Suffering

Such a beautiful life

     They were talking behind my back, again. Telling everyone that I did it.

    I sat down on my chiar, waiting for the teacher to yell at me already.

    A second later, there she is. With all my "friends", yelling at me again.

    "If I catch you stealing Annie's money again I'll call your parents!"

    I gave "Annie's money" back and went on with my day. I got the money from my mother to get myself some food, since she is too busy to make me at home. And I lost it again, all because of Annie.

    "That's what you get if you don't give me your money! I asked you nicely the first time, but you just had to say no!" She screams after the teacher is gone.

    I looked down.

    "Aw, did I make you upset? I'm sorry, but next time you will give me the money when I ask for it, okay?
    I told you already that I need it for a new phone because my parents won't buy me one."

   I sighed.

    "Can you forgive me?" She makes puppy eyes.
   I nod slowly.

    "Great!" She exclaims, then turns back to her friends. She always gets what she wants just because she's younger. She is the teacher's daughter. She shouldn't even be in school yet.

      It's always like this. Every day she and her friends tell me what to change about myself or demand something and if they don't get it, they make something up and tell that to the teacher so I get in trouble.

   I got used to it.

    The teacher hates me. She always yells and gives me ugly stares. She talkes to my dad when I get in trouble because she knows that he beats me for everything I do. She sees my bruises, and yet ignores them. Sometimes she even bumps "accidentally" into me just to make the bruises hurt even more.

   Mom is always busy and I can't tell her about all this because she already knows. Dad told me that she knows everything, and yet she does nothing.

    Anyway, this time, when I got home my dad was already waiting for me.

    "I heard you stole Annie's money again. I can't believe she's still your friend after all you've done."

   I sighed. So the teacher did call my dad afterall.

    "Look, son. I don't like doing this, but you never seem to learn your lesson. Why did you steal her money again?!" He started shouting.

    Don't cry. Don't cry. Don't cry.
  I kept telling myself. If he sees me crying he will beat me harder because "a man never cries", as he always says.

    "Jack, I want you to tell me why are you doing this to me?! Why are you doing this to me and to mommy?! You know you are hurting her whenever the teacher calls?!" He yells. "She always tells me about how big of a disappointment you are to this family!"

   Those hurtful words again. I thought that after I heard them a million times already, they wouldn't hurt anymore, but they always hurt.

                            ~~~~~~

     After that incident, I went back to my room. There were the only things that made me feel better: roses.
   My grandpa always gives me roses when he passes by. He forgets a lot of things, but he always remembers to bring me roses. I love him so much, but my parents never let him stay with me, I don't know why. They always tell me that he is trying to make me weak so I won't be able to be a "real man" when I grow up.

    I had to hide these flowers because my dad doesn't allow me to have them. He never agrees to leave me even one flower. They always end up burnt.

   The next day, grandpa Joe came while mom and dad were at work. He would usually come when no one is home just to see me.

    I went to open the door.

    "Hey, Jackey! What is my little boy doing on this sunny Saturday?"

    "Grandpa!" Joey gave me a big hug. I call him Joey, since he calls me Jackey.

    "I have an idea!" He said excited.

    "Really? What idea?"

    "I'll take you out to buy an icecream!"

    "Wooooooahhhh...Am I allowed to eat it?"

    "Of course you are, Jackey. You are allowed to do whatever you want when you're with me. Now come on, let's not waste time!"

    He took my hand and we started walking. After a while I was getting bored.

   "Joey, how much do we have to walk?"

   "Just a little more, we're almost there!" He smiled.

    I noticed a big, blue building which had a lot of cars parked near it. The cars had some blue and red stuff on top of them, like a lamp or something. They all looked the same.

    "Is this where the icecream is?" I asked.

    "Oh, yes. We just need to get in there."

    When we got inside, a lady with a blue, cool looking hat started talking to grandpa. They told me to sit down and wait.

    When Joey finally returned I asked:

   "Where's the icecream?"

    "They ran out of icecream. I'm sorry Jackey. I'll buy you anything you want next time, okay?"

   "Yeah...but why did the lady give you some papers and what did you write on them?"

   He looked around, then his eyes stopped at mine. Then, he kneeled down and whispered:

    "Can I tell you a secret, Jackey?"
I nodded.

    "You will be living with me!"

    My eyes widened. I wanted to cry, but I tried not to as hard as I could.

    "It's okay, Jackey. You can cry. Come here." He gave me a tight hug, then I started crying. It was weird, because I wasn't sad. I don't know why I was crying.

   Finally, when I stopped my tears I asked:

   "B-but...how? Did mommy and daddy finally let me...?"

   "That's a secret. Just trust me, Jackey. Now, let's go to my house!"

   I became very excited, since I never saw Joey's house!

    We were crossing the street, when suddenly, grandpa stopped.

    "Uh...uhh... Where am I?" He looked around.

    "Joey! Let's go to the other side! We're on the street!" I tried moving him, but he wouldn't even look at me.

    "Joey! Grandpa! Please, let's go!"
I yelled as hard as I could.

    After that, I heard a very loud noise and then everything went black.