One Who Knows Sorrow

Mia is a depressed seventeen year old. She lives with her mom and little sister. Her dad has been in jail ever since she was born. She has one friend at school and that’s her boyfriend, Bubba. They’ve been together for two years. Whenever she is around him she is the happiest girl. She loves being at school, but hates being at home. Her mom, Ginger, beats her when she gets home. She has been beaten every day for the past five years. At home in her dark room, Mia lays awake in her bed, holding onto her stuff animal.

Next day at school, everything was going great. She is getting good grades and has lunch with Bubba. She has a fun activity in fifth period. The class goes outside for a walk and saw some wild animals. When the class comes back the bell rings for everybody to go home. Mia goes to find Bubba so they can talk before she gets onto the bus. She finds him next to her bus talking to his friends. His friends never like Mia. They would tease her and call her names. When she came up to Bubba she hugs him. He gives her a kiss on her cheek. Bubba’s friends walk away and say they will talk to him later. It’s time for the buses to start loading. She hops onto the bus and goes home.

When she arrives home Mia opens the door and goes straight to her room. She shuts the door and climbs into her bed. She takes out her homework and turns on her lamp. She has a lot of math work to do. When she grabs her pencil out of her book bag her mom yells at her to get in the living room. Mia quickly gets up and walks to the living room. When she gets out there Ginger is sitting on the couch with an angry look on her face. Ginger yells at her “Why did you track mud in the house?!” She starts to take off her belt. Mia backs up slowly. Her mom grabs her arm, pulls her, and throws her on the ground. She lifts up her shirt and whips the belt across her back. Mia screams out in pain. Her mother smiles when she hears Mia’s shrieks. Mia is bawling to her mother “Please mom, don’t!” and “I promise not to do it again!” but she knows that her mom won’t stop for anything. Ginger whips Mia a couple more times. When she stops Mia tries to crawl away, but her mom grabs her ankle, and brings her back. Now Ginger is straddling her and has her pinned. That’s when Ginger starts punching Mia. She punches her in the arms, face, and her sides. Mia’s cheeks are bleeding, there’s blood all over the floor, and her arms are sore. Her mom gets up and looks down on her and grins. Then she kicks her in the side. Ginger grabs her belt and walks to her room cheerfully. She yells out to Mia saying “Clean up your mess before your little sister comes home.”

 Mia cleans up the blood that’s on the floor and walks to the bathroom. She closes the door. She starts crying to herself and wishing that she were dead. She wants to grab a knife and stab herself so she could stop having to deal with this pain. Mia just grabs a cloth and starts cleaning her face. The front door opens and her little sister comes to the door. She knocks and asks Mia if she could help her with her homework. Mia replies softly “Yeah, give me a few minutes.” She finishes cleaning her face. She lifts up her shirt and takes a look at her back in the mirror. There is a lot of red marks and a little bit of bleeding, but it’s okay. Mia walks out of the bathroom and grabs a jacket from her closet. She doesn’t want her little sister knowing that their mom abuses her. Ginger would never hurt her younger kid, she’s the baby child, she could never do that to her.

Later that night when Ginger fell asleep, Mia goes to her little sister’s bed, and tells her that she loves her deeply and no matter what happens she would always love her. Her sister replies saying she loves her too. When Mia goes to bed there were tears in her eyes. At midnight Mia gets up and texts Bubba. She asks if it’s alright if she can come over. He replies with “yeah”. Mia grabs a back pack that’s filled with her phone and charger, spare of clothing, and her favorite stuffed animal. She opens the window in her room and hops out. Her heart feels like it’s being ripped out and being smashed with a hammer. Mia is going to miss her little sister. With tears in her eyes she starts running up the street. Not ever going to look back.