Bad reputation

•One•

•Brooke•

I'm ashamed of my job, yes. But I have to do what needs to be done to keep a roof over my head. I just barely turned 18 but I've moved out of my parents house and bought my own apartment when I was a few weeks away from turning 16. I couldn't take the abuse anymore. It had gotten to the point where it wasn't just mentally abuse anymore. I would get ready for school, trying my hardest to find an outfit that would cover the bruises. Not many people would hire me, they said I was too young. To get the job I have I had to sign a contract and I wasn't allowed to do anything but clean until I was 16.

The day of my 16th birthday was the first day I had ever had a pocket full of cash that wasn't given to me by my parents to buy alcohol or cigarettes to fuel their addictions.

It didn't take long for the rumors to starts spreading around school. Some douche senior came in on his 18th birthday. He couldn't keep his mouth shut. The rumors are worse than what's actually going on. Sometimes it sucks, but you have to deal with it I guess. Just a few more months and I'll be out of this hell hole anyway.

My alarm clock was extra loud when I woke up, maybe it's from the lack of sleep I had because I didn't get home from work until 2 and had to write an essay that I didn't finish until 4:30. It's definitely a sweatpants type day. I walked the few steps from my bed to my shower and began to be rid myself of that pajamas I had been wearing.

As I stepped out of the shower with the towel wrapped around me, I reached for the brush on the sink. I quickly brushed through my hair, drying it a little before putting it in a messy bun. I walked over to my closet, well rack that I found at the dollar store, and grabbed a teeshirt that was folded up in the basket underneath it. I also grabbed undergarments and my sweatpants.

I hummed a song I had heard on the radio once as I got dressed. Once done, I slid on a pair, my only pair, of flip flops and grabbed my apartment key of the little table thing in the makeshift kitchen of this one room shack I call home, and made my way out the door.

I have a car, but only because it was a present from my grandpa before he died. I sometimes think of selling it so I can afford to live somewhere where I don't cook five feet away from where I sleep and two feet away from the bathroom. But if I sold my car, I would have to rely on people to give me rides to and from work. And I don't really have friends willing to go there, I don't have friends at all. I do have one friend, but that's only because he's the only openly gay guy in our graduating class and he's also seen as an outcast.

He made his mom buy me a phone, after very much protest from me. He insisted that he had to have a way to communicate with me outside of school somehow. I picked it up and called him, telling him I was on my way to pick him up. He lives in the nicer apartments a few blocks down from mine. He only lives with his mom, but she's a partner at the biggest law firm around, so money's not really tight for them.

I wish it wasn't a problem for me, I would quit my job and would never have to worry about it again.

"Henley, I swear sometimes I wonder how you get anywhere without your head falling off." I said after he got in the car for the second time. The first time, I had to remind him that he didn't have any shoes on and he had to run back inside and get them.

"That is why I have you. You're the string that keeps my head tied on." He said patting me on the head. I scrunched my shoulders up around my face and crinkled my face. I know this may sound weird, considering my line of work, but I don't like people touching me.

"Mhm." I said backing out of his driveway and continuing on my way to hell.

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"How many calories do you think you can burn by dancing to one song? Whether it be at a dance studio or in you bedroom pretending that you are a superstar." Out heath teacher asked. Don't ask me why, he's weird.

"Why don't you tell us the answer Brooke. You should know better than the rest us." Some chick in the front of the classroom named Mackenzie said, causing everyone to chuckle. I rolled my eyes at her and continued taking notes.

I looked at the clock and hoped the last 300 seconds of the day would go by fast.

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I was walking out the back door at my job when it happened. My car wasn't too far away, but still far enough for what happened that night to happen.

I wish it wouldn't have, but then I wouldn't have the one thing in the world that loves me unconditionally.

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911 words. New story guys. Tell me what you think!

3/4/17