Letting Him Save Me || ✎

Chapter 1

"You fucking bitch. Why don't you go out and fuck another guy?" I jolt from my sleep upon hearing my dads scream.

"Oh yeah, cause I'm such a fucking whore!" I hear my mom scream from another part of the house.

"Yeah. You just fucking fuck any guy who has money or drugs! You've fucked up this whole family!" I hear my dads voice retort as I hear the garage door open and slam close, signaling he's moved into his weed den, as I like to call it.

I climb out of my bed and tiptoe to my door and lightly press my ear to the piece of wood at an attempt to hear every detail of their argument. Hearing them fight always makes my heart beat rapidly and my breathing quicken, but I have to know my mom is okay.

I hear my mom stomp down the stairs and the garage door open, "It was never a family to begin with!" My mom screams. "Your nasty ass just sits out here on that nasty fucking couch smoking your weed and watching your porn. Get the fuck out!" She screams and slams the door shut, and a few seconds later I see her footsteps pass my door heading into the kitchen.

I hear commotion in the garage, the garage door slams open and my dad stomps into the house in the direction my mom went. I hear him stomp more before I hear glass breaking. Before I have time to process or think, I open my door and run into the kitchen to see a broken plate on the floor and my dad inches away from my mothers face, nostrils flared and fists balled. A look I knew all to well.

Before I can say anything my mom raises her hand and slaps him right across the face. There isn't anytime to react before my dad pushes my mom back and starts yelling again.

"You're wasting my money on your drugs and shit. You haven't had to work for years. All you do is sit on your ass and eat or snort heroine in the bathroom. You're the reason we're always broke the day we get paid." He yells as he slowly starts stepping closer to my mom as she matches his pace and steps backwards until her back hits the kitchen counter.

"Daddy no!" I scream and his attention is instantly on me. He starts walking towards me. Once he makes his way through the kitchen he comes up to me and kneels down to my height. He roughly grabs my cheeks and says, "You think you're strong enough to stop me?"

I nod my head no, and glance at my mom. She had a smirk on her face and I knew that I was on my own.

"You are NINE FUCKING YEARS OLD. Know your goddamn place, or I'll make you remember. " He says before letting my cheeks go and backhanding me, sending me flying across the tiled floor. I stayed down knowing if I got back up things would get worse for me.

My dad nodded at the sight of me on the floor, holding my cheek and choking back tears before walking back towards the garage.

Once I heard the garage door shut, I stand up and run to my mother and hug her leg.

"It's okay mommy. I'll protect you." I say looking up at her.

She pulls me off her leg and kneels down to my height, "You don't get it Stella. I don't want you!" She suddenly starts screaming. "You're a waste of money!"

"But mommy-" I'm cut off by a loud smack accompanied by a stinging on my other cheek a few milliseconds later.

I jolt awake and shake away the painful memory. I look around the room and see one of my roommates awake and sitting on her bed, and the other two still sleeping.

I share a room with three other girls. Haley, a pretty blonde who's sitting on her bed, got here about a year ago. Natalie and Ava are twins and they're both pretty opposite. Natalie's really tough and outgoing, and usually does all the talking and Ava's very quiet and reserved. I don't think I've seen her talk to anybody that's not Natalie, but they're usually glued at the hip. They got here almost three months ago. Even though we share the same room , we don't usually talk unless we have to.

I look at the clock and realized I woke up a little bit more than a half an hour earlier than my alarm. I sat up, stretched and rubbed my eyes. Once I felt awake enough to stand I stood up walked to my dresser and pulled out some skinny jeans and an over sized sweater. I moved to the bathroom that's connected to our bedroom. I brushed my teeth and my hair and got dressed. Looking in the mirror and deciding that this is the best it's gonna get, I walk out of the bathroom and put my dirty clothes into a trash bag. We have to keep our dirty clothes together as we could be ripped from a home and moved to another at any time.

I walked out of our shared bedroom and down the hall to check the chore chart for the day.

Haley: Laundry

Ava: Dishes (Dinnertime)

Natalie: Dishes (Breakfast)

Max: Sweep/Vacuum all floors

Lukas: Mow Front/Backyard

Stella: Clean all bathrooms

John: Take trash out

"Bathroom duty, Great." I groan.

I go to the supply closet and pull out the bucket labeled 'Bathroom Cleaning Supplies' and head to the first bathroom on the second floor.

After about 45 minutes, I've finished cleaning all the bathrooms in the house, and I have two minutes to get to the bus stop. I dash to put the cleaning supplies in the closet, run down the stairs and grab my backpack off the coat rack by the door before running around the corner and barely making the bus.

Off to another day of sophomore year, here we go. I thought.