly identified. She was about six months when she came to live with us. She was very active and playful. I ended up naming her Collie, after my favorite grandmother. She was the best thing that has ever happened to me and my best friend. When I got home from school, I would always bring her inside from her cage outside and bring her into my room. My room wasn't that big, but big enough to have her be able to live in it with me. She always knew when I wasn't feeling good or was sad and she would come and cheer me up the best that she could. She stayed with us for a good ten years, which is really good. I took really good care of her and she watched out for me. If she would sense that anyone was going to harm me she would not let that person come into the same room as me. One day I had noticed that she wasn't acting her usually jumpy self. She was just sitting in the spot by the fireplace where she usually curls up at and was there pretty much for the whole day. She was really quite and was sleeping for most of the day. I took her to the vet's office the next day, hoping maybe she was just tired or had a stomache ache or something. The vet told me something that both surprised me and broke my heart.
"She's got cancer, Eva. It's spreading very rapidly and there's nothing we can do due to the speed that it's going. I'm sorry. I'm not sure how much longer she has less in her, so it might be best to spend every possible minute with her before her last."
When the vet told me this, my heart sank and it felt like someone continuously stabbing me with pins in my chest. I didn't know what to do. I wanted her to get better. I didn't want her to be sad or hurting or anything like this. I decided it would be best to take her home tonight and rest on it. If she doesn't seem like she is in any pain, then I would spend every waking second with her.
The next morning, Collie again was just laying around on the spot, just sitting there. I couldn't believe what was going on. I didn't know what to think. She just seems so depressed. I would often wake up the next morning, thinking that this was just a bad dream and now everything is back to the way it was, but after seeing her, I knew that would never happen again. She meant everything to me, and I was going to give her her last days good ones. I stayed at home more often than usual and started having her sleep with me in my bed. I started hand feeding her more to get her to eat and gain some weight and I changed her water more often than any regular person would. But that wasn't enough, she passed away a couple of days later. She fell asleep in my arms one night. I woke up the next day to see that she was not breathing anymore and I knew that she had passed. It was so depressing for me. She was my best friend, the one that I would always be able to come home to and know was excited to see me. The first couple of weeks were hard on me. I didn't have her to come home to or look forward to anymore. My dad started drinking more than ever those times. He lost one of his jobs and didn't make that much money anymore and things seemed to spiral out of control all the time. He would just come home and slump on the couch in front of the tv and everyday would just get wasted to the point that he ends up passing out on the couch eventually. One day he got way out of line, that I didn't know what to do about it. He was particularly in a bad mood that day when he came home, he started throwing things and pieces of the funiture, I wasn't sure what to do. I ran upstairs to my room to stay out of it. I could tell that he had been drinking by the way that he walked and stumbled around. I waited in my room hoping this would pass up soon. I then started hearing footsteps coming upstairs. I kept thinking to myself, hoping that he was just going to his room. The footsteps started getting closer and closer. I remember I just kept praying and praying, "please just go to your room." There was a slight knock on my door.
"Eva, will you come out here, please. I have something that I have to tell you."
"Can you tell me tomorrow? I'm really tired and I just want to go to bed."
"No, this is important. Please come and here and talk to me."
"Dad, just tell me tomorrow. I want to go to bed."
"NO, now Eva. Open the door."
I just sat there. Scared, I stayed in the same spot, wishing he would just leave. The knocking got louder and louder. It soon turned into pounding and then the door swung open with the henges breaking off.
"Eva, I told you that I needed to talk to you and you didn't listen to me. I need to punish you so that next time you will listen to me."
"Dad your drunk, please just go to bed. You just need to sleep."
"No, you need to understand that when I say something, to listen to me."
I wasn't sure what to do. The next thing I knew was that I began feeling sharp pains and bruising. I woke up the next day, not really remembering much. My arms were bruised up badly and were black and purple.

I arrived at the place that my mom told me to. It was a little coffee shop but it was very nice inside. It was pretty expensive, but then again, anything in California is pretty expensive. I wait there for a while, just taking in the new city where I would be living in.
"It's so great that you're here! I missed you so much!"
I turned around and quickly saw my mom entering. She looked like she lost quite a few pounds and looked really good. She had should lengthed dark hair that flipped over to the side and looked really good. She dressed very maturely and looked happy.
"Hey mom, I'm so glad to see you. I've missed you too. Thank you so much for letting me move in with you."
"It's okay honey, I know that you will be happy here and not have to worry about your dad. I know what he did was wrong and I'm so glad that you told me about it. Trust me, you have nothing to worry about here. Now, let's get you all moved in at the new house. I think you're really going to like it."
It was about another twenty minute drive. But it was definitly worth it. When we got to the house, I couldn't believe how amazing it looked. It was a two story manison right off the beach. It was more modern than most of the others and was definitely a place that I would love to move into. Each room lead to a balcony and was very expensive looking. When you stepped outside you got a beautiful view of the beach and the sunlight. It was almost like living with a celebrity. I chose the room that I wanted to live in out of the ten different rooms I got to see. My mom helped me unpack my things and put them up. It took a little while, but everything eventually got finished. My mom wanted to know if I wanted a tour of the city, but I decided to check out things on my own. I drove around for a while seeing everything this city had. I eventually went back to the little coffee shop.
"Can I have a carmel frappuccino with java chips?"
"Coming right up."
I sat there for a little bit looking around at the place. There was really much going on here, just a few people here and there, but other than that, there wasn't really much going on.
"You knew here?"
I turned around and saw a guy close by.
"Yeah I just moved here from Arizona. My parents have a place for me to stay until I graduate. You live here?"
"Yeah I just moved back from Texas. Just graduated and moved back here for a job. First day on Monday. So what are you wanting to be."
"Well, I want to major in marine biology, but I'm still unsure."
"Ahh, yeah I understand. I was a little unaware about what I wanted to be. I eventually decided that I wanted to be a teacher. I always thought about it, but wasn't sure if that was what I wanted."
"Here you go, a carmel frappuccino with java chips."
"Thanks."
I turned back to the guy, "I gotta run, but I'll see you around?"
"Yeah, how about tomorrow night? You like movies?"
"Yeah, sounds great."
"Okay, meet me here first around 7?"
"Yeah."
"Oh, I never got your name."
"Eva."
"Alex."
"Alex, I'll see you then."

I walked out and started heading back home. I didn't want to say anything to my parents though quite yet. I just wanted them to focus on me moving in. When I got back, I helped my mom cook dinner.