The Lemonade Stand

1 - A Place in this World

It's third return. Lol. Three times the charm? :P

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Chapter 1

The first sight I saw when I woke up was my reflection in the mirror. Bought for ten dollars at a neighborhood yard sale, it rested against the wall opposite of my twin sized bed and sported a thick curved cut from the top left to the bottom right, not to mention four chipped corners. My brunette locks tangled in each and every direction and as I tugged, trying to get my fingers through this overwhelming forest I called hair, it just got worse. Bed hair is not something I’m quite fond of.

The second sight was discovering my mother passed out on my bedroom floor when I slipped myself off the bed from under the comforter and narrowly missed making a footstep imprint on her dainty little face. Limply clutching onto a half drunken glass of red Bordeaux, she looked rather peaceful for now. You did not want to see her in one of her mood swings. Lucky you didn’t have to experience them almost four times a week. Me on the other hand, I was less fortunate.

I stepped over her body that reeked of alochol; the smell slipping into the atmosphere. I had gotten used to the stench since I came home to it twenty four seven, but I spritzed some Wonderstruck fragrance into the air anyways.

Heading into the bathroom to comb out the hairy beast living on the top of my head, I heard the rattles of pots and pans in the kitchen. Please be happy. Please be happy. I pleaded in my thoughts as I felt the floor vibrate with each step my dad made towards the hallway and to his only child.

“Hazel, didn’t I tell you to wash the dishes last night?” His voice boomed and was followed with silence. I knew talking back would just leave me with a red painful slap so I kept my mouth shut and started spitting out lies to please him.

“Sorry dad, I’ll do it after I get ready for school okay?” I said, hoping my fake sincerity was convincing enough for him to believe.

 It was actually my mother’s responsibility to clean up last night’s dinner, but like always, she drained another two bottles of beer (I bet you the empty glasses are still lined up on the coffee table in the living room) instead of doing what she was supposed to do. It was nothing out of the ordinary.

If she actually went out to get a job so she can support her family and was a good parent who valued in nourishing her daughter more than being wasted, I might have half expected her to rinse the dirty dishes left piled high in the sink. But that wasn’t how Lucy Scott, a girl who dropped out of college one and a half years in after learning partying hard until the wee hours of the morning wouldn’t earn her a diploma, rolled.

“You better. If I see a single plate when I get home from work, this hand will be meeting that pretty face of yours and we both know I don’t want to make a dent in your beauty.” Like that ever stopped him. He didn’t know how much foundation I needed to add to hide the bruises, the secrets of my home life.

He left after his threats put fear into my eyes, complaining to himself about how my mom was a lost cause and mumbling swear words under his breath. I still wondered why he hasn’t left her yet. They could’ve had it all, could’ve had perfection in their grasps with the fact that my father’s parents were a little heavy on the dough.

Once my parents ran away to tie the knot in a sleazy church outside of Las Vegas though, my grandparents noticed the sudden plunge in their bank accounts. Realizing Derek, their precious son, married a woman who drowned herself with his money to get high, they disowned him and that led to a downward spiral for my guardians.

I was born a year later. Wish I hadn’t though. If I had a choice, I’d stay in her womb; better yet I’d wish they didn’t decide to get frisky the night of their high school reunion. It was a miracle I came out okay, knowing my mother’s alcoholic background. I guess my parents were a perfect pair considering how failed their lives turned out to be because of the decisions they made without even thinking about any consequences, about the possibility that their child would have to put up with their mistakes too.