Second Chance ~~Angeleyez~~

***This is the first time I have EVER let ANYONE read anything I have written and this is strictly a rough draft. Please give me any comments you feel necessary, including what you didn't like about it! Thanks a bunch!!***

**p.s. Excuse the typo's. I was typing it pretty fast**



Kristin Nicole Matthews, she scribbled on her notebook. In less than 24 hours she would be married to Derek Matthews. Even though she was only a junior in high school, she knew that her feelings were real and this was going to last forever. Besides, she didn't have anywhere else to go.

It all began when she was in the 6th grade and her father remarried. She was sent to live with her mother in Boston, who had abandoned her and her father when she was 2 to go "find herself", because her new step-mom, Dixie, didn't want any children in the house. At first, Kristin thought living with her mother would be fun, but soon she realized differently. She was lonely most of the time and missed her father and friends. At eleven years old, she was taking care of herself for days at a time. Usually her mother only came home on weekends long enough to give her daughter some groceries, and she was gone again. By the time Kristin was thirteen, she began having wild parties where all of her "friends" would stay until all hours of the night.

Soon, older people began coming to Kristin's famous parties, bringing drugs and alcohol. Kristin didn't like the drugs, but she loved getting drunk! By the time she was fourteen, she had become promiscious and was well known around town. She didn't care because she thought at least that meant that someone cared about her. Everything hit rockbottom when one day her mother came home and found numerous bottles of alcohol everywhere, people passed out in every room, and drug paraphania laying around. Her house was destroyed. Kristin's mother cleared everyone out and sent Kristin back to live with her father.

Her father set out to straighten her up when she got back home in Seattle. He made her attend school, but she would just skip and get drunk with some of her buddies. He also tried to stop her from leaving the house but she would just slip out of the house. Soon, the drinking wasn't enough and she began expiramenting with mariguana. After that she never went to school and finally her father decided enough was enough. He was sending her to rehab and after that, she was to go stay with her Aunt Michelle, in Salem, MA.

Three months later, she was released from rehab and went to live with her aunt. She began attending classes and met a whole new group of friends. Finally things were beginning to look up for her. That's when she met Derek Matthews. They dated for a year and a half before he even kissed her. One night, her aunt had went out bowling when Derek showed up. Kristin let him in the house and they sat on the sofa watching movies. They ended up falling asleep and were awakened to the sound of screaming. It was her Aunt Michelle. She was screaming that Kristin had reverted back to her old ways and that she had "sinned" under her roof by sleeping with a boy in her house. She wanted Kristin gone by the end of the night. Derek took her to his parents house so that she could call her father, but he had changed his number and she didn't have the new one. Derek's parents wouldn't let her stay with them because they were not married. Derek was nineteen and she was sixteen, but they began planning for a wedding. Derek got her a room in a cheap motel for her to stay in for the week until they could get married.

The morning of her wedding, Kristin was so excited she could barely sit still. Her friend, Jessika, who was going to be one of their witnesses, came to help her get ready. His parents gave them a reception in thier backyard. They stayed in a little town a couple miles away for their honeymoon. After the honeymoon was over, they moved in with Derek's parents until they could get on thier feet and find them a place. Derek returned back to work and Kristin back to school.

Six weeks later, Kristin was pregnant. Derek was so excited! He immediately began looking for an apartment and finally found one when she was five months along. His father and brother helped them move. The baby would sleep in Derek's old cradle that his mother had given them. During her eighth month, Kristin dropped out of school to take care of the baby and it was too strenuous on her walking around school every day. A month later, she gave birth to a baby girl named Ashley Sunshine Matthews. It was a difficult birth and Kristin remained in the hospital for four days. When Derek returned to work, Jessika would come over to help her take care of Ashley.

Kristin began to notice immediately a change in Derek after she had the baby. Even Jessika seemed to notice. He began working later and later every day, sometimes not coming home at all. By the time Ashley was three months old, he had practically moved out of their apartment.

One day, Kristin's Aunt Michelle showed up at her door. She came bringing with her some bad news. While her mother was out escapading around town with one of her men, she had been shot and was in critical condition in Boston. Michelle was going to drive Kristin down there to see her if she wanted. Kristin called Derek at work to come home and take the baby, but he wasn't there. Kristin explained the situation to his co-worker who delivered her a harsh blow. He told her that Kristin had left with his wife and kids over two hours ago. Kristin was in shock. Even after all this time, she had suspected it, but now here it was in her face. She asked for his address and hung up the phone. After explaining to her Aunt Michelle, who agreed to watch the baby, Kristin drove over to the address.

Melissa Matthews answered the door and Kristin explained who she was. Just then Derek appeared at the door. His eyes dropped when he saw who it was. Kristin just looked at him and asked one question, Why? He explained to her that he and Melissa had gotten married when he was sixteen because she had gotten pregnant and her father forced them to, but that they had separated not long after their second child was born. They had technically never gotten a divorce, and right before Ashley was born, they had run into each other and decided to try and work things out for thier children's sake. She just looked at him and went out the door, after letting him know she would file for divorce as soon as she got back into town, but for right now, she had to go see her mother. She raced back to pack her's and Ashley's things for the trip. When they arrived in Boston, her mother was still in a coma. She was hooked up on life support and her face was swolen and bruised.

That night, they stayed in a motel room where the hospital had the number in case anything changed in her mother. After Ashley was alseep, Michelle told Kristin that her mother probably wouldn't make it through the night. She was not shocked when the phone rang at 2 am advising her that her mother had passed away. The next day, Michelle called Kristin's father, who agreed to fly out for Kristin's sake.

When Kristin saw her father again, she broke down and cried. So much had happened in her life, so many changes, and she had truly missed him. He loved Ashley and took care of her during the funeral. After the funeral was over, they all went back to Kristin's apartment to get the rest of her and the baby's things out. After explaining to her father about Derek and what he had done, he offered to let her and the baby move back home with him. She had to say another two weeks to finalize some paperwork so her father went ahead and took the baby with him. When Derek and Kristin went to court, he signed away all paternity rights to Ashley and she signed saying she would never try and contact him again. Kristin happily signed the papers.

When she returned home, some of her former drug "friends" began showing up. At first, Kristin refused to see them, but finally one day, she gave in. She left Ashley with her father, claiming to be going to a movie, and went off with Jason and Tommy, the two biggest drug dealers in Seattle. They drove to Tommy's place where they partied all night long. The next morning, Kristin awoke in Tommy's bed with some guy she didn't even know. She had a horrible headache as she put on her clothes. SHe found Tommy and begged him to take her home. Tommy informed her on the ride home that she had been the life of the party that night. She put her head in her hands and groaned. When she arrived home, there was a note from her father explaining that he had taken Ashley to the next door neighbor's house and that he wanted to have a long talk with her when he got home from work that evening. She went next door, picked up Ashley and came home to cook breakfast. After Ashley wsa asleep, Kristin took a nap trying to get rid of her headache.

That night her father laid down the rules. If she wanted to remain in his house, she could not go back to her old ways and expect him to take care of her child. The baby was her responsibility and she came home on drugs one more time, she would have to leave.

The next month, Kristin discovered she was pregnant again. She decided to get a job and move out of her father's house and take care of her children like she was supposed to. Her father never once questioned who the father was. He knew it had happened that one night she had been gone all night long, and she had been away from that crowd every since then.

Alicia Kristyn was born two days after Ashley's first birthday. Kristin was still living with her father, but she did have a job. Neither one of them were anxious for her to move out anyway. Her father loved his grandbabies and Kristin was saving money to be able to move out and take care of both children. When Alicia was a month old, Kristin ran into Tommy while she was waitressing. That night she left her kids with her father again. She came home at two in the morning, too messed up to even walk up the stairs. She collasped in the hallway. The next morning she read a note from her father and wept.

Kristin, I warned you what would happen if you came home on drugs one more time. I'm sorry but I want you and the kids gone by the time I get off work. I hate to do this to you and don't want to see you get caught up in this mess again. Maybe Ashley and Alicia will make you change your mind when you can't depend on me to help you anymore. I love you honey! Daddy

Kristin packed a bag for herself and the kids and got in the car. With no where to go, she finally drove over to Tommy's house. She convinced him that Alicia was his daughter and talked him into letting them stay there for a while. She ended up losing her job because she wouldn't show up half the time and drugs weren't free, so she began working for an escort service. She got numerous people to watch her children, sometimes people she didn't even know.

Two months after she had left her father's house, he saw her working and followed her back to Tommy's house. She slammed the door in his face when he asked for the children. He threatened to sue her in court for custody if she didn't give them to him. She got a court supoena in the mail two weeks later. In court, Kristin was rude and constantly interupting the judge. Custody was awarded to her father. Kristin went back to Tommy's house, where she proceeded to do all the drugs she could get her hands on. She felt better afterwards and even began to smile. At least she didn't have to worry about screaming babies anymore.



The day Kristin died was the day of Ashley second and Alicia's first birthday party. Her father left the girls with a neighbor while he went to identify the body, even though he knew it was her even before he got there. All of her drug "friends" were at the funeral, which made him furious. She had died of a heroin overdose. She was almost twenty years old. She hadn't even begun life, yet now it was over for her. She would never get to see her daughter's grow up, he thought, but then again, neither am I. All through the service, he thought about how it was all his fault, If only he hadn't remarried and forced her to go live with her mother. On and on he thought of different ways he could have prevented her death. He did not shed any tears for the girl in the casket, but he did for the little girl he knew. THis girl here was not his daughter, but a stranger to him.

That night, he let Ashley and Alicia sleep in his bed with him. As he cuddled up next to the sleeping babies, he knew that even though Kristin was gone, he would never let them forget her as their mother. He also knew that God had given him a second chance with these two little girls and he wouldn't ruin the lives of them.

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