Left To Survive

X

7 PM

꧁ Yara ꧂

My phone buzzed. It was Alisha.

"Hey bitch"

"Hiiii how are you what's up?" I asked.

"Oh I'm alright, just missed you. I hope I'm not disturbing anything-"

That dumb bitch. "Of course not you idiot, I always have time for you." I said. We were both silent for a few seconds. I could feel through the phone that Alisha didn't call for nothing. Something was wrong, or something happened. But I was not pushing her, she could tell me if she wanted to.

And she finally did: "So I got beat up today," she admitted, her voice cracking up. I could feel that it took strength to open up about it.

"Oh Alisha..." I started, but she interrupted me "It's okay, nothing is bleeding or anything, it's just inconvenient because I ended up going home and now I'm missing that physics test and I can only catch up with it in three weeks because the teacher is going-" she rambled on, with every word talking faster. I stopped her.

"Stop right there. Who did it?" I asked. Silence again. "Come on, Lisha, you know this isn't okay. How is the school search going? You need to change schools, this can't go on like this, this is going way too far!" I started raising my voice.

Alisha didn't reply, and I felt that she had started crying. "I'm sorry," I said, "I'm sorry but we have to do something-"

"Just stop yelling at me, please. I know something needs to be done, I feel like shit, and it can't go on... But I need to calm down first please just be here for a bit... Please, Yara"

She was right. I took a deep breath and tried to think of something to say.

"So remember the succulent you got me for my birthday?" I reminded her. She hummed in response, I could hear that she was still crying. "Well, I think it died. " I heard her chuckle lightly. "Now that doesn't surprise me" she said with a cracked voice. "Hey!" I went into defense. "I watered it... sometimes... You said it's easy to take care of!" She chuckled again. "Well it is, you're just very bad."

"Anyways," I said, "you'll have to come take a look at it soon, you're like a plant doctor, just give it a special treatment and it can live on for some more time." Alisha agreed with me.

I could hear her coming back to herself slowly, feeling a tiny bit better. I wished I could do more, she deserved so much better.

We continued talking for an hour more, and then her parents came home and we stopped the conversation.

I took a deep breath. My day was awful. And my mother put me on house arrest for a bad result on a test. She made sure that the door to my room stayed open, and she took away my earphones and told me to not come down for dinner.

I was used to it, and the only reason I was still in this house was for my little brother. I could never leave him alone with her, I had to protect him, make sure he's alright.

But I shouldn't think about myself now. 

I got an idea.

ꕥ ꕥ ꕥ ꕥ ꕥ ꕥ ꕥ ꕥ

30 minutes later

Again I checked my escape route. I did a very bold thing. And I will pay for it later, but there were more important things right now. I just needed to act fast.

I looked back at my door, that I barricaded with a chair. It wouldn't be long before my mom found out I closed it, so I turned back to the window and get one leg out. Then the other. I held the pipeline with both hands. I felt my body shaking from the fear of height, I was about 4 meters high from the ground at the moment. Slowly I let myself slip down, while holding the big tube with my hands and searching for a grip with my legs.

After a few minutes I was down, and I brushed some dust off my clothing. I looked up and saw my mother staring at me through the window with her eyes wide open, infuriated. Shit. SHIT!

I grabbed my backpack with both hands and ran towards my bike, as fast as I could. I heard her coming out of the front door, yelling curse words and running straight towards me, one slipper in her hand. I got my bike, jumped on it and rode as fast as I could.

The first slipper missed me, but the second got me in the head. It went black before my eyes for some seconds, but it didn't really hurt.

The adrenaline still ran through my veins, and I couldn't help the smile spreading on my face. Free. Even if it was for only a bit.

"I'm coming, Lisha," I said.