gaberiel sat shivering in the corner of his closet sized bedroom.
it was his 17th birthday and all that he got was a drunk dad and a missing mother. his brother was too high to care, and his baby sister's screams echoed through the messy and cluttered house.
all that his small room held was a twin sized mattress with a worn pale blue blanket and a thin pillow, a piece of wood with a digital alarm clock that he got for Christmas when he was 9, and, surprisingly, it had a closet. With his clothes separated out into cardboard boxes, the space indented into the wall was just big enough for three medium sized boxes.
he didn't have many toys from her childhood. all of his possessions burned in a fire. Summer in between 5th and 6th grade, his dad came home from work late. he was drunk, he went to the bar after work. two months prier the incident, gaberiel had his birthday. for his 11th birthday, he got several skirts, a few hair bows, and two dresses, from his closest friends, layla and jaiden. His dad was furious with this. he didn't want his son to dress like a girl. his coping mechanism was drinking and smoking. he came home and started smoking. he just threw the butts of the cigarettes to the carpeted floors. gaberiel was off at his friend timothy's house. the house caught fire.
now it was different. six years had passed. his dad still followed his abuse, his mom often left during the nights, scared of her husband. and his brother started doing drugs.
looking over towards the clock, it read 11:13. he was tired. really, he was always tired. but he needed to rest. he had school tomorrow.
