Hidden Secrets:

Prologue:

Life Sucks:

I woke up and laid there in bed. I closed my eyes, and listened to the voices that were talking downstairs. My parents were already up-that was no surprise-it was almost Christmastime.

But it was a surprise to hear what they were talking about. My sister Lauren had been missing for more than four years-I was fourteen then. Now I was eighteen, and she was still gone.

"What do you mean, they found her husband?" That was my dad. He was always working, and he was rarely home during the week. But he tried to make up for it, by taking me out each weekend.

Ron Jacobs was his name. He wasn't perfect-no one was. But he did his best.

"I said they found his body," a woman said. That was my mom, Lisa Jacobs. She was a housewife, but she still had a job she did at home-one that did not include cleaning the house.

I sighed. I knew the police had found Brian's body-I was the one who told my mother.

I got out of bed, and ignored the arguing that was going on. I walked to my bathroom, and looked out the window.

I really missed my dog, Bacardi, who I always liked to think who listened to me. She was there when I was at my worst, and in her own doggy ways, she helped me through my depression, while my parents did nothing. Oh, they tried, but they just didn't know what to do. I remembered them talking during one of their nightly talks that they felt so helpless when it came to helping me.

I brushed it aside, and told myself to go out, and stepped up to the top of the stairs. I sighed and went down, steeling myself for another day of fighting, arguing, and disappointment. That was my life.