Shambles

Chapter 1:Ember

Six years ago

"EMBER!"

Turning I look at the closed door. I'm sitting on my bed in the bedroom I share with my sister and her two-year-old son Papa. I huff and stand up from my bed. I have been studying for an hour for the History test I will have on Monday. "What the fuck do she want, now?" I mumble. I count to five trying to get my mind right for whatever bullshit I know Kita is about to say.

Nakita "Kita" Price is only thirty-three years old, and she is my mom - if you can really call her that. She had my oldest brother Dion at fifteen years old, Yanet at sixteen, me at seventeen, and Fabion at eighteen. I'm not sure if she was looking for love or if she was just really fucking careless. One thing I do know is the bitch is certified. We all try to stay out of her way because you never know what kind of bullshit she's going to be on.

Opening the door, I walk slowly to the living room. Our tiny three-bedroom apartment is in the projects on the west side of town. It's Seven of us...well it's just six of us that live here now because my little brother Macon's dad took him six years ago when he was two.

When I enter in the living Papa is sitting on the couch watching cartoons while my mom has her head laid on the newest loser's lap.

"Bitch, what took you so long. I called your name two times," she says slurring letting me know she's either high or drunk - maybe even both.

"You called my name one time," I reply.

"Bitch, I don't give a damn how many times I called your name when I call it you need to hurry the fuck in here or get the fuck out," she shouts. Stamp, the new loser's lap she's laying in - laughs. I don't say anything. I just stare at her waiting for her to get to the reason why she's called me in here.

She rolls her eyes. "You need to start bringing in some real money or your ass got to go."

"I am bringing in some money. I work at Walgreens."

"Bitch, you sound like that loser father of yours...I'm talking about some money and not that chump change you keep throwing me. I can't do shit with fifty dollars every two weeks. It cost money to feed y'all dumb asses."

Kita has never worked a day in her life but always talking about we need to do something to bring in some money. She keeps a man just to keep her hair, nails, eyelashes, and eyebrows done, and everything else is provided by the government.

She's always bringing up these fathers that we have never met. The only people who know who their dads are; is Macon and Papa. No one else has ever met theirs. We all have to look like these dads she likes to bring up because looking at us you wouldn't be able to tell we were siblings and none of us look like Kita. My older brother Dion is really dark. My sister Yanet looks like her dad may have been Asian. Fabion, the brother under me is two shades lighter than my almond complexation with green eyes, and Macon's dad is a white man.

"I can't pick up more hours. I go to school," I tell her.
She sits up quickly glaring at me before standing. "Bitch its lots of ways you can make money." She smirks at my now worried expression. I have no idea what she could be talking about but I hope she doesn't want me to have sex. I've never had sex and didn't plan on doing so anytime soon.

My sister Net started stripping last year. She is on a mission to find a man to take care of her, but you have to work to live here. She started doing a few drugs she said to get her through a night of taking off her clothes and doing whatever extra stuff on the side to get her some real money and give Kita her cut. Papa's dad is a dead beat. My sister met him in high school. He was playing basketball and was telling her he had a chance to go to the pros, and her ass thought he was telling the truth and got pregnant. Once he found out she was pregnant he stopped fucking with her real quick.