Hidden Pain at Home

Sad Homelife

     Anthony says his goodbyes to his two best friends James and Tiffany and starts his 6 block trek back to his house. He sadly starts walking, every second slowly getting sadder knowing that he has to go home for the weekend. 

     Anthony steps on to his porch and walks inside where he looks around and he sees his dad drunk and asleep on the chair and then he walks to the kitchen where he sees his mother cooking dinner and about to collapse from working so hard. He whispers to his mother not wanting to wake up his drunk father "I'm going to go do my homework?

     His mother whispers back "Ok honey, I'll summon you when dinner is ready."

     "Bye mom" whispers Anthony. 

     Anthony practically runs to his room as he closes and locks his door. He finishes his homework and almost as soon as he closes his last textbook he hears a knock at his door. He jumps backward and he stays perfectly quiet until he hears his mother's soothing but scared voice saying "Dinner's ready, wash up and join us in the kitchen."

     Anthony calmly said okay to his mom but internally he was questioning the 'us' part scared him. He washed his hands and he slowly walked into the kitchen and quietly sat down.

     His father says "How was school this week, Anthony?"

     Anthony reluctantly responded to the question "It's going fine." Anthony mumbled

     His father yelled, "DON'T YOU MUMBLE TO ME, BOY!!"

     Anthony's mother tried to defend her son, "Joseph, please don't yell at him."

    Anthony's father grabbed Anthony's mom's wrist saying, "DON'T TELL ME WHAT TO DO CANDACE!!!"

     Anthony slowly left with his dinner plate but before he was half way out of the kitchen his father stopped him, stood up, walked toward him, and slapped him across the face. Anthony was bleeding from his mouth a little bit. He saw darkness and he couldn't hear anything. His vision returned only from him to see his mom lying down on the floor with a bruise on her forehead.

     Joseph grabbed two beers from the fridge, plopped down on his chair, turned on HBO, and quickly finished his drinks and fled to the land of slumber. With his wife and son on the floor bruised and bloody and half dead he was ready to sleep.

     Anthony woke up and fled to his room while swiftly locking the door behind him. He just relaxed for a few hours and at 10:49 he waltzed out of his room. He heard his dad snoring from his parents room and he could faintly pick up his mom's quivering from the living room. Anthony slowly sat down next to his mom to talk to her but she was too frightened to even speak. 

     Anthony walked back to his room and he was about to fall asleep at about 11:37 when he heard his father wake up so Anthony just waited in pure terror as the foot steps grew louder. He was dozing off but he wanted to her what was happening just down the hall. In between the waves of slumber hitting him then within his sleep he faintly heard a scream from his mom then he fell asleep.

     The next morning he got up very early so he left his room and got breakfast. It was about 7:20 and he completely forgot that his dad worked on Saturdays and that he left at 7:50. He just poured his milk and then he heard a sound. The bathroom exploded with sound: the shower, sink, toilet, and toothbrush all lit up with sound simultaneously. He realized that he needed to dash to the safety haven of his bedroom. He turned the corner and he ran into his dad. His dad walked past but pushed him down as he was walking past pouring his cereal on the ground. 

     "Clean it up and go to your room, now!" bellowed Joseph

     Anthony obeyed quickly and tried to speed walk away but Joseph tripped Anthony and he scraped his knee really badly. He made it to his room where he stayed until 1:05 when he emerged because of a knock at the door. He opened the door where he saw Tiffany and James, "Hey Tiff, hey Jim..."

     "How's your weekend been?" Tiffany asked.

     "Why would you even ask that, Tiff?" James remarked, "He is the most popular kid in school, his weekend has to be awesome every single week!"

     "Wait! James back up for a hot sec." James walks away. Tiffany whispers to Anthony, "You haven't told him about your dad?"

     "No of course not" Anthony replied, "Why would I? It's pointless!"

     "But you told me? There must have been a point to that!" Tiffany quietly screamed.

     "Yo, you guys done planning your date yet!" James yelled.

     "NO!" They both said at the same time. "You need to tell him now, no arguments!", Tiffany whispers to Anthony.

     "Yo, James. I got something to tell you." Anthony hollers at James, "My dad is a deadbeat cop who doesn't do anything good and well he sorta abuses me and my mom.

     "What the heck Anthony?! You kept this secret from us?" James blurted, "I thought we were pals, bro?!"

     "I didn't keep it from you guys, it was only you." Anthony shared. "Tiff knew since last year."

     James burst out in rage. He refused to believe that his best friends in the world would keep this big of a secret hidden from him. James stormed off and ran until he was out of sight from the two.

     Anthony knows that his dad is almost home from work. So he tells Tiff to leave or she'll get hurt. Tiff leaves Anthony's house with a hug from him and a bad feeling. 

     Anthony and his mother realize that Joseph is late coming home.

     Anthony is relieved when that door doesn't open until 3 1/2 hours late but when the muscular bum cop walks through the door the stench of alcohol becomes very prominent on his jacket. He was drinking and when he walked through the door he stumbled.

     They all eat dinner as a family and then Anthony goes to his room. Joseph had lots of  beers at dinner at a .16 on a breathalyzer. Joseph goes on another on of his crazy rampages against his family.

     Joseph, still drunk and angry, goes to the kitchen where Candace is sitting at the kitchen table. In his blind rage he pulls out his gun and aims it at his wife: he shoots once, then twice, then three times. 

     Anthony hears the shots.

     Joseph grabs a knife, still with his gun in hand and races to the living room. Anthony starts racing for the door. Joseph has one last shot in his gun and he nicks Anthony's heel so Anthony's father takes out the kitchen knife and slashes his side 4.87 inches below his armpit. But Anthony runs out of his neighborhood into the city to his nearest police station.

The End

   I might make a part two