“Lyla, where are you going?” I heard my mother yelling from the front door as I made my way down to the street. The rain was pouring down and it was about twenty degrees outside, but there's only so much nonsense you can take. You do so much for someone, and they are ungrateful.
Ignoring her, I continued walking and turned to a jog. There was only one person I could turn to who could shelter me and help me through this. Who would understand. He always did.
Abriel Darcy swung open his front door and stared at me for a moment.
“Lyles? What's going on? Come inside, it's horrible out there,” he said as he pulled me by my arm to get into the house.
I stood shivering as I took off my shoes.
“Here, hold on a minute. I'm sure my mom's clothes will fit you.” He turned and headed up his giant stairs up the the second floor where the bedrooms were. It didn't take him long to find an outfit and a towel. “You're muddy, so just change in here and leave your clothes on the tile. I'll be in the kitchen when you're done.” He handed me the clothes and I watched him walk out of the room. Abe was always respectful.
I changed into his mother's sweat pants and a soft long sleeve shirt. Luckily, my underwear and bra weren't that wet.
Abe was leaning up against the island counter as he messed around on his phone, but put it away once he saw me walk in. “Want to tell me what happened?” He raised his eyebrow.
“Take a wild guess.” I sighed as I sat onto a bar stool across from him.
“You're mom.”
“Correct, Mr. Darcy. Found needles in her purse. After all I've done to help her, and always defending her when dumb kids talk about her. I helped her be clean, I took care of the bills, repaired the house, worked two jobs once dad left. I've done so much, and she throws it away. She didn't even care when I confronted her. Abe, what am I supposed to do?”
It was hard to keep from breaking down, my chest ached and I could feel the flood of tears behind my eyes. By this point, I should be numb from everything I've been through, but I always find myself feeling hurt. My mom's drug addiction has cost me my family. Not only did my dad walk out four years ago, but right before he left, my mother had shot up while 4 months pregnant. She lost the baby and ultimately, that ruined my dad. He was drinking for a long time, but he couldn't handle being in the same house as my mom, and there was nothing I could do to make him feel better. My mom's side of the family never talks to us, they gave up on her years ago. It was just her and me. She was clean for almost 6 months. Those months were the best I'd ever had with her. She wasn't the greatest during that time because she didn't know how to be a real mom, but she tried and that mean the world to me. Now, she's back to being gone all night and day, leaving a mess everywhere she goes, bringing guys home.
“I've had enough. Our PG&E got shut off today and she had no money to do anything about it, but she's clearly stocked on drugs. So I left.”
“You can stay here as long as you want, you know that, right?”
“Thank you. It looks as though I'm going to have to take you up on that for the first time.”
I watched him as he pulled a cup and cookies out of the cupboards and filled the cup with milk. He knew me so well, even if my eating habits were horrendous. Abriel had been that person who you immediately connected with. We met in my first period class on the first day of high school. We didn't speak to each other but he was polite and smiled, even if he never said a word, he was what kept me coming to school. We sat together at lunch one day a few weeks into the school year and we've been best friends since. It's been four years now. Here we sat, seniors in high school, best friends with two messed up lives. He may be rich, well groomed, and a nice person, but his mother was never home. When he was little she would hire a nanny and when she was actually home, she would hit him. As he got older he stopped accepting it and grew a backbone. There had been plenty of times he had to hold me back from going at her because she made me so angry. Needless to say, I was happy when he put his foot down. She may hit him, but she was afraid of losing him, and he used that against her. Said he was going to leave, go live with his older brother in Nevada. For us being in Oregon, that was a jump, and it scared her. He had to threaten her with CPS a few times. Now whenever she came home she tried sat in her office and worked the whole time, staying out of his way.
