Living L.A.

Chapter 1

I have a psychotic mother named Elizabeth and a sorry excuse for a father named David. Heads up, my life ain't normal. My life changed on a hot May in Ohio.

I was walking home from school that day, with my sweet 15 years old self, happy to recieve my awards for the academic year, but ultimately dreaded and terrified to arrive home. As I walked home, I idled on the side of the road, listening to the birds and fumbling with the buttons on my shirt. When people say 'home is where the heart is', don't believe them, they are big, fat, freakin' liars, my heart was at home and it died, hard.

As I tried to take smaller steps something flashed into my brain, " Oh hell no!" I started running as fast as I could, until the demon himself caught me

" Esther, c'mon, I have things to do and your wasting my time!" I reluctantly stepped into my father's car which smelled like cocaine and tobacco had a baby and it was adopted by Hieneken and Red Bull. " Hey dad." I said dryly with the slightest bit of annoyance, " How was school?" he answered back with the same exact tone.

I take from my father more than you think, although I'm the spitting image of my mother, I unfortunenately have some of my father's qualities. We are insecure, we don't like talking unless we want to fight, and, oh yeah, we shy away from the opposite sex, to this day, I'm surprised my mother married a man like my dead-beat dad, she must have been desperate.

The ride was quiet, when we finally reached home, I wouldn't have been more surprised if a man had a knife at my chest! The house was a mess, smoke was heavy in the air, forming dark circles on the ceiling. My eyes didn't believe what I was seeing, in the kithen looked as if the food exploded all over the place and fire roared from the stove. I finally knew what was happening, my mother was cooking dinner.

While my father stood there, looking like the jackass he is, I took action. I grabbed the fire extinguisher and put the fire out, then my father and I fanned out the remaining smoke. When the smoke cleared, the damages were ten times worst than when we walked in. The strange thing was that during all the chaos, I didn't see my mother. I went upstairs into my mother's room which awefully smelled like urine, baby powder, onions and Channel perfume.

When I looked in the bathroom, my mother was there, over the toilet, mixing the toxic waste with a mop. " Good afternoon honey, I hope you like icecream and chicken stew!"

I looked into the toilet and saw the broken Channel perfume bottle, onions and baby powder, when I observed more, I was fuming, " Wait, what the hell? That's my bra!" My mother rolled her eyes. " In my defence, I needed flavor, the food looked boring!" I felt heat rise up my body, " You are cooking in a toilet, it's basically crap!" She frowned with disappointment, her mental state is getting worse, and imagine, this happened five times this week.

"What happened?" My father just walked in, looking stupid as usual. " Mom's cooking dinner, again." I absolutely made sure I said this in an angry tone so he would get the message but instead it all went wrong, " Really? Again? Um, I have to go, the boss just called." He dashed out of the bathroom and down the stairs, I've never been so infuriated in my life! After I went down stairs he was sitting in the recliner, drinking a beer. " Why can't you help around here? Mom needs the help, a whole lot of it!" He rolled his eyes and shifted his beefy body towards me.

" Esther, it's not that simple, I took her to a doctor and she put her on so many pills, the bathroom looks like a damn pharmacy. What do you expect me to do?" Rage started to rise inside of me, " I expect you to be a man and take care of the family, instead of wasting your time sitting in that chair with your lazy ass!" He slowly looked up at me, with boiling anger in his eyes " Oh so you don't think my lazy ass doesn't get up and work to put damn clothes on your back? "

I held his gaze, " You know what, I don't have time for this, you make me sick to my stomach!"

He walked towards the fridge, removing another Heineken, " Listen Esther, if you wanna help your mother, you do it yourself! I can't be the only person taking the blame for everything that happens in your life. You need to be independent."

My blood felt like it was boiling, " You dare to tell me to be independent?!?" He was actually telling me to be independent, I have always been alone, washing clothes, cooking dinner, ironing his work clothes and he has the audacity to say I need to be more independent? What am I, his friggin maid?

The thing is, this happens almost everyday, and he doesn't even seem to care,

" Seriously dad, if you can't take care of me nor mom, why did you get married and do the dirty! Cause the last time I checked, you're a father, it's time to start acting like one."

I could see the grimace cross his hard, cold, beaten up face.

" Put yourself in my shoes, you think this is easy? I have to get up and work, and it's hard, you just don't understand."

" Oh really, I don't understand? Well I'm sorry if you're work includes you leaving your wife and daughter to fend for themselves while you just have fun with your little Playboy model wannabe!"

I clearly crossed the line with that comment, his expression was hard as he turned red with bubbling rage, but my comment wasn't just to annoy him, it was true. He thinks that I just sit at home innocently, while he is at 'work', but I know what's going on, I know everything And he denies all of it, like the little prick he is.

The Living room was dead silent. No words were spoke, this is when you enter the danger mode, it's just like in the movies, you hear dead silence then, bam! You are dead.