What Makes a Family

4-Secrets Revealed

IF YOU WOULD PLEASE TAKE THE TIME TO LEAVE AN ASTERIX* ON ANY OF MY GRAMMAR/SPELLING MISTAKES

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It's been nearly a month since I moved in with Aldric and his dad. It's a lot quieter around here than to be expected with a house of four people, but between my new job at the local clothing shop just down the road from my new home, Tatianas' new hours, and finishing my senior year online I hardly have the time to eat and sleep, let alone socialize. Me and Aldric still talk on his normal nights, but I've been distant with him now that I know what kind of person he can really be. I think he's caught on that something's wrong but he doesn't want to spoil his time arguing with me when he pays for a good time.

I give him what he wants just like every other man that pays for my valuable time. He's just another client, and now that things are different I've been forcing myself to remember that. No client is special, no matter how nice and sweet they might be to me. In a way my new life was kind of an eye opener. People aren't who they make themselves out to be.

Closing my laptop shut with a soft thud I find myself drained of any and all energy, finally glad to be done with my last assignment of school. Next week I'll get my diploma, and after that I can dedicate these few hours I've needed extra for school to put towards work, as well. Making my way into the kitchen I'm met with the sight of my mother mixing up a small salad. Now that she's gotten married and moved in with Darius she nearly starves herself, scared to lose her figure. Which, in turn, has made her a lot more aggravated, towards me specifically.

Before I can turn around unnoticed she yells out my name. Sighing, I turn around to find her a lot closer than she had been before I'd went to leave. Leaning over me she shoves a finger in my face, hissing under her breath, "I woke up the other night to find you video chatting with some man online, you little slut. Next time you decide to whore yourself out maybe shut your bedroom door all the way so people walking by won't be able to look in and see."

My heart lodges in my throat as I stammer to come up with a coherent sentence. What am I supposed to say? When I continue to stare at her with my mouth handing open she scoffs at me, bringing her hand back into a fist before it collides with my stomach. The dead silence of the room is broken by my inaudible groan, my body convulsing as I clutch as the bruise I can feel forming as we speak. I don't bother to look up at her as she continues to degrade me.

"I always knew you were nothing more than a whore, but to have seen it with my own two eyes disgusts me. You're filthy!" Before I can even gather the strength to stand after her punch to the stomach I feel a sharp kick to my side where I lay on the ground. My vision blurs as tears well up in my eyes, my mother doing it again several more times.

Something must have really pissed her off to have her going off on me like this. She hasn't done anything this bad since the week dad passed away. That week was one of the worst weeks of my life not only mentally but physically as well. Time seemed to stand still as she continued to take her anger out on my small frame, the short minutes feeling like hours. When she was finally finished and happy with her work she scoffed at my shaking and crying before making her way out the door to presumably head to work.

The pain reverberating through my body was excruciating, but I did manage to crawl up to my feet after several failed attempts. Making it a point to take deep breaths I closed my eyes and hunched over my stomach in the kitchen table chair.

My mind swirled into the past, memories swamping me to the brink of madness. I could feel the rage she held towards me as she screamed and kicked and screamed again, making it a point to let me know it was my fault daddy was dead.