Know Your Enemy

Part 20

I stood there, holding Billie as tightly as I could. I was gonna fall. No - worse, I was gonna pass out. I was supposed to be released from the hospital in an hour, how could this happen, right here, right now? I held onto Billie for dear life, and closed my eyes.
"Scarlett?" Billie asked, "what's wrong? You're trembling..." he started to let go of me, but I held on even tighter.
"Scar! What's wrong?!" Billie was getting scared, and just then, my mom was right behind him.
"Excuse me, young man." She said, as if she'd never seen him before. I let go of Billie, and he turned around, "You need to get your hands off of my daughter, and find your mother, hm?" She demanded. I had forgotten Ollie was beside us until she spoke up.
"I'm his mom," She snapped. "Who do you think you are?"
"I'm Scarlett's mother. And she's coming home with me." My mother said in a voice that gave me chills. She started towards me, but Ollie stepped in front of her.
"I don't think so. You've abused this child enough. I'm not about to let you do it again. So you can leave peacefully or you can make a full blown scene. Your choice." Although Ollie would've scared anyone, it didn't do anything but enrage my mother.
She pushed passed Ollie, knocking her to the ground. Billie left my side and went to his mom, helping her. I was standing in the corner, shaking, when my mom got right up in my face.
"Cmon you little brat!" She snarled, grabbing at my good wrist. I squeezed my eyes shut with fear.
"Someone call 911! We need the cops!" I heard Blake yell. My mother pulled me harder, making me lose control of my crutch, and I fell to the floor. Mike was instantly by my side, and tried helping me up, but my cast was too heavy to get under my body, so I kinda just slumped down.
Just then, I heard a deep voice.
"Ma'am, what's the problem?" A man in uniform asked. It was hospital security.
My mother went off.
"These junkies have abducted my daughter from me! They nearly got her killed!"
"That's not true!! We took her in after you disowned her! She had NO ONE and you LEFT her to DIE." Mike countered, defensively.
All my mom did was glare. Mike backed away, glaring right back. Mom tightened her grip on my wrist, and I managed to stand up, feeling woozy from the morphine and adrenaline and fear and just everything. I couldn't do this. I couldn't go with her.
"Ma'am," the security guard started, "you need to calm down. Just come up to the front desk and -"
"NO!" Mother screamed. "She is coming with ME!"
My head was spinning, vision blackening. Ollie started yelling at her. Then Blake, then the security guard moved towards us... mother loosened her grip on my wrist, and I saw my chance.
I yanked myself away from her, ignoring any pain or weakness I had felt.
"I'm not going with you, Johanna." I called her by her first name. "You kicked me out of your house, and when you did that, I became an adult. I became able to make my own decisions. You don't have the right to take me with you anymore. And if, by some crazy chance, you do, I will run away every single night until you stop looking for me. I can promise you that."
Johanna shook with anger.
"If you ever end up dead, Scarlett Black, I will not take the blame. It will all be on your little boyfriend with his junkie family. Just know that I'm not the enemy. I'm not your enemy."
I laughed sarcastically.
"Oh, but you are. All my life you've put me down, called me weird when I just wanted to be myself! You've been against me I'm every situation possible, and everything I've ever don't is always wrong. Remember Cody? My first boyfriend? Remember how he told me he couldn't be with me anymore because you would catch him after he  had dinner with us? Remember how you would threaten him? Told him that if he didn't believe in God, or if he was a junkie, you would make sure he wouldn't see daylight again? Yeah. He told me all about that. I'm never, ever, coming back. I've found a home for myself, a new family. And I've found out where I belong." Once I finished my speech, I expected her to get even angrier, hell, maybe even call the police to drag my ass back to her house. But she didn't do any of those things. Her face went totally blank, and she straightened her shoulders. Without saying another word, she turned on her heels, and walked calmly out the front door.
I was standing on one foot, supporting myself by leaning against the half-wall in the lobby. Everyone was silent. My gaze kept on the door, waiting for my mother to come back inside with an army or something. We all stood silently for what seemed like years. I felt the adrenaline escaping my body, and my knees began to shake. Billie was by my side once again, and I sorta fell into him, slumped against his chest. He held me, and I cried.

•••

I was released from the hospital at noon as promised. The doctors told me to try to relax and not worry about silly things. They were also putting me on medication to help with those kind of problems.
The next eight weeks were rough. The night terrors I had experienced during my stay at the hospital were still occurring. I wasn't feeling homesick, but I felt lonely. I mean, I had always felt lonely, but up until about four days ago, I hadn't been able to go anywhere by myself. My hard cast was just dreadful. And since Billie and I slept in the same bed, I'd always end up kicking the shit out of him in the middle of the night. He'd get up and go to the couch, but would always be there when I woke. He and I both had dark circles under our eyes from all the stress and stuff. I knew money was always a problem in the Armstrong family. With my hospital bills... it only got worse. Billie had an actual job. He was still playing gigs for money on the weekends, but during the week days, he was a dishwasher at the restaurant his mom worked at. He got shitty pay, and terrible hours. Mike was still going to school. He was getting good grades, but struggling with thoughts about going to college.
Tomorrow  I get my hard cast off, and get to live with a boot cast for about a month. The only good thing about the damn boot is that I'd be able to take it off while sleeping and showering. I was still taking my meds. They helped me. Not as much as the morphine in the hospital - that stuff was seriously like heaven. But the meds themselves helped a lot. I have to admit... I've been taking a couple extra a day, just when I felt anxious or panicky, but I've still got quite a few in my prescription. It's been two months since my crash, but I'm still getting prescribed the same meds since day one. It was weird; when I didn't take my meds, like if I were to skip a day, it was awful. Id totally wig out. I hated it.
The thing was, I hadn't heard or seen of my mother or father since the day I got out of the hospital. I still couldn't tell if that was good or bad news. I tried not to care.
Billie came home early that night. When he walked through the front door, he had a huge smile on his face. I was sitting at the end of the sofa in the living room, watching a really weird soap opera.
"Scar!" He called, "I got my first paycheck!"
I smiled at him, and started to get up, grabbing my crutch.
"No! Don't move I'm coming over there." He said, excitedly, practically running over to me. He sat to the right of me and opened the envelope with his name on it. He took out a piece of paper, and the check. His smile turned into a frown.
"One hundred forty six dollars, thirty two cents." He said, broken.
I knew why this was bad. Billie had been working all month, late hours, as much as he could. He deserved a lot more than what he got.
Billie picked up the piece of paper with the check and read. I tried to read over his shoulder, but his hands were shaking.
He began to shake his head, crumpling the paper, and throwing it, getting up from his spot on the sofa.
"Billie..." I tried.
"They let me go." He said, pinching the bridge of his nose. My eyes widened. He continued.
"In the paper, they said they had 'too many people working there'. What? Me, Mom, and two other people?! What the fuck!"
"Billie, it's okay... you can find another job." I tried to console him.
"What, across town? Fuck that shit. I don't even have money for that kind of gas! Scarlett, we're broke. I don't know how long we can stay here." My heart jumped.
"What do you mean?"
He sighed. "I don't know. I'm gonna go for a drive. I'll be back soon."
He needed his space.
"Okay, be careful. I love you." I called, as he walked out of the house, slamming the door behind him.