Problems of adults

Chapter 27 : A New Guardian

The next weeks had been hard. Neil and Susan kept fighting each other, verbally and physically, and, obviously, Max was their favorite outlet. She got hit almost every day by them, and she didn't even know why. Just breathing was dangerous for her. 

She was arriving at her apartment, but the air was already unbreathable just in the corridor. She tried to calm herself but her entire body was shaking, and she already had tears in her eyes. She could hear them yelling inside. The second after, they would yell at her. She took a deep breathing and opened the door. The two adults stopped their fight and turned to her. Max wished she could be somewhere else right now, just their eyes were enough to scare her.

- "Here you are, you little bitch!" Neil began. "You were supposed to be home thirty minutes ago! Where the fuck were you!?"

- "Probably sucking a dick," her mother said with a mocking tone. "Go on! Answer us!"

But Max was done with them. She was hearing that every fucking day, and she was tired. She was just tired to hear them treating her like that, like if she had no feelings, like if she was their prisoner. Her entire body was hurting because of their hits, and her mind was tensed because of their words. She lost the few confidence she had because of them. Her marks decreased because of the pressure they were putting on her. Her mood was awful because she was frustrated to be treated like a piece of shit. But she was done.

- "No," she answered.

- "No!? You really think you have your word to say here!?" Susan told.

- "Go fuck yourself. Both of you."

Neil and Susan looked at each other before having an evil laugh. Neil began to unbuckle his belt, tensing the redhead's body. He slowly approached her with his satisfied smug and raised the belt in the air, ready to hit her. But Max didn't want to let him do that again. She kicked his balls, forcing him to bend, and punched his face, making him fall on the ground. Susan screamed of terror and ran to her husband to see if he was okay. Max had never seen her running to her when Neil was beating her.

- "WHAT DID YOU DO!?" the mother cried.

- "I...I..."

- "Leave."

- "What?"

- "Pack your stuff and leave! I don't wanna see you here anymore!"

- "...I...I have nowhere to go..."

- "You should have thought about it before hurting him!"

- "But he would have hurt me if—"

- "LEAVE MY HOME RIGHT NOW!"

Max started before going to her bedroom. It wasn't real, right? Her mother didn't choose the side of the psychopath instead of her own daughter, right? But she did. Max's mind was completely empty. The redhead didn't know what to do. She first thought to go to Jane's, but the Jane's apartment was already small, she couldn't force them to accept one person in more. And she was feeling too ashamed to tell her or anyone else. 

She took a piece of luggage from under her bed and began to pack her stuff. She was still not understanding how things escalated so quickly just because she didn't want to be beaten one more time. She gathered the important stuff: her school stuff, her clothes, her Super-bunny, her laptop, her phone, and more things like that. A few minutes later, everything was packed. Max put her backpack and took her piece of luggage in her hand before going to the living-room. Neil was holding his head while Susan was angrily looking at her daughter and pointing at the door like if she wanted to be sure Max would leave.

Max was now in the street with nowhere to go. She wandered a moment with no goals in mind before stopping to sit on a bench. Maybe she could find a hostel for tonight and she would see for the next night. But she couldn't do that every day, it would be too stressful, but now she didn't have the choice.