Stolen Innocence

Chapter Two

“Get up!” I heard Roy yell into my bedroom. When he closed the door behind him I pulled the covers from over myhead to look at my alarm clock. It was 7:00 and as much as I wanted to pull the covers back over my head and wait for the alarm to go off 30 minutes later, I knew that if Roy had towake me up a second time I would be in for it.

I got out of bed, not bothering to make it up and walked across the hall into the bathroom that I shared with my thirteen- year old sister Loreal, who was already at the sink brushing her teeth. “Morning”, I mumbled as began my morning routine. I could hear my brother Josiah being fussed at downstairs by my mother so hurried downstairs in order to make everyone’s morning as peaceful as I possibly could.

I headed to the kitchen and started on breakfast. Today I would keep it simple with egg sandwiches. I poked at the scrambled eggs in the skillet and placed them between two golden pieces of toast and wrapped each sandwich in aluminum foil to keep warm. I assumed we would be eating in the car on the way to school, as I noticed that Loreal was the only one ready.

I could hear my cell phone vibrating as I made my way back into my bedroom. It was a message, from Kyler of course saying that he would be ready in fifteen minutes, which gave me five minutes to get dressed and ten to do hair and make-up.

I was ready in about eight minutes. I felt really careless this morning for some odd reason. Today just seemed like… one of those days. This was, somewhat unexplainable. I went downstairs and grabbed my satchel off the couch and was about to step outside the door with my sandwich until Josiah stopped me. “Did you get lunch money?” he asked with a shaky voice. I whipped around, and looked down at my ten-year old brother. I couldn’t help but noticed his watery eyes and his fearful expression on his face. I noticed a red handprint on his right cheek and instantly felt pity for him.

“Oh meh gawd Joe, what did he do?” I grabbed his chin, making him look up at me.

“I didn’t mean to… it was an accident,” he whined and ran outside to sit on the front steps. It was then, when I noticed the grape juice stain on the carpet in the dining room. Oh boy, I thought to myself. The day was already starting off on a bad start. I walked into the living room to find Roy and my mother cuddled up on the couch together watching Good Morning America.

“What do you want!?” my mother looked at me in disgust with her bloodshot red eyes.

“Lori and Joe need lunch money,” I stated giving my answer to Roy who had jumped off the couch to meet me at the entrance.

“Didn’t I tell you to make them some lunches to take with them?” his breath reeked of brandy and his stance was unstable. He held himself up by propping his hand on the side of the wall.

“We’re out of bread; I used it to make breakfast.” I regretted making that statement just as it left the corners of my lips. The blow was fast. But the stinging pain I felt on my face burned and I could hear my pores screaming for mercy.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered holding back the tears. Kyler’s horn honked outside letting me know he was ready. I started to take steps backwards one at a time, afraid he might strike again. Instead Roy reached into his pocket and pulled out a 50 dollar bill. He held the cash in my face with one hand, and brought his caramel brown hand to my cheek. I flinched as his index finger made its way to my chin. He lifted my chin up and came closer. “You’re gonna pay for this tonight hear? Be home by seven, any later than that, and Imma really lay It on you. Got it?” I could tell that he was furious; by the way his southern country accent came out through his words.

“Yes sir,” I answered, taking the money and grabbing my breakfast in the other hand as I ran out the house. Loreal and Josiah were already making their way up to the school bus that was waiting for them at the bus stop at the front of our yard.