Catalyst

XVII

7 years ago...

-

Lauren Jauregui looks up at the entrance to her temporary home with dread as she pulls into the driveway. She hates the days she doesn't have to stay after school to tutor. More specifically, she hates the days where she has to come home alone. Her brother, Chris, is always at soccer practice, and her sister, Taylor, is reaching the last week of rehearsals before the school play begins its first round of show nights.

She knows it isn't right, but sometimes she really wishes they were the less busy ones out of the three of them.

She drags her feet out of her car and begins her slow, heavy walk to the front door. It's unlocked, as usual, and almost immediately the eerie silence sends her stomach flipping. His car is here, she thinks, did he go out with a friend?

Lauren prays that's where he went, but she knows it's probably too good to be true. Still, thinking she's clear to head to the kitchen for a snack, she walks inside and shuts the door behind her. When she gets to the fridge, she searches around inside to find something good. She sees a carton of eggs, her brother's leftovers from his team dinner last night, and... nothing. Her stomach grumbles.

"Hungry?"

Lauren's spine tenses at the sound of her uncle's voice. She turns to face him, closing the fridge door and gripping at her backpack, "No, just... seeing what we have."

He scoffs and pulls out his wallet, "Let me give you money for dinner, Lauren. It's the least I can do, since I forgot to get groceries."

"That's fine," Lauren tries to back away to the stairs, "I can just—"

"Take it," He growls aggressively, Lauren jumping in her skin and immediately shutting her mouth. He waves ten dollars closer to her face. She flinches and takes them, gulping back a bubble of air.

Before she has a chance to do anything else, he walks off, mumbling something about ungrateful teenagers. Lauren releases a final breath and heads upstairs.

Samuel Jauregui is an interesting man. He thinks he's an insane big shot working some fancy job in government. He wears suits, goes out on the weekends with colleagues, watches football, buys lottery tickets, goes to her brother's games, and her sister's plays, and even a few of Lauren's art shows... and to everyone but Lauren, he lives a seemingly normal life.

Lauren would give anything to be just another one of those ignorant people.

-

Later that evening, Lauren is asleep in her bed. Her siblings had gone to bed some time ago, which he was aware of. Lauren knew he made sure they were asleep before he did anything. She'd always been the only one he ever... picked on.

She doesn't notice her bedroom door opening. Doesn't notice as his feet pad across the wooden floors. Doesn't wake when he drunkenly bumps into the edge of her bed. She does wake, however, when she feels a set of strong hands gripping her shoulders and shaking her violently. She hasn't even opened her eyes before she realizes what's going on.

She saw him asleep before she came up for bed, and thought tonight would be the fifth good night in a row. She thought she'd been keeping up with everything...

"Get up," He growls, his grip on her arms cutting off her circulation. She can smell the Coronas on his breath. Her blankets get dragged to the floor as she stumbles down beside him. He lifts her up casually even despite his drunken state. She trips after him, not entirely woken up.