Homeless - Book One

Chapter One: Finally Free

I was playing with my teddy bear when i remembered something. I remembered the glass that I had smashed accidentally that morning. It was a how Summer day in the middle of June, My window was wide open and there was a nice, relieving breeze rushing through the window every now and again. My room was quite small, but I didn't care about that. The thought of my mum and dad running upstairs to smack me and smack me for hours was frightening, I knew I had done something wrong and was shaking a lot. I pretended that my stuffed bear (which had been ripped apart by my dad) was fighting something. I always wanted to fight. I mostly wanted to fight my parents. That was because they would always hit me and I was too small and scared to be able to do anything about it. I was so excited for when I grew up so I could finally get my revenge. I hadn't told anyone what went on at home, though because I was told by my parents that what was happening was normal and it happened to everyone. I continued playing when the front door from the house swung open. My parents were back from the shops. The fear rushed through my veins and I waited for my dad to find some glass and lash out on me. There were bags hitting the kitchen table as my parents were bringing the shopping in. Then,the moment I was scared of happening happened.
"What the actual fuck, Jack!" He screamed at the top of his lungs.
"What's he done, now?" My mum asked, in a fright. My dad told her about the glass. The footsteps then began stomping up the stairs. I had no idea what to do. I got my blue toy box and barricaded the door with it.
"Jack, open the door now, you little shit!" The frightening man yelled as he tried to kick the door down. He managed to kick it down on the third kick.
"What did you think you were doing?" He shouted at me as he picked me up by my left arm and punched me in the face. The next thing I knew, I was on the floor. I had hit the side of my neck on my drawers next to my bed.
"Do you want me to dig up my dead dad's fucking grave and ask him for a new glass?" He screamed again. I was wailing. I couldn't take it anymore. I stuttered the word no as I cried uncontrollably.
"Honey, he's just trying to get a reaction out of you. Don't rise to the little shit." My mum told my dad, while grabbing his arm, trying to pull him away lightly.
"You sit here and fucking think about what you've done!" The man shouted again as he kicked me in the stomach as I was on the floor. My parents walked out of my room and slammed the door. I watched old particles of plaster slowly fall off the wall. I sobbed and sobbed. The pain was unbearable. I really wanted to tell someone, but what if other people had it worse than me? They'd just laugh at me. I climbed into bed with my stuffed bear, My stomach hurt when I got in and my face was pounding, I pulled the covers over me, and cuddled the bear. I only felt safe in bed and in school. I liked it when I was asleep because I wasn't feeling any pain then. All I could do at that point was cry myself to sleep. I didn't get much sleep.

A few hours had passed. I didn't know how many. I woke up as my bedroom door was creaking open. It was a reflex for me to do that. I jumped and looked at my door with my eyes wide open and my eyebrows raised to the top of my head. My dad was creeping behind the door. He wasn't angry and he didn't look like he was about to hit me. I took that as a good sign; he was usually angry when he did anything to me.
"Son..." he muttered under his breath as he opened the door slowly. He had a big frown on his face, but his face said guilt. I asked what was wrong, and then he slowly walked through the door. Despite how calm the situation was, I was still on edge. After all, the abuse happened all my life and I never had any happy moments with him because of it.
"I'm genuinely really sorry about earlier. Do you wanna maybe go get an ice cream from that new shop that just opened in town?" He whispered. It was almost like he was on edge, too, but what was I going to do? I was eight years old and afraid. I had no idea what to say. I had never heard anything like that come out of his mouth before. It automatically brought a tear to my eye.
"Uh, yeah." I whispered back. I said it like it was a question. He then nodded his head and walked out of the room, closing the door behind him. The smile on my face reaches my forehead. I was so excited! He had finally changed! I immediately jumped out of bed being the happiest boy on the planet. I put some nice clothes on: white shorts, and a blue t-shirt. I raced downstairs in glory. I went into the kitchen and watched my dad say goodbye to my mum. My mum gave me a kiss on the head.
"Enjoy your ice cream." She said, in the sweet mum voice every mum does to their toddler. I loved the new atmosphere of my house and just the feelings inside me. I smiled at her, and looked at me dad. He signalled for me to get out of the house, standing at the back door. I rushed outside like I was in a race. I ran through the garden and to the car.
"You're excited, aren't you." My dad said as he smiled. I was excited, he wasn't wrong. It was the happiest day of my life. I was always going to forgive him for what he did because he was finally making it up. I was finally free! He unlocked the car and I jumped in. He got in, too, and we began to drive off the estate.
"So, what flavour are you gonna get?" The kind man asked me.
"I don't know, yet. What flavours are there?" I asked. I was so isolated from the rest of the world before then. I could tell my life was beginning to change.
"Well, they do all sorts like salted caramel, mint, chocolate, banana, even an alcohol flavour!" He laughed at himself. I laughed along. I definitely was not going to get the alcohol flavour.
"I don't know, salted caramel sounds nice." I said. I tried to make more of a sensible subject. He got a little bit too comfortable.
"Well, when we get there, you can go buy it yourself." He told me. I turned to him and smiled. I couldn't believe he was actually letting me buy something! I was over the moon!