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AURORA
«Come on, Parker! Get out of the car. I don't have all day»
I looked up at the roof of the car and, as much as I hated to follow orders, I went down the street. Let's say I didn't have much choice: either I went down, or I was dragged out by force.
I fixed my hair behind my shoulders and waved a hand in front of my face. The sun's rays hit my eyes, forcing me to thin my eyelids to see each other better.
«Come on, take this» said the same voice as before.
I turned around just in time that a backpack flew straight into my arms, with the only few things I owned. To add, it was very light.
«This is your mother's new address» the woman with raven hair who wore the uniform told me «I hope for you that you don't make any more trouble, Parker»
«I'll try to stay away from it, thank you» I bit my tongue.
The woman nodded and got back into the car. She started the engine and disappeared along the way, leaving me alone on the sidewalk.
I shook my head.
That whole thing had happened with surprising speed. Within a month I had found myself (fortunately) out of that cage of crazy people. It was really one of the worst places I've ever been to in my entire life.
I knew I didn't deserve it, but no one had listened to my version of the story. They had preferred to paint me as the bad one just because I wasn't full of money, especially to afford a good lawyer.
Anyway, I was in front of one of those classic house complexes where people... not really rich live. The color, which tended to be a discolored blue, had peeled off the walls.
All the houses seemed deserted, so much so that I asked myself if anyone really lived there or if they had sent me to an abandoned place - which would not have surprised me much.
I took a deep breath and walked along the cemented and gray driveway. Looking around, I couldn't but notice how shabby and decadent that place was. I knew that my mother didn't have many economic possibilities, but getting to live in that place was really surprising, and not in a positive way.
I entered a kind of square that all the apartments had overlooking. It was very bare, except for some plants more dry than anything else. I went up a staircase and stopped in front of door number 16, on the first floor. I knocked a few times against the white wood, which still had very little white.
The door opened with a snap within a few seconds and I could only see a glimmer of the interior of the house, since the chain was still attached to it.
«Who is it?» asked a circumspect voice.
I sighed and shook my head.
«Hi, mom» I said.
I heard a gasp.
The door closed with a thud, leaving me stunned for a moment. But then it opened again and the figure of a woman was in front of me: tall, blonde hair like mine, long and slender legs, narrow waist and two ice-colored eyes, the only thing I hadn't inherited from her.
«Aurora?» my mother said, surprised «What are you doing here?»
«Hold in the enthusiasm, please» I commented sarcastically.
«I'm just... surprised. Weren't there still six months left?» she asked, letting me in.
I entered the house, which fortunately was not in bad shape like the whole complex. The floor was blue carpet, the walls a little yellowed. There was a strange smell in the air, almost moldy, but it was mixed with something else, which was most likely one of the scented incense or candles that my mother always bought. I immediately found myself in the living room that bordered the kitchen, without partition walls. I also glimpsed a short corridor, but I didn't look too far because I answered my mother.
«True, but... they released me six months in advance for good behavior» I replied.
«They didn't warn me...»
«They certainly did, but you might have removed it. Or you just didn't even answer the phone» I shrugged.
I didn't expect anything from my mother: I had stopped doing it when I was five years old. Our relationship had always been so stormy and detached: there was no affection; she simply supported me economically. I mean, she found herself in my way from one day to the next.
My mother began to collect some women's clothes scattered around the living room. It was when she took a white lace bra that I took on a disgusted expression.
«You couldn't have cleaned before?» I said.
«I didn't expect you to arrive» she replied, with a colder tone than before.
«And is it possible to know how you ended up living in a place like this?» I asked, looking around.
«You know, Aurora... with the job I have I can't live in more luxurious apartments. Very often customers come to my house, and I can't take them everywhere. Some neighbors would be complaining» she explained.
«Why do you call them customers? They are men who fuck you for money. At least say it» I spat out.
My mother stopped moving and stared at me furiously, putting her arms against her hips. I looked back, challenging her with my head held high.
There's one thing you should know: my mother was a prostitute, since always. I was used to seeing mature men around the house since I was little, and one of them had been my father, a man I had never met in my life and that I didn't want to know at all. She couldn't afford to do anything else because she had never been to college and found herself pregnant with me early enough.
For her I was just that: the result of a night with a man whose name she didn't even know.
I had hoped that, in the period away from home, she had managed to move on, but it was obvious that she was still at the usual point.
«Don't you dare, Aurora» she threatened me, pointing her finger at me.
«Oh, yes?» I said, tilting my head to the side.
«Thanks to this job you've always had something to eat. You should thank me» she said «I was hoping that in this year and a half you would have matured, but it is obvious that you have not!»
«You know, mom, it's very difficult to mature in a juvenile where girls are cruel on the youngest one. And, just to mention, i was the youngest!» I exclaimed.
Because yes: that same day I was released from a juvenile, where I had been locked up for a year and a half. The sentence provided for two years, but, as I already said, I had been released in advance for good behavior - and I deserved it: I had volunteered, made socially useful jobs and I had never caused a fight; indeed, I was always the one who was beaten from the others.
«Don't be act like the victim now. You and only you made that mess» she screamed, waving her hands in the air.
«Fuck you» I said with clenched teeth.
I walked the corridor with great strides, throwing a punch against the wall and causing a hole in the white plasterboard.
I had never been good at controlling my anger.
«Aurora!»
But I didn't even give her the time to tell me anything else that I slammed the door of my new room and put a pair of headphones on, being in my own world.
