I scowled as another body slammed into my side, watching as they laughed with their friends on their way out of school. I turned my music up a notch, trying to drown out the other kids surrounding me. Day in and day out, it was always the same routine, a routine that I was getting increasingly frustrated with. I tried to remind myself that I only had a few more months in this hellhole and then I'd be free.
Leaving the building on that thought, I felt hope and relief flutter in my gut. Slowly making my way down the sidewalk, preparing for the long hall home, I began to think that today might be a good day.
I was wrong. One minute I was standing, and the next I was sprawled on the ground below, the rough concrete gouging wounds into my palms. Glancing up beneath my hair, I found my current tormentors. Jason Carter and his cronies, grinning sadistically down at me.
"Well, well, well," Jason sneered, "a little kitten trying to make her way home. How adorable."
The cronies cackled behind Jason, stepping up to surround me and stop any means of escape. My body tensed, ready for a fight.
"Where do you think unwanted kittens go?" Jason asked.
"In the garbage, I bet," one of the other boys said, smugly grinning down at me.
"Good idea, Lawrence," said another.
What kind of mother would name her child Lawrence? I thought before they roughly picked me up and dragged me the distance to the school dumpsters. They laughed as they threw me in, and they laughed as they walked away. I hated their laugh, the laughs that haunted my dreams. Today must've been a good day for them, since there was barely any violence.
Standing up from the rotting food and unfinished school papers, I made my way over the edge and continued to trek home, now covered in filth and smelling like a landfill. I passed neighborhood after neighborhood and the farther I went the worse the houses got. On the very edge of town, lay a small rundown apartment buildings.
The building had obviously been a different colour, most likely white, before turning into the shade of a putrid yellow. The metal stairs was rusting and looked like it could collapse at any moment, a lot of the windows were cracked and broken, tarps and duct tape the primary way to fix them. Broken beer bottles and cigarette butts littered the ground, and some trash was left out only for the raccoons to get into it, dragging everything everywhere.
Home sweet home, I sighed, making my way to the top floor where my apartment lay. Digging my keys out of my pocket, I walked into the entry hallway and locked the door behind me. Loud music greeted me, but it wasn't any way to cover up what I knew was happening. I casually made my way to room, rolling my eyes as I heard the bed hit the wall. Plaster from the cracked ceiling dusted down around me, dusting my hair and face with the fine powder.
The inside of my home looked no different than the outside, garbage and broken glass littered the floor, the dishes unwashed and some are started to mold from days of neglect, the walls and ceiling were chipped and cracked, the window was broken ages ago and a thin tarp was in place to try and keep the weather out, and the air was filled with smoke and smelled putrid.
Home sweet home. I reiterated and walked to my room, the only room that was as clean as it could possibly be, I might add. I threw my backpack next to my bed and flopped face first into the mattress, wanting to take a short nap. I curled up underneath the blankets, shoes and coat still on, and promptly fell asleep as fast as I could.
When I awoke, the sun had gone down and casted my room with shadows and darkness. The music from the other room was off and the TV was on, meaning my mother was done with her "work" for the night.
