Caged

[Five]

I tugged a brush through my unattractive, messy bed hair. Each painful pull made me hiss and scrunch up my face, but only made me want to hurry up and finish. 

Waking up, I was hopeful that last night was all a nightmare, and the real date would be happy and fun. The way I had expected it to be. However, when I spotted the worn dress hanging on my desk chair, every painful memory came rushing back. 

It brought on a new wave of tears that I couldn't stop, and even now as I was brushing my hair, a few tears escaped and I blinked them away from my still puffy eyes.

It was difficult to see what I was doing in the mirror that was hanging on my wall. The rays of the early morning sun coming in through my open window, glared in to my eyes. 

I had texted Jaxon earlier this morning, telling him that I was sick, and that I wouldn't be coming in to work today. I hated lying to him and he was suspicious, but after a few attempts at convincing him, he finally gave in and told me to get well soon.

I hadn't been able to sleep much last night, only getting two hours of sleep, so I laid in bed involuntarily thinking about last night. My heart was breaking in to a million more pieces and I felt as if I would crumble.

Going in to work where Jenny, and Micah would be, would only make me feel worse, and I was not feeling up to being taunted and laughed at by them. This was hard enough already. 

Jaxon deserved to know, but I wasn't going to ruin his day and cause him to be distracted at work. I would wait until tonight or tomorrow to explain it all to him. He would be pissed off at me for not calling him straight away, but in my opinion, it's easier to beg for forgiveness than it was to ask for permission. Especially when it came to Jaxon.

Today my shift is from eight this morning till six tonight. When my digital clock switched over to six o'clock, I decided to get up and go to work. 

It might be hard for me to deal with Micah and Jenny, but it would only be harder the longer I left it. Besides, I didn't want to give them the satisfaction of knowing that they had hurt me. It would only encourage them to do something like this again.

It was already too late to call Jax to come and get me. If he did, I would only make him late too. The next bus doesn't come for another fifteen minutes, and I was already going to be late as it is.

I finished brushing my tangled hair, and grabbed my bag. It would take me ten minutes just to walk to the bus stop so I had to grab a bar of muesli for breakfast.

I was really regretting having bought that bacon and cheese scroll last night, because now I had no money left for bus fare, and I had to take it out of my car savings tin. The only other money I had was to pay for the bills this month.

I was in a rush so when my mother spoke to me I replied with a harsh tone.

"Where are you going Ashlyn?" Her friend was gone, thank goodness, but she was still in the same spot on the couch.

"I'm going to work mum," I replied. "Where else do I go every day except Friday?" It was no surprise that she didn't notice that I had been crying, but it still hurt.

"Don't get smart with me Ashlyn. Stop being ungrateful and disrespectful towards me or you'll find your ass out of here."

I sighed under my breath hoping that she didn't hear it, and gave her a slight nod. "Sorry mum." I hated that I had to apologise for what I said. It was the truth, and should have been completely obvious, but I didn't want her to kick me out. She was the only family that I had left.

I walked out the door before she had a chance to say anything else and ran for the bus stop. My bus was already there and I only just made it on. The one time that I was running late, and my bus came early. Typical.