April 2, 2010 (1)
10:00 a.m.
Nina’s Apartment


Dear Diary,
I. Hate. My. Life.
My mom actually forced me into moving in with Dad and Nina. I’ve spent one night here in Nina’s apartment, and I absolutely hate it. Yesterday night at dinner, she tried to talk to me as if I were her daughter or something. As if she hadn’t treated me like crap whenever Dad wasn’t around.
She’d asked me what I planned to do with my life. If I was planning on going to college. What I wanted to major in. If I was currently seeing anyone. Why Cole and I broke up. And a whole bunch of other stuff too.
And if I chose to ignore any of her numerous questions, Dad would get angry and yell at me, telling me to treat Nina with respect. By the end of the night, it took absolutely all of my willpower not to strangle the woman.
At least Mom had let me spend the rest of March at home. But once April came around, that was it. I was sent off to live with Dad and Nina. Because Mom thought that I needed to form a healthier relationship with my father. But forcing me to live with him was only going to make me hate him even more. Not to mention make my life completely miserable.

“Evalynne!” Dad called from down the hallway. I groaned and rose to my feet, tossing my diary down on my bed.
“What?” I asked him when I stepped out of my new room, which was about half the size of my real room.
“Nina’s going to head to the mall for a little shopping spree. Why don’t you go with her?” he suggested, sounding hopeful.
“I’d rather claw my own eyes out.” I retorted flatly.
He sighed deeply and narrowed his icy grayish blue eyes. “Ok, it’s no longer a question. Now it’s a demand. You’re going to the mall with Nina.” he stated firmly.
“And who exactly is going to make me?” I scoffed. “I might’ve been forced to live in her apartment, but there’s no way I’m going to spend any more time with Nina than I have to. I hate that woman more than you could ever imagine. And I hate you for choosing her over your own family.”
Sadness flickered over his face for a moment, but disappeared just as quickly. “If you refuse to do as I tell you then you can pack your bags and leave. And your mother is not going to take you back to live with her until May either.”
I stared at him, dumbfounded. How could my parents be doing this to me? I was their child for crying out loud! They were supposed to love and nurture me, not turn my life into a living hell.
“Ok, that is just cruel and unusual punishment!” I cried.
He smirked. Obviously, he didn’t care. “The choice is yours. She’s leaving in five minutes.” He then turned on his heel and stalked off down the short hallway. When he was gone, I slammed my door shut as hard as I possibly could, causing the framed picture of Ash and I on our wedding day that was sitting on my desk to fall over.
I sniffled and positioned it back up, feeling tears in the corners of my eyes. I wiped them away with the back of my hand and plopped down on my head, burying my head in my hands. My life was a disaster. I wasn’t sure how much more I could take either.
A whole month living in this apartment with Nina and my monster of a father. I shuddered just thinking about it. What other crap was I going to be forced to do with Nina? I was already being forced into going on a shopping spree with her. Soon enough, I was going to have to start helping her cook dinner and going grocery shopping with her.
“Ugh!” I moaned, wishing I had enough money saved up to go and buy my own apartment. That’s exactly what I needed to do actually. I needed my own place to live. That way my parents couldn’t threaten to throw me out on the streets every time I disobeyed them. That way they wouldn’t have control over me.
I grinned to myself just imagining it. Life on my own. Without Mom or Dad or Nina ordering me around. I would be an independent woman, with no parents to boss me around or ground me for coming home past curfew. I would be free to do whatever I wanted.
But at the moment, I wasn’t able to do that. At the moment, I had to go waste my Saturday with Nina, who would undoubtedly treat me like crap the moment we were out of my Dad’s sight.
I grabbed my purse off of my desk and headed out into the living room, where Nina was sitting on the couch, waiting for me. “You ready to go?” she asked when I walked into the room. She was all cheerful and grinning, as if she was really looking forward to spending some quality time with me. But I knew it was just an act. I knew that she really hated me just as much as I hated her.
“Unfortunately, yes,” I replied. She smiled in response, pretending like this didn’t bother her a bit. And Dad bought it too. He bought her entire act.
“Ok, let’s get going then.” she chirped. I pursed my lips and followed her out the front door, shooting Dad an enraged glare before doing so.
And the second that door closed behind us, she stopped and turned to face me. Now her fake smile was gone. It had been replaced with a wicked smirk. “If you think that you can treat me the way you do, you’re mistaken.” she spat, narrowing her deep brown eyes at me.
I narrowed my own eyes, meeting her angry glare. “Well if you think that you can just walk into my life, destroy my whole family, and then expect me to treat you with respect, then you’re the one who’s mistaken.” I shot back smugly.
She disdainfully raised a perfectly arched eyebrow. “I wouldn’t talk to me like that if I were you. Because I can have you out on the streets in the blink of an eye. All I have to do is tell your dad that you aren’t behaving respectfully, and you’ll be gone.”
My lower lip quivered as I realized just how right she was. And it wasn’t fair. Why couldn’t Mom have just let me stay home with her? Why had she forced me to live with the two monsters who had torn apart our family?
Taking a deep breath, I blinked back the tears that threatened to leak from my eyes. I couldn’t let Nina see me crying. I couldn’t let her know that she actually had the power to make me cry. I wouldn’t show any weakness around her.
But apparently she saw the effect that her words had on me. Because before I got a word out, she smirked superiorly and said, “So I assume you’ll begin to treat me with respect then, correct?”
I bit my tongue to keep from telling this twisted, husband-stealing witch off. Instead, I sucked in a deep breath, letting it out slowly. “Correct,” I murmured.
She smiled haughtily. “Good,” Then she turned on the heel of her expensive looking peep-toe heels and walked off down the hallway. When she reached the end, she turned back to look at me. “Well, come on.” she snapped irritably.
I took a deep breath in order to contain my rage. I hated this woman more than I’d ever hated anyone. I hated her more than Julianne Wiggins. I hated her more than Katrina. I hated her more than Michael.
Well, maybe not more than Michael.
After all, he got a thrill out of making Will’s life a living hell. Plus he’d almost bashed my head in with a freakin’ ice mallet. But then again, Nina stole my father away from Mom and I. And she’d done the same thing to Cole’s family too. So I wasn’t quite sure who I hated more.
Sighing, I sauntered down the hallway and followed her out of the apartment building. Then we both made our way over to her parking spot and climbed into her little silver Jetta.
I glanced out the window and leaned the side of my head against the cool glass. But I jerked my head away when Nina decided to roll the window down. “What the hell?” I cried.
“It’s a nice day out.” she remarked complacently. “I like to let the fresh air in.”
“Well could you at least warn me before rolling down the window?” I demanded.
“I’m sorry, I thought we agreed that you’re going to start using a more respectful tone when you talk to me.” she said.
I shook my head incredulously. I knew what a witch Nina was, but it was still kind of hard to believe just how awful she could be. “Why my dad?” I asked. This was something I’d been wondering ever since I found out that Dad and Nina were having a secret affair.
She glanced in my direction, but averted her eyes back to the road quickly. “Because I love him of course.” she told me, her voice sounding a bit strained. Just the slightest bit, but I could still hear it. “Why else?”
“I don’t know.” I said. “Maybe because you’re a sick, twisted homewrecker who gets a thrill out of watching families fall apart, knowing that you’re the one who made it happen.”
I watched in satisfaction as her eyes went wide with fury and her lips formed an angry line. She took a sharp right and pulled the car over in the middle of a near-empty parking lot for some grimy-looking diner. Once the car was pulled over, she turned her head to look at me, her eyes filled with hot, fiery rage.
I smirked, expecting her to star screaming about how disrespectful I was being. Maybe I would be kicked out of Nina’s apartment, and maybe Dad would call Mom and tell her not to let me stay with her until April ended. But it would be worth it, because I’d been waiting to say those harsh, angry words to Nina for way too long. And I couldn’t wait to hear just what she had to say in return.
But rather than shouting at me, she reached over opened the passenger-side door, and pushed me out. It all happened so fast and so out of nowhere, that I didn’t have any time to react. I just felt my head begin to throb as it hit the pavement of the parking lot. Just heard the slam of Nina shutting the car door shut.
I sat up, rubbing the back of my head, wishing for the aching pain to subside. My vision was a bit blurry, but it cleared just enough for me to see Nina looking at me out of the car window. “I thought we had an agreement, Evalynne. I thought that you were going to change the way you speak to me. But apparently you misunderstood me when I said that I could have you out on the streets if I wanted to.” She smirked and shrugged her shoulders as if this was all just one big misunderstanding. “Well I think I’ve made it pretty clear now just how serious I was.”
She looked down upon me, beaming wickedly. The vehemence boiling inside of me was overpowering. And before my brain could even register what I was doing, I pounded my fist as hard as I could against Nina’s car door, leaving a dent the size of a baseball in it.
She gasped in shocked anger and deadpanned me lividly. “You think that’s clever, brat?” she demanded. And then, before I even saw it coming, she pushed open the car door, smacking it hard against my forehead. She slammed it shut again and chuckled viciously as my head fell back and hit the ground yet again.
My head throbbed even worse and it took a moment for me to regain the strength to sit up. But when I finally did, I saw Nina’s little silver Jetta speeding off down the road, leaving me all alone in this deserted parking lot.