Leave Me At the Doorstep

Chapter 1: Somebody's Watching Me (Avery's POV)

Chapter 1

Somebody's Watching Me

Avery's POV

“$22.50,” the clerk said as he rang up the groceries, milk, eggs, bread, and a bit of makeup.

“Um…” I cringed, looking at the twenty dollar bill in my hands. I couldn’t go to school without make-up, then everyone would notice my bruises and ask about them. “I don’t need the cigarettes.” I really didn’t. Well, my daddy didn’t.

“$19.50,” he said as I sighed with relief. I handed him my money and as he gave me my change, I pulled on my baseball cap. I stuffed the make-up into my coat pocket and gave my cap one more tug as I headed out the door so that its shadow masked my face.

I walked all the way home in the cold, staring at my feet. I was scared to walk in the door when I got to the rickety old closet that we call home. I stamped my feet on the ground outside, getting some of the ice and snow off of my boots.

“I don’t care ‘bout your dreams kid!” I heard my dad’s scruffy voice yell as I walked into the kitchen, “I need money for my dreams so you better be in that store tomorrow as soon as the sun rises!”

“But I need an education, and if I do good enough in school, I can get a scholarship to a university and make  better money than I ever could in some old corner shop!” I heard my brother, Julian,  mumble, trying to reason with dad without making him even more upset.

“If you work hard enough in the store, you can make even better than big shot universe city people!” Dad spat.

I prayed that Julian would be silent but apparently, God wasn’t listening because Julian’s voice began to rise.

“That darn corner shop isn’t -”

“You want me to bring out my knife, boy?” Dad whispered through gritted teeth.

“You won’t take that knife out on me.”

“I will if I want to.” There was a pause of silence and I could tell that Julian was holding back tears. I could practically hear his heart shattering into a million peices as he let dad’s words sink in. No matter how much dad seemed to care about Julie, he’d always be willing to pull out a knife on the only son he has. “Get on up to that room!”

I jumped as dad’s voice bellowed throughout the house and Julian’s feet sped up the stairs.

“Hi, daddy,” I said, my voice trembling as I walked into the next room.

“Where are the groceries?”

“Right here. Milk, bread, and eggs.”

“Cigarettes?”

“Girl, I always give you the same twenty dollars and you always come back with the same four things. Where are my cigarettes?” He hissed. And I felt the sharp crack of a hand on  my face.

“They didn’t have the kind you like,” I lied.

“You went to Henry’s Corner Store, where I work?”

“Yes, sir.”

“They never run out of cigarettes.”

I froze as he snatched the bag from my hands, digging through it, searching for his stupid smoking sticks.

I could almost see him shaking me and pulling my hair when he found out that I had used his precious cigarette money on make-up.

“I guess they really were out,” He said, throwing the bag back at me. I sighed with relief, remembering that I had put the make-up in my pocket.  I looked at the yellow egg yolks running out of the bottom of the bag. “You can buy more food next week; there’s no money left.”