Seven

1

Reason number one: family.

I probably have the most dysfunctional family in town. Nobody really knows about my family. Ultimately, I have a poor, near bankrupt family with a mom so sick that she can't remember my name half the time and a step dad so awful that he has tried to kick me out of the house on multiple occasions.

"Mom, I'm home!" I call, walking in the door after school one Wednesday afternoon.

"What, I get no hello?"

"I'm sorry, hi Jared," I greet to my step father. I'm actually not sorry. Jared is just about my least favorite person in the world.

"Yeah, bitch, you better be sorry," Jared snaps, slapping my butt as he walks by. It takes every ounce of strength inside me not to fight back and do anything. He bothers me so much, but I know what he'll do to me. As much as I want to stand up for myself, I also don't want to be abused by him.

"I have to work on a project for school so I was thinking about going down to the library to work on it, would that be alright?" I ask.

"I don't give a fuck."

"Alright," I mumble.

"Be home by dinner, your mother is cooking."

"Okay, thank you."

Before anything else comes, I leave the house and go down to my car in the driveway.

That's the thing with this family. Jared was born into an extremely rich family, thus inheriting very large amounts of money, therefore allowing him to buy the nice house that we live in. He also bought me a car on my sixteenth birthday last year simply so that "he wouldn't have to drive my ass around town anymore." Other than the house and my car, Jared doesn't use his money to pay for shit. My mother and I are left to fund the rest by ourselves, despite the fact that mom and Jared are married. I'm telling you, my family is fucked up.

My mom is different, too.  When I was younger, my mother was in the army.  She was overseas before I was born, then she was home for two years, and then when I was about a year old, she was deployed again.  She was overseas during that tour for almost two years and then when she came back, my father (whom had been taking care of me while Mom was away) left me with her for one day, and simply never came home.  My parents had never gotten married, they were just dating and with a child, so I guess it wasn't hard for him to disappear.  Since that day, none of us have heard from him again, but my mother says that he was a great guy.  I find that hard to believe with the whole abandoning thing.

Other than the past, my mother is still left being in a quality that is not the best.  Since she was in war, she's had horrible post traumatic stress disorder that leaves her in a state that seems unbearable.  A lot of the time, she can't even recognize me since she's so distracted.  She's never able to fight back against Jared, no matter how horrible he's acting.

After spending a while at the library, it's 5:45 when I realize that I should be going home by now.  We usually eat around now, so I'm hoping that Mom is running a little behind so Jared doesn't get mad.

Speeding home, I run inside to unfortunately find my mom and Jared already sitting at the table.

"Mackenzie," My mother smiles.  At least she could remember my name today.

"Hi Mom," I say, giving her a hug.

"Where the fuck have you been?" Jared snaps, standing from the table.

"I'm sorry I'm late, I lost track of time at the library."

"I've had enough of your shit," Jared announces, grabbing me by the wrist.  He drags me into his messy bedroom, where he immediately slams the door and pins me against the wall, his forearm locked in front of my throat.  "You're always lying to me and your mother!  You're an irresponsible piece of shit and you need to get that through your worthless mind.  You know that I don't give a fuck about you, but when your own mother is cooking you dinner, the least you could fucking do is show up on time."