Choices

Vol 1: chapter 11

"Josie why are you home? And what happened to your face?" Mom says as I walk into the house and see Karen and Holly inside with mom.  "Oh um I'll tell you later, how are you guys?" I say going over to Holly and giving her a hug making her laugh. "We're good, how are you doing?" Karen says smiling at me and Holly. "Yeah I'm alright, I actually want to talk to you about Nancy if that's okay." I say grabbing one of the pictures out of my bag. "She made me lie to you last night, we didn't go to the assembly. We went to a party at Steve Harrington's house. We got into an argument and I go to school today and see that she took pictures of me naked and showed people around the school." I say showing her the picture. "Oh Josie! Is that why you are home." Mom says putting her arm around me. "Nancy sent this around the school? I doubt she would do something that bad over a small argument, and is that Steve in the background?" Karen says, looking at me weirdly. "We got in the argument about Steve, we were kind of both dating him, she found out I was too and tried to fight me, he's in the background because we done stuff, I stopped it before anything but Nancy on the other hand, done the whole thing straight after I left the house." I say patting her on the shoulder. Suddenly we hear Holly scream.

"Holly?" Karen yells before running into Johnathon's room. "The wall!" Holly yells and mom goes up to her urgently. "What did you see? Was the wall moving?" She urges. Holly nods. "Oh my god Josie see I wasn't crazy!" Mom says before going to her again. "Are you sure? Did it look like a monster?" Mom questions before Karen picks her up. "We better go, it's almost her nap time, thanks for telling me about Nancy." Karen says before leaving the house. "Josie I've been talking to will all morning, come look." She says sitting on the bed and patting it for me. "Will, your sister is here, please show her what you showed me." She says calmly, the light shines. "Will? Blink twice if your alive." I say and the light shines twice. "Oh thank god." "Will are you safe?" Mom says and the lights explode. "Oh shit." I say. "Let's go to the store, we need lights." She says jumping up and getting into my car.

"Why does your car reek of drugs?" Mom says as we drive to the store Mom works at. "It doesn't, your smelling things." I say before getting my air freshener out and spraying it, I forgot to spray it earlier. "Hey Donald!" Joyce says as we walk into her store. "Hey Joyce! When should we expect you back?" Donald says as me and mom pick up all of the fairy lights we can find. "My son is missing Donald, at least a month, be considerate." She says grabbing Christmas lights. "Yeah okay." Donald says as he starts ringing us up. "$176.79." He says and we both go through our jackets and pockets. "I have a ten." I say and she pulls out a five. "Look Donald I have been working here for 10 years, never taken a day off never missed a day of work, my son is missing so the least you could do it let this slide, just this once." She says as I spot a phone and add it to the pile. "Fine, you better repay me." He says as we walk out. "You sly bastard." I say laughing as we throw everything into the trunk. "What? We needed the lights." She shrugs and closes the trunk.

"Now what? Where the fuck are we going to hang like 300 packs of fairy lights? Our house isn't that big." I say driving off. "I'll figure it out, you clean your face, you look a state." She says inspecting my face. "She beat you up good, I thought I trained you better." She says grabbing a cigarette from her purse. "You should see her, chunks of hair missing, she's going to have to wear a hat for a while." I say taking a cigarette out of her bag. "Hey! Your 17!" She says taking it out of my mouth. "Oh come on, desperate times call for desperate measures." I plead as we pull into the house. "No, now do your face, I want to talk to Will." She says before unwrapping one box and hiding in a floor cabinet. I go to the bathroom and wash my face with warm water, I look in the mirror and see how bad of a state my face is in. My lip is busted, nose is broken, eye bruised, I mean she got a few good blows in, her daddy probably paid for her to have karate classes. I say as I hear mom crying. "Mom what's wrong?" I say as I see her in the cabinet crying with a pile of lights in her hand. "He's not safe." She says and I pull her into a hug. "He will be."