𝚁𝚄𝙽𝙰𝚆𝙰𝚈 ° racetrack higgins

|THREE|

𝙲𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝟹
"𝚂𝚝𝚛𝚎𝚎𝚝 𝚁𝚊𝚝"

☁︎︎

"What da hell, Tate?" The girl's brother hollered, causing the other kids crammed inside of the room to shy away, scared of the angry seventeen year old. "What were yous thinkin'?"

"I wasn't?" Tatum said with a small shrug. By now, she was sitting on the edge of one of the rickety bunk beds, practically feelings the wood cracking beneath her.

"Then thats were ya went wrong, wasn't it?"

"I suppose." The girl replied meekly, looking down at her dusty boots, doing everything she could not to look her brother in the eyes; she could never stand the look of disappointment she knew Jack was giving her.

She heard him let out a long sigh. "Look, Tate," He said, gaining her attention. "I'm not mad, I'm just..."

"Disappointed? I'se get it."

"Yeah, dats the word; disappointed."

The room fell silent over that, not that that was a hard task. The other kids were silent, not wanting to get in the way of the Kelly boy's wrath. Once it was clear that the hollering was done, however, most of them picked up with their conversations from before Jack had started his rant, acting as if the last five minutes hadn't happened.

☁︎︎

Later that night, as the sun slipped far below the horizon and the room was filled with the soft snoring of the sleeping children, Tate sat alone. Her knees were tucked into her chest and her eyes were locked on the world outside the barred up, grimy window. Though, through the dirt and filth, the only thing she could really see were the street lamps and the bright moon above.

She could feel the tears welling up in her eyes, and how she hated that feeling. If there was one thing the Kelly girl hated, it was crying; it made her feel weak, and in her experience, being weak meant it was easier to be taken advantage of. To be used and toyed with before being kicked to the curb.

"Riffraff," Her voice was soft as to not wake up the sleeping children behind her. "Street rat. I don't buy that." She sighed her eyes lifting away from the street and to the sky. "If only they'd look closer."

The moon seemed to be brighter than before, casting its white light into the darkened room. It shone right onto the young, fifteen year old's face, illuminating the tear streaks that lined her cheeks.

"Would they see a poor girl? No sirree. They'd find out, there's so much more..."

Swallowing the lump in her throat, the girl reached a hand up and wiped her damp cheeks, not wanting anyone to see if one of the kids happened to wake up; she wanted to be stronger than this. With her eyes lifting back up to the sky, she let out a slow, shaky breath.

"To me."

𝚆𝚘𝚛𝚍 𝙲𝚘𝚞𝚗𝚝: 𝟺𝟽𝟾
𝙳𝚊𝚝𝚎: 𝙰𝚙𝚛𝚒𝚕 𝟸𝟷𝚜𝚝, 𝟸𝟶𝟸𝟷