Olivia

If the slight tremor I caused when I slammed the door is any indication of how livid I am right now, then I need not go into further description. I can’t believe that Rose has done this to me. I call her by her first name now, my mom. It’s just another one of my not so subtle indications of my lack of respect for her.

I wasn’t always this disrespectful you know, always tried to be the supportive daughter but where has that left me? With an inheritance that is slowly but surely diminishing, that’s where! Man, I had big plans for that money. I got it when my grandfather passed away.

I did not know much about him but I knew I was glad to be his granddaughter after his will was read and Rose told me that I was one of the beneficiaries. We have always had an untraditional family dynamic. For as long as I can remember, it has always just been me and Rose.

I don’t know much about my father either. He is what I refer to as my sugar daddy. I give him what he wants, which is zero contact, an ultimatum his rich wife gave him because she was just not about to embrace her husband’s lovechild, and I get maintenance money and a roof over my head in return. My maternal relatives are just as much a mystery as sugar daddy is.

Although Rose and her sister, Aunt Anna, have mutual friends who pass on information about the one sister to the other, thus instigating unnecessary competition, they never communicate directly. Grandma Suzie, on the other hand has always been a sensitive topic. I have made attempts to find out why in the past but have learned to let it go. Rose refuses to talk about them.

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Rose’s shopaholism has been of much benefit to me. It has resulted in me having the latest of everything imaginable. Fashion, shoes, gadgets, whatever. Because of this, I am of course one of the most popular people in school and around the neighbourhood, which is something I have embraced whole-heartedly and am not willing to let go of. That’s why Rose’s excessive spending isn’t much of a problem to me.

I know she is buried in debt and is always overly stressed about how she is going to pay for it all, but that’s not my problem. She got me hooked to this lifestyle and she is going to keep me in it, whatever the cost. I am the one who usually sets the bar around here for my peers. I am like the local role-model, so when I found out that I had inherited cash, quite a significant amount of it, I knew exactly how it would be spent.

I just had to wait until I was a certain age to have control of it all and Rose was to manage, NOT SPEND IT, in the mean time. Anyway, I was going to buy me a brand new car for my eighteenth birthday. I was going to drive it into school along with all the teachers, even offer the poverty stricken ones a lift from the bus stop. That would definitely make the kind of statement that would be remembered for years to come.

I was going to leave a legacy, so my anger at Rose is more that reasonable. She has ruined my plans, turned me into just another Miss Popularity when I could have been one of a kind. Rose has spent so much of my money that I don’t have enough time to somehow make up the difference in time for my eighteenth birthday. Not that I would willingly do manual labour, even if my life depended on it.

Rose has stripped me off of my glory and for that she will pay. Her biggest mistake was underestimating me and that mistake is going to cost her a lot more than what she paid for her stupid kitchen.

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Tell us what you think: Do you think Liv has a right to complain or do parents know best? What would you do if you were in her shoes?