One Last Hope

One

✽Jasmine's POV✽

I grabbed my bike and hopped on. Pedaling as hard as I could, I raced down the streets towards the plaza. I turned through different corners before the market finally came into view. I tried to slow down in order to get off, but instead, I fell off my bike and scraped my knee. I cupped my bleeding skin and made a horrid face as I sat there in a  fetal position. Somehow I managed to soldier through it and get up, locking my bike on the bike rack.

"You fell off again?" The normal cashier, Louise, laughed as I approached the door. Louise is an old, short, dark skinned woman. She used to be the librarian when I was in middle school, I wonder what happened. I’ll never have the courage to ask.

"Mmhmm." I grinned, walking down the aisle, trying to remember what it was that I came to buy in the first place. I scanned the section of drinks. Drinks? Did dad send me to get him something to drink? Damn, I should pay attention more often.

"What do you need today, hun?" She asked, following behind me.

"My dad sent me here to get.. to get milk." I hesitated, not so sure if that was what I was looking for.

"You have a bruise on your arm..” She looked at me blankly. “Every time you come in here, you have a new one.. I remember the incident that involved your father three years ago. Your sister was saying that your dad was hitting her. Is your father hurting you again, sweetheart? You can tell me, I won't tell anybody.”

I stayed quiet. Dad doesn't like it when I tell people that he abuses us. Back in the seventh grade, my sister Kaylee told her teacher that dad was gonna beat her up because of her F on the math test. They locked him up in jail for a month until he got one of his rich friends to bail him out. The day before we went to court to tell our side of the story, our uncle came to visit us. He said that if our dad got locked away because of us, he'd hurt our runaway brother, Cody. So that's why we pleaded to the judge that our father was innocent. Kaylee went as far as to start fake crying in front of everyone begging them not to take her daddy away. After a few more visits to court and 5 months of probation, our dad was a free man again.  Our uncle laughed in our faces, admitting that he had no idea where Cody was and he only lied to ensure his brother wouldn't spend a lifetime in jail. Dad took us out of school and started "home schooling" us.

"Sweetie, you need to run away from that man! You can't let him do this to you. You have to stand up for yourself or your never going to be happy." She whispered, handing over the milk. She walked over and handed me a extra large band aid to put on my knee.

"Uh.." I put the money on the counter. "I should go." I said running out the door over to my bike, ignoring the words that she was telling me. Putting the milk in the basket, I rode all the way home, not looking back at the woman.

I waited in the driveway for a few moments, terrified to step into the house. I have to be tough and man up about it. That's my only defense. I stepped in to find my dad sitting on the couch.

"There you are, you little shit." My dad said, viciously swiping the milk out of my hands. He didn’t look satisfied.

"Whats wrong? You wanted milk, didn't you?"  I asked, trying not to make eye contact.

“I said that I wanted fucking 7 up, you retard.” He dumped the milk on my head and then threw the empty container to the floor. “Now pick this fucking mess up!”

“I’m sorry, I thought you wanted milk.” I grabbed the rag and cleaned up the massive white puddle of milk. Once I finished, I got up and made my way to the stairs. I wasn’t going to stand around over here waiting for my next command. Besides, my body was covered in disgusting milk and I’m lactose intolerant.

"Where do you think your going?" He said squeezing my arm full of bruises. I gasped in pain. It felt like a million needles sticking into one area of my skin.

"Upstairs." I said holding back tears of pain. He slapped me across the face.

"Its your turn." He hissed.

"Dad, I’m sorry! I said I was sorry!" I cried, holding my burning red cheek that was just freshly slapped.

"Oh, shut up!" He yelled, throwing me to the floor. It started again. The pain and the abusing. I've grown used to it over the years. However, no matter how used to it I am, the pain will never be less painful than the last. He crashed his fists onto my face several times before kicking me in the shin.

An hour later, I was laying in bed with a frozen piece of meat on my bruised eye and cold cloths all over my body, cooling down the roar of pain.

"Jasmine? You okay?" My twin sister, Kaylee asked, concerned.

"I'm not doing great, but I guess I'm okay." I say, applying pain reliever on my bruises.

"That's good," she said, scrubbing a stain off our fathers shirt. "Ugh, it's gonna take days before I'm done washing all these clothes!"

"Kaylee, let me help you. You look a little tired, plus you’ve got a fever." I said taking the basket of dirty clothes away from her.

"No way. Go back to sleep, I've got this." She said, coughing and holding her head. She snatched the basket back and went back to scrubbing.

I got up and headed towards the bathroom. I grabbed the toilet bowl brush and started scrubbing it with bleach. The bathroom wasn't even dirty but if I didn't start cleaning something to keep me busy, I was going to pull my hair out from boredom. 

Once the bathroom was squeaky clean, I walked into my fathers horrendous room. The floor was completely covered in dirty laundry and empty beer cans. I collected the cans into the recycling trash can and stuffed the laundry into 3 baskets. I walked over to the laundry room and started separating the clothes by colors. I noticed a paper sticking out of his jean pocket and pulled it out. It was a note.

"Dear Jon,

I'm so glad that we found each other again. We've been dating for a few years now and I think it's time we see each other again. Eva would have wanted us to take care of her daughters.. together. I'm hoping that someday you'll move back here and stay with me and my girls. But for now, we're stuck writing silly love letters to each other.

I love you from the bottom of my heart,

Jennifer"

Jennifer? Who's Jennifer? And how does she know my mom? My dad never once mentioned that he had a girlfriend or even a woman named.. Jennifer! This can't be good.. my father is my mothers murderer. This Jennifer lady is getting into business she shouldn't mess with. 

"Mikaylee and Jasmine, get your asses down here!" Dad yelled from downstairs. We walked in to the living room to see him standing in front of a mirror and well dressed in suit and tie.

"What's going on?" I asked him.

"We're moving back to California." He grinned. My eyes widened. We moved away from California when mom died and my brother ran away 5 years ago.

"What's the catch?" Kaylee said, not happy of the thought of moving back.

"I'm getting remarried!" Dad smirked.

"M-married!?" I said, wiping the smile off my face. I didn't think he was actually going to marry the girl from the love letter. 

"Daddy, don't bring more people into our family of problems! Just don't!" Kaylee begged him.

"Are you gonna kill this girl too?" I inquired, referring to when he killed our mother. How can he honestly marry somebody else? Being in love is no excuse because he and my mother were so in love just five years ago and.. well, he killed her. He never gave us an explanation, I don't think he ever will.

"Look, you two little brats better not ruin this for me! I'm not going to screw it up this time," He whispered. "You're going to act like we're a big happy family, like we don't know what happened to mom, and that I don't hit you guys. You're going to have a two new sisters! They're the same age as both of you. We can all be happy again. Just don't ruin this! Or you will learn the greatest consequences ever."