How Things Used To be

"Callie, are you ready yet? We need to be leaving if we are going to make time." My mom pushed my bedroom door open and peeked around to see what was keeping me.

I was standing in the middle of what would soon be nothing but a childhood bedroom to me. All the memories of this place would be just that, a memory.

" Come on, Callie. I know you're going to miss it, but it's just a room. Besides, there might be cute guys where we're going. Maybe even your mate." She said the last word as if she was more hopeful than I was at finding my mate.

The truth was I hated that place. That house where I grew up, it was just a house. The memories were mostly bad ones where I would hide in my room while my parents screamed at each other. I never had any friends there and my brother died in that house. Not a memory I would like to relive.

But now, with my 18th birthday impending on us all, my parents decided it was time for a move. For those of you that aren't aware, when a werewolf turns 18 they are able to find their mates. Mine was in 10 days, just the perfect time for my parents to push me out of the house. As if they'd wanted me to begin with.

I rolled my eyes while I still faced away from my mother. She thought I would miss this place.

"I'm not worried about the house, mom. I just wish you would tell me where we're going."

"Don't worry about it, Calico. Just get your ass moving so we can get on the road already."

"Would you please stop calling me that?" I grabbed the last bag off the floor and swung it over my shoulder as I made my way out the door.

"No, that is the name you were given at birth, you should not be ashamed of it."

"You didn't give Ashton a weird name. Why did you have to give me one?"

She stopped dead in her tracks and grabbed my arm, spinning me around, "don't you dare bring your brother into this. Just because you're inconsiderate of things people give to you doesn't mean your brother would appreciate you comparing yourself to him."

"whatever." I turned around and made my way out to the van loaded in front. Of course she would take that route. Ashton was the golden boy before he died. Don't get me wrong, I loved my brother, I still do, but when compared to me, my parents saw me as the mess up. He was perfect and I was flawed. They probably had him to make up for such an imperfect child such as myself.

Then when he got into the car accident 4 months back, everything was blamed on me. He was no longer around and somehow that was my fault. My mom would day drink and my dad was gone all hours of the day only to return really late in the night. I had to fend for myself most days, cooking all my own meals and driving myself to school even before I got my license. Lucky for me, I was never pulled over or caught.

This big move they had planned without consenting me, as if my opinion would have made a difference. This was was all just part of a big scheme to get me out of the house. If we moved, I would find my mate and they would be rid of the problem child, or that was their perfect plan.