Age Ain't Nothing But A Number

Supporting His Habits

Supporting His Habit

 

      It was seven am, time for school.  Sarah woke up from her single mattress on the floor of a rundown New York City apartment that she shared with her father.  She always woke herself up because school was her only salvation from the life she lived.  A life that has always been filled with drug addicted parents and hatred for the disgusting crime filled neighborhood that she’s always known.  She went into the bathroom of the apartment.  She began to get dress for school, but when she looked at her shirt she noticed that there was a big hole near the front pocket.  A rat had chewed straight through it.  She was very much fed up with living this way; she felt like she could just set the whole building on fire.  This was the last of any decent clothes she had left.  That meant instead of just stealing some breakfast this morning, she was also going to have to steal something to where.  She put on a plain white T-shirt, grabbed her book sack, and headed for the door.  When she came to the living room her father was sitting on the single chair that was placed in the corner of the room.  He looked high and she knew that just the sight of her could set him off into a spiral of anger.  She put her head down and walked passed him hoping he wouldn’t mess with her. He picked up his head and spotted her crossing the room.

Russell:  Where are you going?

Sarah:  To school.

Russell:  You bring your ass straight home afterwards, you hear me.  You hear me you little bitch?

Sarah:   Yeah, I hear you.  (Mumbling)  You’ll be too high to notice anyway, fucking junkie.

Russell:  What’d you say to me?

 

      He jumped up and charged after her.  He grabbed her by the arm and swung her around.  Then he pushed her up against the wall by her neck. 

Russell:  What’d you say?

 

      Sarah took a deep breath.

Sarah:  Nothing.

 

      He released her and she walked out holding back her tears.  She went to a local downtown mall.  She snuck in. She knew that if no one would see her then no one would get suspicious, and she could get away with what she needed.  She grabbed a cheap shirt that had no security device on it, went into the dressing room and put it on.  Then she snuck right back out.  Next it was a local grocery store.  She quickly walked in stuck two honey buns and a small milk carton in her book sack and got out.  She was pretty good at it, so she never got caught.

 

      Sarah had one friend in school, a girl named Christina.  She tried to take care of Sarah, because Sarah always looked out for her when it came to bullies and stuff.  And even though Sarah was a very urban black girl and Christina was the whitest white girl they loved each other like sisters.  But Christina’s parents would never approve her of hanging with someone like Sarah.  They were very stereotypical people.  Still, Christina did what she could.

Christina:  Hey girl, did you eat something?

Sarah:  Yeah, I stopped at a store and grabbed something.