Angel

Chapter 7

Surprisingly the sun didn't interrupt my sleeping the next morning. I didn't rise from the dead until almost 11:45 am.

Mr. Tom told us yesterday that he wouldn't be holding class Sunday - Wednesday every week, so I had no plans for the day.

I sent Zack a text, asking if he wanted to do something. When he finally replied, he said that he had to help his dad with his job, whatever that meant. It sounded like a sorry excuse, but I ignored it.

My mom was at work, and she wouldn't be home until around five. I'm sure she wouldn't be in the mood to spend any time around a human being by that time, so I decided to look for things to do around this sorry town.

After surfing the web for about 10 minutes, I found a bowling alley and an arcade within 3 miles of the neighborhood.

I realized I couldn't leave my brothers here by themselves, and they'd like bowling better, so that's what I decided on.

Maybe if I took my brothers some place fun, they would actually appreciate my existence.

I went downstairs to see both of them at the pathetic dinning table we had in the kitchen, gobbling down something that looked like a hamburger, but I couldn't exactly tell what it was.

I trudged over to the table and took a seat in one of the four wooden chairs around it. They didn't seem very interested in anything other than the food, which I could now see were poorly made cheeseburgers, that they were shoving down their throats.

I watched as they ate, but after a while I got impatient. "So, I don't have any plans, so I was wondering if you guys wanted to go bowling.."

There heads shot up, eyes wide as if they'd seen a ghost. Almost in perfect unison, they screamed, "Yes!"

Looks like we're going bowling. That's when I noticed their appearance. Both of them had messy hair, stained clothes on, and noticeably unbrushed teeth.

"Go get ready." I said, grossed out at the amount of concern they took of their hygiene.

"Make yourself look decent." They got up and began to clean their eating area. I got out of my chair and pushed it back under the table with the unpleasant sound of it sliding against the tile floor. I left the boys to go get ready myself.

***

Once I had showered, masked my face in makeup, and doused myself in perfume, we started the long, tiring walk to the bowling alley.

Maybe I wasn't the smarted person ever, to make two nine year olds walk down the side of the highway, but hey, they seemed to be having fun.

Charlie and Matt were both giggling and laughing almost the whole way there. It was kind of nice to actually see them happy.

Mom wasn't as good as dad was when it came to taking care of them. She definitely didn't care as much as Dad always did if they were ever happy or not. And it's not easy to explain to seven year olds why their father, that they so dearly loved, up and left them.

It was pretty crowded at the bowling alley, which didn't surprise me considering it was the weekend. I had just enough money for all three of us to play, and for a drink for Charlie.

Luckily, there were a few empty lanes left. The boys practically dragged me to the first one in sight.

The boys insisted I go first, so I went and picked up a tie dyed pink and blue bowling ball.

I realized I hadn't bowled in years. I was probably 12 the last time I did.

That was back when the whole family would go out every Friday night, just to spend time together. Those were the good days, when none of us had anything to worry about.

After Dad left, it all kind of collapsed. Even though he was a total ass when it came to the subject of me, he was the only thing holding the family together back then.

I walked up to the foul line, getting in the position to roll the ball down the lane. I made eye contact with the ten pins, challenging them to withstand the strike I was about to roll at them.

I brought my arm back, swung it forward and let go of the ball. 9 pins down. That was pretty damn good.

I ended up getting a spare. Matt wanted to go next, and Charlie, being the brother with a heart, let him.

After Matt, Charlie went, and we repeated that cycle over and over. Eventually, I grew tired of the game, so I let the boys take my turns.

I had been sitting in one of the uncomfortable, twisty chairs the bowling alley provided for probably an hour when my phone buzzed in my hand. Which, by the way, scared the absolute shit out of me. Hoping it was Zack for some reason, I quickly looked to see what the notification was. Fuck.

I had forgotten to tell my mom about my plans. She was bombarding my phone with text messages. I replied, telling her where we were and that we would be on the way home as soon as possible.

I went back over to my brothers, who were both engaged in the game. I stopped Matt from rolling a black bowling ball down the lane and said, "It's time to go, guys."

I grabbed the drink that Charlie bought and turned to leave. It took me at least five minutes to persuade them to come with me.

We quickly headed towards the exit of the building. I opened the doorway to the humid Georgia air and held it open for my brothers, and two other ladies who took advantage of my act of kindness.

I walked out into the parking lot, not realizing that my mom was parked on the opposite end from where we were standing.

Charlie and Matt must have because they ran over to the car. I heard Mom yell at them to get in and stay in, no matter what.

That didn't sound nice at all. She got out, heading towards me. She looked furious. Something must have gone wrong at work.

Surely she wasn't mad at me. I just made a slight mistake! I had it all under control! And after all I was just trying to be a nice sister.

The closer she got, the faster my heart raced. I could see it in her eyes. Pure anger, maybe even evil.

What had gotten into her? She got right up in my face. The woman standing right in front of me wasn't my mom. It was like something had taken control of her. She hadn't looked like this in years. She hadn't given into her anger issues in forever.

I tried to back away, but it was as if my feet were glued to the ground. I was too scared to move or speak.

"Did you think it was a good idea?" She was yelling at me as loud as she possibly could. "To bring your little brothers down a dangerous highway? They could be dead! And all because you wanted to fucking bowl? How stupid could you be? How fucking stupid could you be?" Everyone was beginning to stare at us, mainly her.

I was about to grasp the nerve to reply to her when she smacked me across the face. Hard. The impact almost knocked me over. But she hadn't had enough just yet.

Within seconds, she punched me in the face several times, over and over. I could feel the blood from my nose trickling down to my chin. That time the impact did knock me down onto the rocky pavement. I probably had tons of scrapes from the fall.

I just laid there. I couldn't move, didn't want to. The pain was unbearable. I just wanted to sleep. To die. I heard several sounds over the ringing in my ears. Yelling. Arguing. My mom's voice. An unknown, deep, manly voice. Sirens..

Someone picked me up, maybe several people, and took me to a car. I was guessing it was an ambulance.

I was laying on something, probably a gurney. I didn't really care where I was.

My head was spinning, and my thoughts were no longer clear. I could barely feel anymore.

The darkness was trying to pull me into its black hole. I tried to fight, to push it away. But I was too tired, too tired of trying, so I let go. I let everything go, and allowed the darkness to engulf me.