Prologue: Red Roses

I was told I should write a book about my life. He said it would make a good storyline. I didn't really understand why. I was just a typical seventeen-year-old girl. I was a senior in high school and about to graduate. Summer was coming rapidly and all I could think about was the party that coming up that Friday.

So when it was brought to my attention that my life would be entertaining to read, I had to stop and think for a second. Would it really? The more I thought about it, the more I couldn't help but think that my life would be better as a reality show, like The Osborne's, instead of a book.

Take my home life, for example. I live in a house with five guys. Granted they're my older brothers, but still. I had been living with them alone since I was thirteen, I was used to it. It was probably then, thinking about my family, did I realize that they really were crazy. Maybe I should have tried to pitch the family show to a network like FOX or ABC or something, maybe they would have liked it.

Our parents weren't around. Our mom had died on my twelfth birthday and our dad had been in jail since I was thirteen. But we didn't mind too much, really. Our house was to die for, well, figuratively speaking. My father had built the place with his bare hands to give my mother her dream house, the fact that he didn't own the place anymore was just a minor detail he didn't like to talk about. My oldest brother Brad, was twenty-five and owned the place, though we all helped with the bills, and I think Vin and Topher paid rent, and our father's hefty child support check every month helped quite a bit. And the more I thought about it, Tyler and I were still receiving social security deposits from the government since our mothers death, so we weren't too bad off.

My father had to pay Tyler and Jake's college tuition also, which wasn't too high since they were only going to the local community college. But come fall, I was heading off to Columbia College Chicago with my father and everyone I knew helping me pay the tuition.

So here I was, seventeen years old, living with my five older brothers, no parents, about to graduate high school, without a care in the world, when my friend suggests I write a book about my life. I have no idea what I was thinking, but somewhere down the line I agreed. This is the finished product. My life. My choices. My way. I'm Melissa Parker. Take it or leave it.

Special Thanks to Lyss...you rock. I completely forget to put in the thing about the money. So thank her for that one. :)