The Baby Between Them

Chapter Four

 "Have you eaten anything today Mum?"

"Mmm." Came the replying groan from the couch.

"Sasha!"

"What Lily?!"

"It's Raegan, Mum... Lily doesn't live here anymore, remember."

"Whatever. She was a selfish bitch anyway." Rae closed her eyes and shook her head.

"She wasn't the selfish one..." She mumbled, before going into the kitchen and wanting to scream at the mess she found there. She'd only cleaned what her mother had used overnight after Rick had gone to sleep, that morning before school and now it looked like she'd had a party. "What the hell happened in here?" Rae called out. She wasn't in the mood for her mother's antics today. She was worried about Nash. He was still in hospital and she hadn't had a chance to visit him today. Plus she was still dwelling on Hunter's text message from the night before.

She hadn't heard from him either and knowing he had been on his way to a robbery in progress made her worry, but she didn't want to seem weird by messaging him again. She'd already sent him more messages last night alone, than she ever had since Nash had put his number into her phone a couple of years ago in case she couldn't get hold of Nash or if it got bad at home and she needed help.

"Got the munchies." Her mother giggled from the couch.

"And forgot how to use the damn dishwasher?" Rae hated everything about this house. Including the lazy twat on the couch... She couldn't blame Lily for making the decision to live with their father when she was eleven. She would too if she didn't think her mother would literally die without her here and as much as she despised the woman who was either high as a kite or drunk or both, on the couch right now, she didn't want her death on her conscience.

"Don't take that tone with me you ungrateful little cow!" Her mother yelled as she stumbled into the kitchen. Her blonde hair was stringy and had started to knot into dreadlocks in parts. Her green eyes looked dead and the only part of fat she could see over her bones, was the small round of her stomach under her singlet. Something else Sasha blamed Rae for.

"Ungrateful? Who's the ungrateful one? Who cleans this house every single day? Who makes sure you eat something? Who makes sure you have enough of your medication to not bloody die? You are the ungrateful shit!" Rae shouted back.

"Language!" Her mother growled as she grabbed a glass from the sink and filled it with straight vodka out of the freezer.

"And where did I learn that?" Rae asked, turning to unpack the dishwasher, so that she could fill it again.

"It's your fault I'm like this! If it wasn't for you, I'd have a great life!"

"This... Again?! I didn't force your legs open and trick Dad into sleeping with you and getting you knocked up when you were my age, to get back at your ex-best friend! I didn't choose to be born and if I had, had a choice, I wouldn't have chosen your pathetic ass to be my mother!" Rae turned just as Sasha threw the now empty glass she was holding. She ducked and narrowly missed having it hit her square in the face. Instead, it smashed against the wall behind her. "You're insane!" Rae yelled, before running out the back door.

"And you're a useless bitch!" Sasha screamed. Rae could hear things smashing in her house, but kept running until she got to the bench in the park that sat beside the river. She always ran here when her mother lost the plot.

* * * * *

"It's nice out here today." Came a familiar deep, husky voice from behind her. Raegan didn't need to look up at the man that the voice belonged to. She'd know it anywhere. "He's safe." She sighed in relief to herself.