Tiny Little Needles

Chapter 3

Alex's POV, 5:57

I rolled over off my stomach and onto my back against the cold wooden floor of my bedroom.

I was covered in a thick blanket of sweat and was breathing heavily after the amount of push ups that I just did which was 347. My new record.

My workout sessions were very important to me. It helped me keep shape more than I needed and it helped me get a lot of girls too. Okay, the last parts a lie but I was in very good shape with a nice six pack that I like to show off. That sounds like I have a lot of pride, but its really not. I stared down at my arms and stared at all the scars that were insanely visible. But these scars weren't self inflicted, they were from abuse. My moms abuse. I lived with her for most of my life, and so did my dad until a few years ago once he found out that my mom abused me. She got so angry that night she hit my harder than I ever had before and that's when I changed. I changed from the skinny kid who had family issues and had to take care of his younger sister to the seventeen year old who has muscle and still has to take care of his five year old sister. It's pretty tough living like this. Whenever I get home my moms always drunk and when ever I open the fridge it's always stocked with different kinds of beer and vodka, and other essentials like water, milk, eggs, apple juice, grapes and strawberries, deli meats, a few onions and carrots and that's about it. It's not that we're poor, it's that my moms cheap and only likes to spend a reasonable amount of money on alcohol. She still pays off the bills but sucks at being a mom. Instead of taking care of my sister, Annie, all she does is just tells me to do it. And I've gotten used to it quite a bit, I help her brush her teeth, I play with her, I make her food and pack her lunches and school bag, help her do her homework, help her with bath time, help her with getting dressed, I read her stories, I sing her to sleep, help scare the monsters out of her closet and from under the bed... I do all the things that you'd expect a mother to do, yet she can't do.

And that's the way it's always been.

But that'll all change soon, once I turn eighteen and have enough money from my job where my income is very good, I'll take Annie and run away from the life I live now. I'll make sure it's on a night where my mom isn't home and is at a bar and she'll come home to an empty house without any trace of evidence. I'll move to an apartment, get a job at the local pizza place and maybe get a girlfriend if I'm lucky.

But I doubt that.

I've tried to run away twice before, but she keeps finding me and dragging me back to this hell hole. The police have never been called before when I run away, if they did, they'll ask why I did it, I'll tell them, they'll search the house, find endless bottles of alcohol, run a blood test on my mom. And there, she's gone. I couldn't do that though, you have no idea how hard it is sometimes. She cuts the phone lines a lot and will hit me if I'm even talking on the phone to one of my friends.

My friends know about her too. They all try to help me, but they have no idea how damn hard it is. They all tried to come over for more than a few hours but I have to get them to leave because my mom would lash out and we'd have this huge argument that Annie always overhears it always. She always asks what's going on but I have to lie for her safety and mine, even though I don't care about myself. If Annie ever finds out she'll tell someone, and than that someone will call the police, and my mom will find out and she'd probably try to kill me. And she'd probably succeed.

But I won't let Annie find out, she's too young. But I know she'll ask me about it later, and I'll lie, but she'll see past the lie and who knows what'll happen after that.

"Alex, get the hell down here!" I heard a voice yell from the bottom of the stairs.

I knew this all too well that it was my mom, and that she was mad and drunk.