Lessons from a Rude Boy

Unwanted Experience

345. The number loomed over the door before me, taunting me as I collected myself. The door handle was cold against my hand, where as I had thought the door way to hell would have been hot to the touch. I was wrong, and not for the first time today. The noise coming through the door made my stomach clenched painfully as the voices rose. Sweat collected on my brow as I pushed against the handle beneath my fingers, it felt like the most taxing task I had ever been presented.

            Voices died as I stepped into the room, eyes stared back at me, I held my emotions, my insides screaming for me to run. How had I ended up here?

            This day had started just like any other. My alarm clock had sounded letting me know that it was time to get ready, my mother had called up the stairs that breakfast was almost ready just as I was finishing my hair, and my brother trying to push Becca, my little sister, down the stairs as they raced to the table. I rolled my eyes just like every other morning before sitting down to eat breakfast.

            "Ready for school Addison?" dad had asked from behind his newspaper.

            "Yes daddy," I answered with a smile. "I have a Chem AP test today and my English project is due for oration today."

            "The one over Elizabeth I?" the top corner of his paper folded down just enough for him to peak out at me.

            "Yes sir," I answered.

            "Good girl," he smiled and then went back to his paper. 

            "How about you Alexander?"

            "I dunno," he shrugged and went back to shoveling food down his throat.

            Dad had chuckled and then moved onto Rebecca.

            "Well daddy," she smiled impishly at him, "I am going shopping after school with Vicky and Tricia."

            "Is that so?" again the corner folded down, and I knew what was coming next.

            "Yes daddy," she moved to stand next to his chair, "can I have some money for this afternoon?" she stuck her bottom lip out at him.

            "How much do you need?" I rolled my eyes at them and pushed away from the table.

            "If you guys want a ride be out in the car in five minutes, I can't be late," was how I excused myself from the table and I was sure that my mother was going to call me back, but she let me go. We never left the table without permission, but seeing my sister work my father over for more money was sickening.

            My morning of normalcy had continued when I encountered Izzy at the front door of the school, her holy jeans barely there.

            "Hey Addi," she called to me with a broad smile.

            "Morning Iz," I smiled back.

            "I don't know why you hang out with that loser," my sister had commented, turning her nose up as she walked past me.

            "As opposed to the brilliant minds you hang with everyday," I motioned to the group of squealing girls waiting inside the quad.

            "Whatever nerd," she scoffed before running off to join the army of airheads.

            "Later Addi," Alex called as he too veered off toward the quad where his jock friends were huddled.