Journey to Love

Chapter 5

After school, Layla didn't wait around to talk with her class mates. She waved a quick goodbye to Nikola and booked it out of the classroom as soon as the teacher dismissed them.

Layla was able to quickly dodge between each and every person as she ran through the school grounds and towards the main road. She skipped by the drop off zone and out the front gates without glancing back.

She ran down the schools street until it reached the main road, where she continued her journey down towards the west area of the town.

All the houses she ran past all had common themes of nice sturdy fences, maintained lawns, double story and nice looking cars.

She didn't admire any of that, she knew looks were deceiving, whether it was the look of the house, the look of her foster parents smiles or the look she used when she was at school. It had been drilled into her head to never say a word to anyone. It was safer to keep her mouth shut and head down, then to try and speak out about it.

As soon as she  reached the driveway of her modern day home, her paced slowed. She knew her foster parents weren't home, and they wouldn't be for about another hour. Which gave her plenty of time to make them both dinner, clean up the kitchen, wipe down the tables and vacuum the lounge room.

She pulled the key out from her bag, and unlocked the front door with it. The house was surrounded in darkness, which Layla quickly fixed by turning on majority of the lights on the bottom floor.

She took in the foyer and the bits of the kitchen and lounge room that she could see before taking her bag upstairs and dropped it on her mattress. Layla walked back downstairs and into the lounge room. She grabbed all the bottles and food wrappings that decorated the lounge room floor and furniture and placed them into the bin. Followed by the cigarettes and the left over white powder that had spread across the table and floor.

Layla placed some rib steaks into the oven before starting to mop and vacuum the downstairs rooms. By the time her parents had gotten home, she had cleaned almost everything, the only things not cleaned were the pots in the kitchen. Which she could do while her foster parents ate.

Danielle and Jackson didn't utter a word to her as they slumped into the dining room seats. Layla quickly brought the food out, placing it onto the table.

Danielle grabbed a serviette from the table, she placed a small amount of vegetables and a fingers length of steak on to the napkin before roughly extending her arm.

"Take it, then go to your fucking bedroom. I don't want to deal with your insolence right now"

Layla was quick to oblige. She grabbed the napkin off of her foster mothers hand, muttering out a small thank you before walking as quickly as she could towards the foyer and up the stairs to her bedroom. She shut her door silently, to avoid a punishment from making noise and moved quickly towards her mattress.

Sitting down upon it, she placed the napkin onto the bed, smiling at the thought by of warm food. She grabbed her teddy and placed them into her lap before picking up a potato. She nibbled on a corner savouring the taste of the white vegetable. Once she deemed it cold enough she plunged the whole vegetable devouring it in her mouth. She grabbed the carrot slices next, stuffing it all into her drooling mouth, as her stomach grumbled in content. She ate the small piece of meat next. Slowly chewing on it, letting the taste flavour her tastebuds.

Meat was a luxury. Her foster parents rarely allowed her to eat the food she made, let alone any type of meat. The small portions that she had come by, was like heaven.

Clearly she had made a good impression, despite her foster mothers words, because she allowed her to eat three times today, something that has only ever a day dream. Something that never had happened before.

Once Layla had finished all of her food, she made sure to get her tomorrows clothes ready, made sure her bag was packed and remade her bed before laying down on her mattress.

Layla could hear her foster mothers voice as if she was still trying to chat to Jackson, as she moved upstairs. Layla's whole body stiffened as her bedroom door opened. The light from the hallway spilled into her room.

Her light had long since stopped working, and when she brought it up with her foster mother, she was berated and slapped for being so spoilt. So, she usually left her window open, allowing the natural light of either the sun or moon to lighten her bedroom. Layla stayed impossibly still, chanting over and over in her head 'please go away, please don't hurt me, please go away, please don't hurt me, please go away"

After a too long of a moment, the door slammed shut behind her foster mothers retreating figure, the lock on the outside clicking into place.

Officially locking her in her room.

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Published: 22nd March 2022

Words: 810

Thank you so so so much for reading this far!