Broken Innocence

4. Lost cause

Mia had spent so long praying for her parents to see her. To stop arguing and just be a family again. All she wanted was peace. For it all just to stop. Until it did.

Except it all stopped. Suddenly it was just quiet. So quiet. Because her dad never came home. At first it was a night, then a night became a week. A week became two. And two became three.

The happy little girl began to lose her spark. As she grew older she lost her sense of the world and her place in it.

Despite being well known in school, she always felt out of place. She didn't feel wanted. Not by her dad, her mum, anyone really.

However Mia soon came to realise that people did want her, just for her body. They didn't want her for her. She was pretty and boys liked that. So Mia should be happy, right? She was getting attention. Especially from older guys. Too old for her.

She was only 13 when she had her first drink. She took a bottle from her mother's stash and went to the park to meet Reece one night. Reece would always stick by his best friend, but he could admit he worried for her. The changes from that positive and happy 8 year old to now. Drinking and smoking and dating older guys.

Reece knew Mia better than anyone, and he knew that most of it was fake. The smiles, the laughs, the 'I don't care' attitude. Reece saw right through her. He just couldn't help her. He didn't know how and it killed him inside.

Mia knew herself how much she changed. She would look at the pictures in her room and wouldn't even recognise the girl smiling back at her. But what was she meant to do? Nobody liked her the way she was. Nobody wanted her. If her own parents didn't want her like that then who would?

She had to change. And now people do want her. They like her. It's for the better, right?

...

Mia made her way downstairs, just as her mother walked out of the kitchen.
"Going out again?"
"Why would I want to stay here?" The 15 year old replied
"What a waste you are. Remember darling, all that make up only covers the outside. You're still an ugly little bitch on the inside" Mia was so used to the snide little comments and such, she barely let it affect her anymore.

"You should know"
"I hope you're proud of yourself. Because I'm certainly not. Do you know how you make me look? Am I a complete failure as a mother? I can't believe how selfish you can be" the woman rolled her eyes.

Mia was already mentally drained as it is. Being what everyone else wants you to be yet still never enough was exhausting. She didn't need her mother twisting herself into the victim again.

"Have you ever thought that just maybe not everything is about you" Mia spits before slamming the door behind her.

Outside a car awaits her, holding 2 girls from school and 3 boys 4 years older than them.

Mia couldn't change the past. She couldn't make her mother act like a real mother and she couldn't make her dad come back. She couldn't help the hurt or the anger she felt inside. That would never change.

The only thing that helps is to just drink the pain away. Even if it's only gone for a short while. It's those few hours that the alcohol drowns her, instead of the tears built up inside.

For those few hours, she doesn't feel like a lost cause. She's just... free.

At least for a little bit.