Behind the Clouds

Chapter 6 10/21/14

            He’s looking at me. He was drunk. His eyes were beastly. He was a monster.

            “It’ll be ok sweetie. I love you very much.”

            “Dad, don’t do this. Stop.”

            STOP!!!!

            I shot up from my bed sweating. I was panting so hard my chest hurt and my throat got dry. A few times every month I get the same nightmare. It never ceases to scare the crap out of me and remind me of what happened. I looked at my thigh; the exposed scar from the night before my mom’s birthday. It was an accident, but an accident that was never forgiven and never will be.

            “OH MY GOD!!” I yelped. My alarm had just gone off and it scared me. I scooted closer to it, reached over, and hit it so hard my hand broke the plastic top into a few pieces. Now, I unfortunately needed a new alarm clock. To make matters worse, my hand even got cut from the plastic, so I got up to go get bandage wraps from my bathroom. While I was in there, I looked in the mirror and saw that my eyes were red and a little puffy. Sadly, a side effect of that nightmare always includes a cry fest in my sleep. This morning was already a feast of the unfortunate.

            “Guess I need a little more concealer today,” I told myself.

            After fixing up my injury, I was ready for another day. A white and blue striped shirt, another pair of ripped high-waisted shorts, and my black combat boots for my outfit of the day. I did my quick makeup and finally went downstairs without rushing since I was driving myself today. My mom was rushing to leave for a meeting and was attempting to make a quick breakfast. She’s always got so much going on that she either gets one bite to eat or just forgets breakfast entirely. We’re clearly not morning people.

            “Morning sweetie,” She said smiling. I guess she decided to forget about what I said at dinner last night, but I could tell by her bloodshot eyes that she cried a little harder than me this time around.

            “Morning. I need a new alarm clock,” I told her.

            “Why? What’s wrong with yours?”

            I looked down at my hand. “Let’s just say the time got crunched.”

            “What?” She looked at me, and I raised my hand. “What the heck did you do?! Are you ok?!” Well, now she’s completely forgotten about breakfast this morning. She rushed over to me and was holding my bandaged hand examining the injury.

            “Mom, I’m fine. The alarm scared me, and I hit it a little too hard. Ok...maybe a lot too hard,” I admitted.

            “Oh my god, Ellie,” She said exasperatedly. She took a deep breath and finally she said, “Alright. I’ll put twenty bucks in your account after High Rock since you haven’t gotten your paycheck yet, and you can stop by Target to buy a new one ok?” I got my first job at High Rock two weeks ago, but I only get paid at the end of every month. I do get to climb for free which is a really good upside.

            “Thanks mom.”

            “Ok. I’ll see you later, honey!” She said running out the door.

            “Bye!” I shouted walking to the kitchen. I had about twenty minutes to get to school and it takes ten minutes from my house to school, so that left me ten minutes to take my own sweet time eating my breakfast. I ate my same old cereal and watched what I could of my recorded episode of The Vampire Diaries and then it was time to leave.