Choice of Tomorrow

Chapter 1 - Introduction

It was 2:30am.

April and I were hiding under our bed covers, like we do almost every night. We hadn't even slept yet. We hardly ever sleep when dad's like this. We don't even know how much he drinks any more. We just know that he gets angry and smashes all the plates and tries to hurt us. Once he almost stabbed April with a knife just because she was in his way. He scares us when he's like this. April is only 11 and I'm only 14.  I have bruises and scars all over my body from when he gets really bad, and so does April. It's too much for us to handle, especially when school thinks we're doing great at home and thinks we can handle all the tests they throw at us.

I can't really remember why or when dad got so bad with alcohol. It used to be just a beer or 2 on the weekends when my stepmom was around. Then when she left him, he started drinking a beer or 2 every weekday. Then it turned into 6 beers everyday. Then eventually he drank so much everyday that once he was sent to the hospital and went into rehab. But as soon as he came out of rehab he carried on drinking like rehab never even happened. He doesn't drink as much as he did when he went into rehab, but he still drinks a lot.

"APRIL! I TOLD YOU TO DO YOUR HOMEWORK!" dad shouted as he stomped upstairs. I heard April crying quietly already. She knew what happened next.

"I-I didn't understand it" she whimpered. Dad walked through our bedroom door, holding a bottle of vodka.

"I DON'T CARE! DO YOUR HOMEWORK NOW OR THIS BOTTLE IS GOING STRAIGHT OVER YOUR HEAD!" he shouted. He threw April's homework book at her and slammed our bedroom door shut after he left.

"I'll help you" I sighed as I picked up her book. 

"When will mom come back and save us?" she asked, wiping a tear from her cheek.

"Soon, I hope" I said. Mom had walked out on us when dad cheated on her. She wanted to take us with her but she knew she couldn't because she was going to another country to do work. The work she was doing was almost 24/7 so she couldn't look after us at the same time. She promised to come back for us when she had finished, but that was 8 years ago. I don't think she would come back now. 

I opened April's homework book to the right page and helped her for another hour. We fell asleep at around 4am after finishing the last question.

It was only 2 1/2 hours later and we had to wake up to get ready for school. We were tired and depressed, but we were both excited for school because it meant we could get away from dad and see our closest friends. We're closer to our friends than we are to our family. We don't have very good grades but that doesn't matter too much right now. And usually dad is asleep from when we wake up to when we get home so he doesn't bother us in the morning. 

We both got ready for school quickly and quietly so dad didn't hear us. Then we went to the bus stop, got on the bus and headed off to school.

 When I arrived at school April left to go to her friends and I went to my friends. There's nothing to really say about my friends. Their names are Alayna, Dylan, Melissa and Jake. None of them know that my dad is an alcoholic or that he has hurt me and my sister. I haven't told anyone about it and I don't plan on doing so. I mean what if they arrested my dad or something and I had to live in a foster home? I'd never see my friends again! They'd take me away from April! I could never let that happen. So I'll keep it quiet.

"Dylan got a girlfriend!" Alayna said cheerily as I walked over.

"Oh really?" I laughed.

"Yeah. It's Jessica. Don't tell anyone though!" Dylan whispered. Jessica was our other friend that we sometimes hang out with but not a lot. I was happy for Dylan but I still felt upset. I'm always upset these days because of dad. I'm afraid to go home everyday, I'm afraid to wake up and I'm afraid to sleep. The only choices I have is to tell someone what's happening, but then I'd get taken away, or I could just run away. If I ran away I would be alone, or with April, so it wouldn't be as bad as being with a bunch of strangers in a foster home. Either way, I'd probably never see my friends again. Am I really willing to make that risk? Probably. I don't think they even care about me. They usually only care about Melissa's boyfriend problems. He always cheats on her but she always goes back to him, and I know it must be hard for her but that's all we ever hear about. But that doesn't matter. The only thing is that I'm not sure April would want to run away. Even though she knows I'm doing it for our safety, she would still prefer to stay at home and be beaten by dad everyday. She's terrified of being outside in the dark. I don't like it either but I don't want to stay at that horrible place I'm forced to call home.