Short Stories

The Music Room- Part 4

"So, Cierra, what's your friend group?" I ask her as we sit down on her bed. 

"The popular girls, as much as I thought I wouldn't be one, I am." She replies with a grin. 'i'm so weird but apparently I fit in with the popular girls. What about you?" 

"I'm a loner. I know one guy but that's it except you." I say as I look through music on Netflix to listen to while we talk. 

"A guy? What's his name?" She asks with a smirk. 

"Autumn, he walked in while I was singing in the band room and sang with me. We went out yesterday and became friends really quickly." I explained, leaving out that I'm going on a date with him tomorrow. 

"Autumn?! I have classes with him, he's the most popular guy in school." She says with a surprised look on her face. 

I laugh. "He told me that when we had to go back to class the first day. He said that he would mess up my loner reputation if I walked to class with him." 

"So... do you like him?" Cierra asks in a singsong voice. 

"Maybeeee." I chime back in the same voice. 

"OMG, you do like him!" She says excitedly. 

"I mean, I wouldn't be going on a date with someone I didn't like." I reply with grin, knowing she was going to fangirl. 

"OMG! A date! Aweeee!" She squeals. "Wait! Does he know about your mom and why you guys left here last year?" 

"He brought me to the hospital when he saw I had somehow gotten hurt and I told him about my mom being a drunk. I haven't told him why yet." 

"You better tell him soon or eventually. He needs to know if you're gonna date him." 

"I know. I'll tell him eventually. He was the reason that my mom broke my ribs but he didn't do it on purpose. My mom saw me hug him as he dropped me off and I'm mad at myself for hugging him. But I can't change what happened." I explain to her. "he doesn't need to know why yet. I don't want him to worry anymore." 

"Yeah, that's understandable but if it gets to be a month of you guys dating and you still haven't told him, I'll tell myself." She states sternly. 

I nod and we spend the night just talking and catching up. 

~The Next Morning~ 

I wake up with a missed call from a number I don't know and I call it back. I get the CPS number. "Hello?"

"Hi, this is a social worker, I'm calling Wisteria Bloome correct?" 

"Yes."

"Well I'm supposed to go to your house today and check everything out and deem whether or not you should be put in foster care or not." 

"I'll be home from my friend's house in 15 or 20 minutes, how soon were you able to come in?" 

"30 minutes. Don't talk to your mom about us coming over. I don't want any further harm to come to you." 

"Got it. I'll see you there miss." I hang up and sit back down on the bed. 

"Cierra, I'm going home. I'll probably be back later. If I'm not I'm on a date or at work." I say to her and after not letting her say anything back, I walk outside, grabbing an ice pack on the way out of the house. I walk to my house and unlock the front door. My mom was in her room and didn't hear me walk in, which means she's already drinking this morning. 

There was knock on the door and I let the social worker inside. My mom heard the knock and stumbled into the living room, already drunk. "Who are you?" She asks as she tries to sound less drunk. 

"I'm Claire, a social worker who is here because your daughter has 3 broken ribs because you got mad and hurt her." 

"I didn't do anything, she made it up." She slurs slightly. 

"She's an alcoholic from past trauma and has recently become abusive when she's drunk." I say explaining quietly to Claire. 

"Oh, should we put her in rehab or a mental hospital with a rehab center?" She asks me calmly. 

"The second option would really help her." I reply with a still calmness in my body. 

"I can work on the paperwork for that later but do you have a stable job to pay for the house wile she's not here?" She asks, knowing my mom wasn't paying attention to the conversation. 

"I'm the only one with a job to pay for the house and groceries and things like that. Any money she gets on her own she uses for alcohol. I would be fine living here by myself while she's getting mental health and rehab." I say trying to hide the anxiety of living by myself. 

"Are you sure? I can get the foster care people to take you in." I shake my head. "Okay, I'm going to let you stay here by yourself with occasional trips from us to visit you and see how your doing." 

"Thanks, it'll be nice to have some peace and quiet for once." I reply with a smile on my face. "Is there somewhere you can take my mom while you do paperwork or transfer her to a mental health facility?" 

"We have a place for the ones that could be dangerous to someone else's physical or mental health." 

She takes my mom and leaves. 

I flop down on my bed and fall asleep with tears falling down my face because it feels good to not have to deal with my mom. 

(IF ANYONE IS TRIGGERED BY THE WAY I DID THAT BECAUSE THEY HAD EXPERIENCE WITH CPS WORKERS OR ANYTHING LIKE THAT, I DON'T KNOW HOW STUFF LIKE THIS HAPPENS AND I DON'T FEEL LIKE CHANGING IT. Sorry if it's offensive to anyone but this how I'm imaging it in my head.)