If Only She Had Known...

Chapter 3

The cold water feels amazing on my face. I scrub the blood off of my nose and above my eye. Rain walks in.
"That was a stupid thing to do. Your gonna get arrested." She mutters. Rain's always gets angry when I get into fights.
"You heard what that bitch said. She said you deserved to die. And she called you fat. And a freak. And you know what she said about my parents." I snap. My parents are a touchy subject.
"I know. And I'm sorry. But you are gonna have it worse when you end up in prison. And my mom can't keep long or she'll get in trouble too." Rain says sorrowfully. When I was four, my parents out me up for adoption. I was adopted by two thirty something year old people. The woman's name was Jenn, and the man's Rodger. When I was eleven, they started doing heroine and cocaine. I haven't seen them in about three weeks. They have a large amount of cash hidden that I use to keep myself alive.
Rain snaps me out of the flashbacks. She just hugs me. It's not rough hug, or extremely firm. It is warm and slow. A pleasant embrace.
"We should probably go to dinner" she says, and we head down stairs.
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"We're having spaghetti." Ms. Miller says. I sit at the head of the table, and grab a fork. All of the spaghetti sticks together, so I just get a large clump.
"So, besides almost getting arrested, what else did you do at the mall?" Ms. Miller questions us.
"I got a Smash Mouth tee shirt." Rain says, trying to separate the clumps of pasta. "That's really all that happened besides the fight." She continues. Ms. Miller just looks at me, and I know she is disappointed in me. I am used to this look from my own parents, but not from her. I start to flashback.
I'm seven years old, and I didn't make her bed properly. At first Mommy was disappointed, then all there was was anger. She starts screaming at me.
"You are a bad, horrible, ugly, idiotic girl! You don't deserve such kind parents as me and your father!" She chases me down stairs, and I lock myself in the bathroom. I hear Daddy coming.
"That little shit is too loud!" I start sobbing, and his arm punches through the door. He grabs the door knob and unlocks it.
"PLEASE DADDY! NO!" I scream. He grabs my arm, and drags me upstairs. When we go up there, he shoves me into a wall.
"You deserve this." He says, and punches me. Twice. Three times. Then he grabs my hair, and pulls me into his room.
"Bad girls get cut." He takes a pair of scissors, and cuts the back of my neck, under my hair. It stings like lemon juice in a paper cut. Why does he do this to me? I don't deserve this. I feel blood trickle down. I hear a knock at the door. Thank God. He pushes me into the dresser.
"Be quiet! He hisses, and puts on a fake smile to answer the door. I hear him unlock it.
"Hello." I hear our neighbor, Mrs. LeBeouf say. "I hear some yelling. Is everything going okay?" She says, but she doesn't sound very worried.
"Everything is fine. Our little Charlotte is just having a temper tantrum because she can't have two bowls of ice cream. She's calming down now." I hear Daddy say, with a fake laugh at the end.
"Okay. I just wanted to make sure everything was fine" Mrs. LeBeouf says, and I hear Daddy close the door. I start crying again as I hear him come upstairs. He picks me up, and takes me downstairs.
"I'm sorry Daddy! Please no!" I tremble, and he keeps going. Daddy flings open the back door, and walks to the shed.
"Disobedient girls sleep in the shed" he thunders. He shoves me in, and slams the door. I hear him lock it, and I regret wearing shorts in November.

"Charlie! Snap out of it!" I hear Rain yell, and I come back to the present. I look around, and remember where I am. I'm safe here. I reach up, and rub the scar on my neck left by the scissors.
"I'm gonna go take a nap." I mumble. "It's been a long day." I walk away from the table, and go up the stairs. I collapse on the bed in Rain's room, and I can't help but think maybe I really did deserve it.