Scandalous (Slow Updates)

Eighteen

Song: Sunset- Davichi 

**TRIGGER WARNING** There are some instances of abuse in the beginning of this chapter. Take care of yourself if you choose to read it, and always feel free to skip over it. You matter most. 

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"Kara Gianna Bell. Get your ass up right this second!"

I didn't even have a second to move my body before nails dug into my scalp and dragged me up by the roots of my hair. I wailed out in agony as I gripped the fingers tangled in my hair. My eyes snapped open to find my furious mother standing above me, dragging me to the middle of the living room to throw me to the floor. I glanced around me, finally noticing the state of the room. Bottles, cups, and some indecent objects littered the living room. The broken stereo was still wedged in the corner, and there were a couple stains from who knows what in various places around the room.

Which meant I was screwed. Royally screwed. 

"After everything you've done, you have the audacity to tear my home apart for one of your little slutty, dope filled parties?" She shook her head, the chuckle that escaped her throat dripping with menace. "I should expect nothing less from a worthless child!" 

It hurt. But I would never admit that to her. So, I rose to my knees. "You have no right to talk to me that way--" 

She slapped me hard across the face. "I will talk to you any way I want to! I am your mother, and you will respect me, dammit!" She pulled the waist band of her blazer down and dusted her hands off, as if she had just touched the filthiest thing in the world. Her eyes sliced to mine, seething with hatred. "I want you out. Now. I've had it up to here with you and I am not going to be responsible for your behaviors any longer. Don't bother taking a damn thing from here because none of it belongs to you. Get the hell out of my house and never come back." 

I bitterly laughed as I finally stood. "But my stuff--" 

"I said get out! Now, Kara." 

I defiantly stood my ground and began marching back to my room. Before I could even reach the hallway, she had me by my hair again, dragging me toward the front door. "Let go of me!" I yelled, thrashing in her arms as I pulled at her hands, but she didn't let up until she opened the front door and shoved me out. I tripped down the stairs and scraped my knee against the concrete as I fell. She slammed the door. I whimpered from the pain radiating in my knee before slowly climbing back on my feet, anger and heartache vibrating in my body. 

"You crazy bitch!" I screamed, grabbing the closest thing, which just so happened to be a rock, and wired it at the house. It managed to shatter the left pane of the bay window. I figured I better get out of there before she came for me for that too, so I wobbled across the neighbors yard and onto the sidewalk, walking to who knows where. I didn't even realize I was crying until I wiped my hand across my face. As I continued walking, broken sobs escaped my lips, and I eventually had to stop at a bench alongside the street because everything I was feeling inside was so overwhelming, I could barely breathe. I never had a home to begin with, given the relationship I had with my mother. But after that, I truly had nowhere to call home. It was an ache that had been trapped for years and was just then pouring out like the gush of a river. It was an ache so deep I had to physically clutch my chest, as if that would slow the rush of the indescribable pain I had kept buried for so long. 

Eventually, I calmed, and I decided that it was going to do me no good to sit around and feel sorry for myself. So, I began limping toward downtown. When I began my descent down the hill that led to town, Landon's pickup truck came to a slow beside me. He rolled down the window, concern evident in his eyes. "Kara? What are you doing out here? And what happened to your knees?"