The rest of Tiara’s eighth-grade year Stephanie tried her best to keep her in check, but it was hard to do that when her father showered her with gifts just because. It was like she was getting rewarded for acting a fool. There was no positive or negative reinforcement because Tiara got everything she wanted, and even things that she didn’t want. Stephanie knew the reason for the gifts were because Blake felt guilty from being so disconnected with his daughter, but everyone knew that Blake’s first love was his business. He had left it up to everyone else to raise his child, but what he didn’t understand was that although he had an iron grip on the streets and on his business, he had passed that same mentality on to his daughter. Not only did she look just like him, she had his mind as well. She was growing up with only herself to look to for guidance.
Stephanie knew that things had finally made a turn for the worse the day that she caught Tiara smoking marijuana in the bathroom of her bedroom. Stephanie was so caught off guard that she didn’t know what to do when Tiara opened the door. Her eyes were low and bloodshot red.
“Tiara?” Stephanie called out to the thirteen-year-old.
In response, Tiara gave her a dopey smile and tried to shut the bathroom door behind her. But it was too late because Stephanie had already smelled the potent aroma and saw the smoke sneaking through the cracks.
“Oh my God,” Stephanie exclaimed. “You’re high as a freaking kite!”
“I’m OK, I’m OK,” Tiara tried to assure her and went to lie down on her bed. “I feel so good right now. This was some really good weed. Hey, Stephanie? Have you ever wondered like . . . how caterpillars turn to butterflies? Or if they’re even like . . . the same person? Well, bug. That’s some trippy-ass shit!”
“Watch your mouth, young lady! Where did you get it from?”
Tiara made a noise that sounded like a scoff. She looked over at Stephanie with low eyes and burst into a fit of giggles.
“You know the other caregivers smoke on all of their breaks,” she giggled and snuggled into her pillow. “I just snatched it from one of their bags. It’s some good stuff too. Do you smoke weed, Steph?”
“Por qué?” Stephanie asked. “No, I don’t smoke weed, and I don’t feel the need to either. I like being able to think clearly, and I don’t like to walk around with my eyes low looking like a damn fiend! Why do you feel the need to be high? How long have you been smoking?”
She went over to Tiara’s bed as well and lay beside her in her work clothes. Tiara smelled strongly of the product and smoke, but that didn’t stop Stephanie from pulling her close.
“My life sucks. Everybody thinks that it is just so cool to be the daughter of Blake Rogers just because he’s rich. But it’s not great at all! I just need something to balance out my lows, and weed does that for me,” Tiara told her, and then started laughing like she had just told the world’s funniest joke. “Nobody gives a fuck about me. You know it just like I know it. And I’ve been smoking for about five months now. I usually have eyedrops so you guys can never tell.”
“Oh, honey,” Stephanie just shook her head. “I feel like I’m losing you.”
“You will never lose me, Steph,” Tiara said while yawning. “But everyone else might as well have already said good-bye. I’m done aiming to please the two people who created me, especially when I’m invisible to them. They don’t care about me . . . They only care about themselves. Well, it’s time for me to start doing the same thing.”
“Oh, honey,” was all Stephanie could say.
She could chastise Tiara all that she wanted, but she knew that there would be no point. If she had been smoking for five months now, Tiara had already made her choice. It was too late, and she knew whatever she said would just go over her pretty, curly head. It hurt Stephanie to know that the reason Tiara smoked was to numb the feeling of emptiness that she must have been feeling for so long.
After that incident, Stephanie tried her best to fill a little bit of that void over the next few years. She tried to get her out of the house and even tried to talk Tiara’s father into letting her have some of the perks that normal teenagers had in high school. No kid wanted to feel like a prisoner in their own life. That was the quickest way to devalue your child. Tiara didn’t know it, but in a way, her acting out was just a cry for attention. Stephanie tried hard to dote on Tiara, but what she soon found is that all she was doing was reminding Tiara that her parents weren’t very active in her life.
After a while, however, Blake noticed how distant his daughter was from him her first few years of high school. He also noticed how slick her mouth was. He was constantly having to put her in her place. He was upset with Cat because she was supposed to be the stay-at-home parent and teach their daughter morals and values, but then again, he couldn’t be too upset. The only family-oriented thing that she did was make dinner on some Sundays. He knew when he married her that she was too self-centered to be a mother. He knew Cat loved Tiara very much, but she just didn’t know how to be a mother. It was easier letting the help do the job they
