You don't know me, yet. My names Marley and this is a story about my life the past and present. I haven't had it it easy, whether it was bullies, losing friends or heartbreak I've had it all and trust me, as I take you on this journey you will understand what I went through and realise, this world isn't the dream world your parents make it out to be.

Present day, I'm finally getting my life back on track and have an amazing girlfriend, Lily.

but before we get into that let me take you back to last year, I had just lost my dad, then came the final year tests which I pretty much failed.

20th May 2015

"In less than a week it's your dads funeral, how are you going to cope?" I could hear my cousin saying to me, I wasn't really listening I was too busy staring at the last photo I had with him, "Earth to Marley, you in there?" my cousin said to me trying to get my attention and bring me back to the real world where life was messed up and I thought my life hit it's lowest.

I looked up at my cousin unable to say a word, all I wanted to do was just be alone and cry. I'm stronger than that so I finally manage to say something, "Dan, I can't do it, I can't say goodbye it wasn't his time." I start to say as tears leave my eyes.

I begin to fall to the floor but Dan is able to catch me just in time and help me back to my bed where I can just lay there and be alone, but Dan stays with me because he's more like a brother than a cousin, he's watched me go through so much and here I am acting like someone I'm not. I begin to stand up, wiping the tears away from my eyes and smile, this is the real me, I was brought up to be strong, life's thrown barriers in my way and I've overcome them with a smile and that isn't going to change now.

Dan looks at me in amazement as he sees the real me, the me who is wanting to overcome that barrier and I know I don't have to do it alone, and that brings us back to the present day of 2016.

Present day

I sit there on the bed as I finish getting ready, I look down at my phone excitedly as I realise today is the day I go on my first date with Lily, we've known each other for a while before we started dating. People say that long distance relationships never last, but today will show them anything can last if you work hard at it. I leave my room and walk towards the bathroom where I stare into the mirror at myself, I begin to gel my hair so it's spiky until I decide I'm happy with it. Once I've done what I need to do I head downstairs to make breakfast before catching a bus to spend the day with Lily. As I walk down the stairs it sounds as if mum is already up so I can talk to her to help calm my nerves, never in a million years did I ever think something like this would ever happen. I enter the sitting room and hear my name come from the kitchen, I walk through to see my mum smiling at me when she see's how much effort I've put into this first date. As usual she always finds the smallest mistake and wipes the smallest bit of toothpaste off the left side of my mouth.

"Don't worry if you get nervous, everyone does in these kind of situations. I hope you have an amazing time!" my mum says to me happily.

"thanks mum, I'll be sure to get pictures to show you, I've got everything I need, double checked before coming down because I worried."

I look at the clock on the wall behind her and realise I only have minutes until I miss the bus, this means it's a race against time.