Breaking the Status Quo

Chapter 1 - Hi, I'm Kayleigh Jennings.

Chapter 1...

Normal teenagers with normal lives wake up to the sound of an alarm clock or because they have to pee. Or if they're lucky they wake up smelling the amazing scent of cooked bacon.

Mmmm, bacon.

But me, I'm not a normal teenager with a normal life.

I wake up to the sound of arguing, shattering beer bottles or wine glasses, and slamming doors. That would be my drunk mom and her hothead boyfriend, Jack, fighting over nothing. They literally fight over nothing at least once a day. And you'd think I'd grow used to it after 4 years, but no. I still have to force myself not to go out there and defend my mom. I still have to force myself to stay out of it and go about my day. Because I know if I do get involved I'll end up with another bruise somewhere on my body that I'll have to cover up with makeup or lie about to my friends. So I try to stay out of it.

Normally, girls with a life like this are quiet and don't do much. They sit alone and rarely smile. They dress in dull colors and cut themselves. They cry about their life everyday.

Well I'm the complete opposite of that.

Hi, I'm Kayleigh Jennings.

~~~

I scrambled out of bed and into the bathroom to take a shower. I didn't exactly get a good nights sleep last night. The Westbrook cheerleaders are headed to Regionals next week and I'm being cheerleaded to a pulp. I understand hard work takes overworking sometimes but I think it's kinda out of hand when I can barely move a muscle after practice.

After drying my hair, brushing my teeth, and putting on my clothes, I walk downstairs to a quiet living room. My mom is sprawled on the couch and Jack is nowhere in sight. Like always, my mother passed out from a night of drinking and Jack probably left early to open up the store.

Okay, so let me explain.

Four years ago my father left my mom and I, no explanation. Mom believes he had another family. Ever since he left, my mother has resorted to alcohol. She thinks it'll solve all her problems but she has yet to figure out, all her drinking has caused nothing but trouble. She lost her job after coming to work drunk for 4 days straight and after a month, we almost got put out on the street because she couldn't pay for the house anymore. One day, she came home and told me to pack all of my things.

"We're moving." she said.

All I remember from that day is thinking how dirty and dangerous our new neighborhood looked. How small and crammed the house was. How scary mom's new "boyfriend" looked.

I remember thinking he looked like an ugly hitman.

He agreed to let us move in with him, no money required. He owned a convenient store up the block so he had a decent amount of money.

"I'm the man who's keeping you off the street, so you treat me with respect, okay?" he spat as he showed me the room I would be staying in.

He and my mom had an agreement. We could stay at his place for free as long as he got to screw mom whenever he wanted. She was rarely sober, so her drunken mind seemed to be okay with that at the time.

But after a couple months, she grew tired of him. She wanted to escape but we had nowhere to go. When my mother started refusing him, he got angry. When he was angry...he hit or punched things. He started out using objects, but after a year he used my mom. Not two years after that, he started using me.

It's fairly easy to piss him off so I try to avoid him. That only works most of the time though. Other times, he swings at me for absolutely no reason at all.