Colors Fade (COMPLETED)

Broken Pictures On The Floor

Author's Note/Disclaimer: If you or a loved one get physically or mentally abused at home, please call a hotline for help, inform authorities, or tell a close friend. Want to talk? My Pm is always open for my readers.

It wasn't just my genes in front of me-- it was cheap perfume, bloody fists, and desperation. Ice ruptured my skin. "Come home." She smiled, opening her arms for a hug. The kind of mother who doesn't know her own daughter. Those same hands had made me bleed and cry, now wanted to hold me.

"H-how did you f-find me?" I stuttered, still trembling with fear and initial shock. My face burned, but my fingertips were still cold.

"That's not important sweetie, what's important is that you're coming home." She lowered her unwelcome arms. I did miss home. Home was my father smiling at a cheesy joke I had told him, but he wasn't at home anymore. She was. I had spent so many years with her, and was thanked with a slap on the face. My eyes glazed with angst and carefully placed acrimony.

"I'll meet you at the car in 2," I was defeated and closed the door behind me and slunk to the floor with despair.

"Uh what just happened? Are you okay?" I had forgotten about Ross. While my world fell away and was drained of color, he was the one to stand in front of me, grazed in light.

"Yeah, I'm going on a trip with my mom, do you mind, um helping me pack?" I lied through my teeth. They couldn't know. It was easier this way. Things had just begun here, so I had no reason to stay.

He shrugged and began pulling things from under the couch like a dog digging a hole, flinging dirt everywhere. I picked up an old t-shirt by the window sill, and instantly got distracted by the buildings. Although it wasn't a great view, flashes of choreographed lights blinked at me. Escape. I couldn't escape this one. I bowed my head slightly.

"Hey don't make me do all the work," Ross complained, "this is your stuff". I faked a smile, I had learned from the best, my mother. I continued with my work, stuffing it into my bag.

"So what did the landlord say?" Serenity glided back into the room. "What's happening?"

"I'm going on a trip with my mom." I couldn't make eye contact. I couldn't remember them as naive to my lies.

"Ooh fun, for how long? Where are you going? Didn't you say your mom was a mess? I might have some of your stuff in my room. Are you gonna come back and visit again? Next time you'll have to stay with me for a month, not a few days." I could tell Ross' wheels were turning inside his head. I hadn't mentioned to anyone but Serenity that this was just a trip. Maybe because I wanted this to be more than a that, but it was too late now. "I finally got that extra key from the manager. I drew a little 'A' so it's yours for keeps. Here." She placed it in the palm of my hand.

I gently traced the 'A' with my finger nail. The golden key was already scratched with small dips and grooves. It made me feel kind of homey, as if I had been here for years. My fingers grasped it tightly.

There was a gentle knock at the door. "That must be my mom--" Thud. Thud. Thud. Crash! My mother threw the door open, she seemed almost barbaric.

"It has been long enough!" Her persona had changed erratically. "You little shit, you think you can fool me?" I tried to speak, inaudible. "Your father thought you were a disgrace and wished you were never born. It should have been you that died, not him!" Each boom of her voice rattled the apartment. Her feet clanging against the floor. She was a hysterical mess, while I awaited my punishment, my eyes partially shut, slouched over and in position.

"And your friend, you think she cares about you? She doesn't. She hates you. Nobody ever wants you," she directed her route towards Serenity. She had never hurt anyone, but me before. She wouldn't? She wouldn't, right? I placed myself in front of my her. Serenity was in shock, never a witness to my average day endurance. Ross quickly joined me by my side.

"And who are you? Her boyfriend?" She bit, "You're a little slut, you know that? A whore. He never will love you, he's just wasting his damn time."

I gulped, strengthening my stance. "You-you- lea-ve them o-out of it." The bravest thing I'd ever said.

She didn't back down, and like a lion she attacked. She dug her fingers into my shoulders and shoved me as hard as she could into the nearest wall. I gasped for air, laboriously breathing. I wasn't done yet. She couldn't do this to my people. My mother, flesh and blood, backed out of the room. I followed close behind her as she fled down the building's hallway, down the stairs, and out the front door. She was muttering things to herself, popping open the trunk of her car. She threw out clothes, pillows, electronics, anything that was previously mine on the sidewalk. "Is this what you want? You want to stay! I knew you'd do this to your father and I. You're a child, Amber, a child!" She did not touch sanity, but continued screaming profanity all the while, anguished. I blinked and she was gone. Ross and Serenity came bursting through the apartment's doors, out of breath.

I took a long sip of the city and shut my eyes, my things scattered at my feet.

"Are you okay? Should we call the police? Where did she go?" They bombarded me with questions I didn't have the answer to.

"Help me get this upstairs, will you?" I heard items clamoring and their footsteps leaving. I grinned at the evening sky. "It's you and me against the world, huh?" I know it's crazy to speak to a city, but this was the home that I had. Los Angeles is the only thing I'd willingly hug.

I gathered the rest of the residue from my past, scattered along the pavement and made my way upstairs. The elevator was working today. As the gentle music played, I felt great. Problems everywhere resolved momentarily.

On the couch, I added onto the pile of my dirty and broken things.

"What now?" Serenity asked.

I took charge as I should had done better earlier. "Now I'm gonna call Valfort's psych ward, she needs help. For now, I don't think we should stay here, Ser pack a few of your favorite things, we'll get a hotel for tonight and by tomorrow, everything will be fine again." I assured myself.

"So much just happened, how are you acting so collected?" She questioned. Honestly, I don't know.

"You guys shouldn't have to go to a hotel, we have extra rooms at my place. I'm sure my parents won't mind, plus everyone else seemed to like you guys." Meeting the parents? Wait till they find out that I have a thing for both of their sons.

"Um, I don't know." It was reminded of Riker. "Maybe it's not such a good idea."

"We should take his invitation, your mother may come back looking for us in nearby hotels" Serenity was right. "Plus I get to see Rocky again!" Oh brother-- Ross's brother. I laughed to myself at my joke.

"I'll take that as a yes," Ross added. Sleepover at the Lynch's, yay.