Sally's Face

(6)

This day...

This dreaded day..

The anniversary of Travis's mother leaving. Leaving him, alone, with his father, forever. When his mother left him to be used and abused by his father. Travis hated this day, a day that he would often spend faking sickness and skipping school so that he could lay in bed all day and cry, sob. Remembering his mother's kindness and knowing his father's awfulness. How long it's been since that day when he found his father sitting at the dinner table in the morning, alone. Telling him his mother was gone and not coming back. Travis was just a boy, and he was terrified, yelling and grabbing at his father begging him to tell Travis where she was, why she left.

And that was the first time that his father laid a hand on him. His mother never dared let Kenneth touch Travis, but she wasn't there to protect him anymore, no one was.

What started then continued, bruises, scraps, cuts, breaks. Injurys littering his body. The bleaching started, the straightening treatment along with it. Kenneth threw out almost everything from their home, everything the made it alive, made it his mothers. All their pictures, artwork, pillows, nick knacks, everything, turning the home into the sad, colorless, stale home he grew up in. A young Travis climbed into the garbage to retreive something, anything to remind him of home of his mother, of happiness. 

A single old picture, an old blouse, and a stuffed animal

It was years ago, the anniversary of all that pain, a reminder of how long its been, how long hes survived without his mother, and how he thinks she would hate who he was now. A slave to his father, a punching bag, a queer. These thoughts hollowed him, making him want to crawl out of his own skin, to die. This day and the reminders of this day made Travis contimplate death. Leaving this sick world and being somewhere safe, happy, heaven. He never tried, too much of a pussy to.

As an adult things were a little different. As an adult there was Sally Face. After he moved out of his father's place, the first time he was truly alone, not having to put on a façade for even a few moments was freeing but isolating and lonely as well. The turned off his phone and laid in bed for a while, under the covers, hoping in some juvenal sense that the blankets would protect him from everything. His world under the covers was broken by loud knocking at his door, he prayed it wasn't his father, but also didn't have the energy to care.

The knocking continued for far to long, there were pauses in-between them, and Travis even in his mourning state was pissed. He didnt want to deal with anything today, especially not his father. So getting up looking completley deshevaled, he answer the door. What he didnt expect was to see a bright blue haired boy at his door looking frackly terrified. They spoke almost everyday, and Travis wasn't replying to anything, he wasn't at work either, Sal was terrified.

"Travis!' he exclaimed, eyes blown wide, chest heaving with his frantic breaths. "Are you ok?" he was out of breath, eyes scanning over Travis body, noticing the tears and puffiness around his eyes. "What happened?" he took a step forward, getting in Travis's space. Travis turned away, rubbing his eyes in his sleeve. "Travis..." his voice was calm, sickenly calm, gentle, kind, Sal had always had that voice, always talking to Travis so...caringly. No one else had ever treated him that way other than his mom, his father was never gentle, never kind, not like his mom, not like Sal. Travis started to crack the more Sal spoke. "Trav are you ok?" Sal continued to step closer, gently reaching out to touch Travis's arm. "Did something happen?" disgusting it was, the sweetness in Sal voice made his stomach churn and his heart ache. "Tra-"

"SHUT UP"

He didnt mean to scream he really didnt, he just wanted that sickening voice out of his head, it brought back memories, too many memories, he hated it. Travis fell to the floor, coveing his ears, Sal followed, sitting with him. Sal didnt touch Travis, he just sat with him, Travis was breaking down, Sal didnt want to stress the man out further, so he didnt speak, didnt touch, just lisened to Travis's mumbling, hoping to figure out what was going on.