Suffocate

Chapter 3

Rona's cries can be heard across the hall as I'm starting to wake up. The covers weren't even covering my entire body and I'm wondering where the hell is the beer that I left on my windowsill last night.

"Shit." The damn thing spilt over and now there's beer soaked in the carpet between my bed and the wall. What the hell was I thinking? I did the same shit with that soda from weeks ago.

I get up off the bed from the other side; that's when I notice the rip in my boxers. Not again.

Don't get your head in the gutter, not that there's anything shady about this. My best bet is that I stretched again while sleeping. That's another pair in the garbage.

Just as I'm taking off my boxers, ready to throw them into the small trashcan I have near my bedroom door, it bursts open.

"Mom!" I shriek angrily. Damn this woman. She eyes me with a scowl, like she's not having any of my shit today. When does she ever?

"It's nothing I've never seen before," she hisses at me. I try to cover my bare ass with my old blue comforter, quickly taking a seat on the edge of my bed.

"What do you want?" I ask her. I run my hand through my hair and that's when I feel the stickiness from the beer. Are you serious right now?

"You've been drinking?" she growls out. Mom hastily approaches me, grabbing me by my arm to smell my hand.

"Fuck off, what do you want!" I shout. Shit, my morning has to start like this. Can she just get out?

My mom smacks me hard right across my left cheek. It's almost funny when I see spit fly out of my mouth, landing on the door of my closet.

"Who the fuck do you think you're talking to?" Mom asks me. I glare at her. I hate it how we have the same eyes: tired and angry, and gray in color.

I don't answer her.

Mom moves behind me to reach for the spilt beer bottle between the bed and the wall where my window is. She waves it near my face, grumbling out, "I oughta hit you with this." She bats her brownish-red curls from her face as she looks me over again. "Get out of this room," she starts, her red-nail-polished finger points towards the hallway, "And shut that little sister of yours up. I can't fucking control her." With that, she leaves with a loud sigh. I soon hear the door to her room slam shut, the noise echoing throughout the house.

I don't even dare to raise my hand to rub my face. "Fucking bitch," I mumble. Opening my closet, reaching under into a small compartment box to get a new pair of boxers, I fit my legs through the holes and slip the fabric over my junk and around my hips. I sigh, knowing there's no school today.

What happened to Rona? I find myself asking.

I quickly rush out of the room, entering Ashley and Rona's room, seeing that Rona's curled on her bed with her hands covering her face, crying. Ashley's not in the room, probably because she doesn't want to hear any more of her sister's sobbing.

Being careful not to injure her with my robust build, I fit myself in behind Rona on the smaller bed, pulling her into me, against my chest.

"Rona, what happened?" I ask softly. I take her small hand in mine and squeeze her gently.

I swear, if our mother did something . . .

"Ma-Mommy h-hit me," she whimpers. Rona lets out a sudden, loud cry and starts coughing. I carefully turn her over and hold her head against my chest. As pissed as I'm getting, I can't bring my anger out in front of Verona. I have to calm down.