How you gonna get out of this one, darlin'?
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Contains taboo themes and triggering subject matter.
[the themes reflected in this book have no correspondence to any model used...
My phone's alarm wakes me up at 4:26. Too early for most, but the perfect time for me.
Sitting up from my disheveled "bed" (which really is just an old mattress on the floor), I hiss in pain after stretching. My bed springs must've broken out again. I sigh and stand. I'll worry about the bruises when I come back.
I make my way to my little sister's room in the very back of the house. I stop by my mother's room first and peer inside. I shake my head. I'm not surprised to not see her. It doesn't take too much to figure out where she is. I close her door and continue to Maraiah's room.
When I open her door, my heart immediately warms. With the chaos going around outside, I've made sure her room reflects that of a normal four year old little girl's room. The walls are painted the most obnoxious, Pepto-Bismol pink she could find (a smile makes a way to my face at the memory of her in the store, begging the employee to let her dip her fingers in the paint) with light cyan accents. Of course she has the best bed out of all of us with a canopy hanging over it. Her pink and green covers swallow my little munchkin as she sleeps peacefully.
So peacefully that I'm almost tempted to just let her sleep in. But I can't do that; there's no telling when my mother will come home and who she might bring with her.
I quietly move to open her cream colored curtains to let sunlight inside. I then move the canopy curtains back and sit beside her small body. Moving her covers from over head, I chuckle when I see her mess of dark brown, curly hair flying all around. I move the strands and softly kiss her forehead. My princess stirs but stays sleep. I gently shake her and it does the trick. Her eyelashes flutter open to reveal her beautiful honey brown orbs.
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"Goodmorning, Raiah." I greet softly, rubbing her long, soft curls.
"Mornin' Jojo." She says in her small, four year old voice, sleep still evident in her eyes and her voice.
"How'd you sleep, munchkin?" I ask as she sits up.
"Me hadda good dream, Jojo!" She exclaims. Her eyes are ablaze with excitement and a large smile adorns her face. This view right here, this innocent display of happiness is why I'm still here. Maraiah is my everything, I don't know what I'd do without her.
"Tell me about it." I say as I help her down from her tall bed.
"Me, you, mommy, and Brooklyn," my heart instantly plummets like it does whenever my mother and my older sister are mentioned in the same sentence. But I don't let Raiah see that; she barley understands why Brooke doesn't live with us anymore.
"Moved wit grandpa Joe. And we had a big house, Joey. And a pet giraffe! And we had chocolate cake every night. And-"
She's talking so fast and so much that she doesn't even realize that I ushered her into the bathroom, turned on the shower, and helped her out of her pajamas.
