Lotus

Hurt

It has been a few days since I have been at the group home in Victoria, British Columbia. Sage is my closest friend, other than Malik. But troubles lay between these walls. This is not a home for us, this is a house we reside in without the ability to defend one another.

"I'm not surprised her family is full of druggies, I read through her papers and she's Dominican," a worker named Sandra said once, narrowing her eyes as I peered around the corner of the wall, listening to the disgusting words her mouth let out. My heart trembled, my body shivered. 

I ran off to Sage and I's room, sitting on the bed, clenching a fist and placing it in my hoodie pockets, biting my tongue trying not to cry. I hear the door swing open. I glimpsed up shyly, seeing Sage at the door with a face of pure anger.

"You can't let them speak about you like that, girl." She grumbled, moving towards me and sitting down on the bed. She glanced into my eyes. "At first it's hard." She said lower, "but they don't give a single fuck about us, they're workers, not parents." She whispered, looking deeper into my amber eyes.

I nodded cooperatively, frowning a little. But she smiled, showing her gorgeous teeth, with braces glued down on them. As soon as I saw her whimsical smile, I smiled too. I felt butterflies flutter inside me like a wave of colourful wings sweeping inside me.

----

That night, I was too afraid to fall asleep, afraid that I wouldn't hear the vile words those workers would say. There was maybe one worker who would defend us, but he was never there. His name was Oliver. 

"Don't leave Malcolm alone in the dark." One worker said in her prissy voice, bitter and unloving. "We might lose him." She said, referring to his skin tone, which I thought was gorgeous. He had the most beautifully rich colour to his skin. 

"How could you be so cruel to these kids!?" Oliver once snapped at Sandra. He didn't get all up in her voice, he just stayed sat beside Malcolm. Calm but assertive. 

"They've been through enough, they don't need your cruel behaviour... Racism is childish. Grow up, hm?" He said in a haughty and knowledgable tone, maker her bratty voice seem like that of a 12 year olds'.

Sandra stopped saying nasty things about us after that time. But like everything, once a threat is gone, the horrid behaviour just comes right back, and I couldn't deal with it.

---

"How's this gonna work?" Sage asked me, as we sat in our room in front of one another, discussing plans to run away from the awful group home. 

I bit my lip, shrugging. I held my pencil in my hands, tapping it against the floor. "I don't know, Sage." 

Sage groaned, her black hair flowing behind her as she swung her head back dramatically. "Okay, I have a friend named Madison, she lives with her boyfriend. His names Jay. They got their own place ." She told me quietly so no workers heard.

"So we're gonna go there?" I asked, moving closer.

Sage smiled, moving her face closer to mine. "Yup."

[hhhhhh aight im so bored ion even know what to do in tech so im finna write dis shit]