At Risk Youth

Chapter 2

Andy sat up in bed, her back pressed up against the cracking plaster that made up her bedroom walls, her knees drawn up to her chest. Her hand toyed with the hem of the baggy sweatpants she used as pajamas on cold nights. She wouldn't dare turn on the heat in the house for another couple of months, at least not before the deep of October, when the chill became too much to bear. The blanket pooled around her waist, her arms bare, the fine down of hair there standing on end. Her eyes were locked on the slit of light coming through the window cast by the flickering streetlamp just outside, staring but not seeing.

She checked her phone; 5:25 in the morning, and she hadn't slept, wasn't sure if she'd even closed her eyes. She had to be at work by 8:30 for the breakfast shift and felt herself drawn to the idea of calling out sick. She could say she'd caught a chill and was running a fever. Fall had come early and it had been damp all month; Ron, who himself had a perpetual sniffle just lately, would believe her, no problem. Besides, Andy needed the money so desperately she never called out...but with her mind so gnarled into a knot of seeping sickness and guilt she thought going in and running on autopilot might actually be the best option. Maybe a day of pouring coffee and replenishing sugar packets would be the best thing for her. Here, she would only keep dwelling.
Until the past twenty-four hours, Andy had done a total of six illegal things in her nineteen years of life. For the neighborhood she was considered almost straight-edge. She didn't do any drugs harder than pot, though she wasn't opposed to sitting out on Angelique's porch with a blunt smoking some of her older brother Ravon's shit. But that was it, until...
There must be something wrong with me.
She had to talk to Angelique. Her stomach was burning with this secret, this terrible story of corruption that ate at her from the inside out with teeth like an angler fish, the light from the window beckoning like a bobbing lure to the need to confess her sin.

She dressed slowly, without thinking, moving as if underwater. She hadn't bathed and was still sticky with old sweat...and cum, she realized with disgust. She hurriedly flicked on the light. Her bedroom was dwarfed by the secondhand queen bed, leaving just enough room for a dresser and the chest in the corner where she kept her winter clothes. She dove into it, pulling out a big black hoodie—it could have been Craig's, but she couldn't make herself care. She had never been caught for underage drinking, but she'd always assumed that at worst there would be a fine, maybe a course she'd have to complete...but nothing like this. She had hurt someone, maybe scarred them for life. She strode from her room toeing on her low black combat boots. The house was still and silent, which meant she was alone. Lately, that was usual.

​She had only been arrested once in her life, and it was community service, and it was over in a month—vandalism of Craig's team's rival school. This was of course all led by the captain himself, and he'd apologized profusely to Andy, since she'd then had to keep up with school, community service, and the then part-time job at the diner. If she had to guess, that had been one of the catalysts for her dropping out in junior year.

​As she flung open the front door, the hinge screeching, she was happy to see the rain had stopped, but the air was damp and cold against her face. She pulled the hood over her head and padded up the porch to Angelique's house. The two of them never locked their doors—in the Robinsons' because there were always so many people coming and going and in Andy's because her mom couldn't be trusted not to lose her key, and Andy would rather not be woken by her banging and screaming in the middle of the night. Andy pushed her way in and carefully walked through their living room. She could see Shug, the eldest Robinson, passed out on the couch, the TV lighting his sizable form. She ascended the stairs to where she knew Angelique and CeCe's room was. CeCe ,the youngest and hopefully last Robinson, was deep asleep on her side of the room in a small twin bed, Angelique equally deeply asleep in her own pressed against the window.
​"Hey," Andy whispered into Angelique's ear. She hesitated, then reached out and poked her gently.