Stay

Chapter: Three

*Above is a picture of Dave Franco who I imagine playing Alexander*

Scarlett

I sit in my mom's room holding an ice pack over her eye while Ashley holds one over my mom's shoulder. I've wrapped her forehead in gauze and her finger nails are covered in band-aids. She refused to go to the hospital so I have no idea whether or not she has a concussion. I stayed home from school to look after her. It's not the first time this has happened and I tried to convince Ashley to go to school but she refused to leave me here alone fearing that Bruce would come back. He hasn't been back since he did this to my mom.

It took me over an hour to figure out what happened from Ashley and a few bits and pieces from my mom. Ashley had skipped school yesterday to stay home with mom because she knew that Bruce was in a bad mood. Apparently, Bruce was already drunk by 11:00 in the morning. Some time after lunch Bruce got pissed that his salad was cold.... I know, salad is supposed to be cold but in his mind at the time he had a different opinion. Anyways, Bruce chased my mother around the house before she tried running up the stairs, he got a few good punches to her eye too. As she ran up the stairs he grabbed her shirt and pulled her backwards. She fell sideways and hit her head of the banister and then her shoulder took most of the impact on the ground. Bruce stormed off after, leaving Ashley to take care of our mom.

"Hey Ash?" I ask and she looks up at me and my heart breaks at the sight of her. Her eyes are swollen red from crying and there are dark circles around her eyes. She's in the same clothes as yesterday and I can see the blood stains on her shirt. She looks so tired and broken that I can't stand to see her like this.

"Go put on some comfy clothes and climb into bed. Go to sleep, you need it." I say and she hesitates before nodding her head. She secures the ice bag onto my mom's shoulder before leaving the room giving me a small smile. I look down at my mom and run my fingers through her once silky now knotty hair, thinking how did we ever get here. How did our lives become so much of a mess that the responsibilities of everything now fall onto my shoulders? When did it become okay for a seventeen-year-old girl to have to work her butt of to pay her family's bills and be afraid of coming home at night? When was it okay to cry every night with your younger sister because your step-dad just beat you? When was it okay for any of this to happen?

I feel my mom's hand wrap itself around my own and give me a gentle squeeze. I look at my mom through the blurriness in my eyes and see her shedding a few of her own tears. She reaches up with the uninjured arm and wipes the tears away from my face. "I'm so sorry Scarlett. I'll try harder next time." She says. I know she means she's going to try to quit drinking and my heart aches because she says this every time and nothing ever changes. There shouldn't be a next time and there shouldn't have been a time in the first place.

I nod my head not daring to speak because that'll make it real and then I won't be able to handle it. I squeeze her hand once before walking out of the room. I find Ashley curled up in our bed and I crawl in beside her. I wrap myself around her and feel my body relax before drifting off to sleep with thoughts of a better life; my old life, in the back of my mind. I remind myself that I can never get those days back nor can I ever forget the hatred in this home.

"Hey where have you been the last two days?" Alexander asks as I shuffle into biology class. I shake my head at him and trudge over to my seat. Flopping down I slump into my seat and lay my head onto my desk. After the three hour sleep I had the first night I haven't slept since. Bruce came home the second morning and it was mostly quiet but the tension in the house was so thick I could feel it in the air. No one slept last night, not with Bruce downstairs shouting at the TV. Every time he shouted some incoherent words Ashley would flinch and it took me all my strength to not go downstairs and tell him to get the hell out of our house. Mainly because it would create a problem and it was his house. "Hey I asked you a question." Alex says tugging on my elbow and I jump away from him.