Shattered

Chapter 1

As we walked through the damp parking lot of the county jail and to my mother's old beaten up Honda.  I could feel small droplets of water piercing the skin on my face as the harsh wind blew.  I jumped into the car and slammed the passenger door shut, making the rusted pile of dirt shake.  I went through the small bag of my things they had given back to me when my mother came to bail me out.

"Georgia, I told you to stop slamming that door!"

"It won't close unless you slam it, and you know it."

She tried to start it up but when she turned the ignition it rumbled and almost immediately turned off.  "Oh come on, not again!" she cursed to herself as she angrily got out of the car and popped the hood to look at the obviously broken engine.  I  got my phone out of the yellow packaging bag and found that my boyfriend had texted and asked how my robbery had gone,

I got arrested, what did you expect. 

The law always catches up with me.

But of course the message was from last night because my mom left me in the jail overnight.  I decided to call my little sister, Star, who wasn't in the backseat where she usually was when my mom would pick me up.

"Hello?" I heard her frail voice say.

"It's me, why didn't mom bring you this time?"

"She said she had something to discuss with you, and she sounded pretty mad when she said it.  Even more mad than usual."

"Ugg, another boring lecture, but a level up.  I'll see you when we get home."

"Good luck Georgia." and I heard the click of the phone as she hung up.

"Ok I think I fixed it." she said as she got into the car again.

"For now." I whispered to myself.

"I heard that little miss sunshine." as the car sputtered to life. Little miss sunshine is what my dad and her used to call me when I was five. Just thinking about my dad makes me feel depressed and angry. He left us about two years after Star was born, and we haven't seen or heard from him since.

They never really went to court for the divorce, because after my mom was fired from her job we really didn't have the money. The last thing I remember about him is that he promised me and Star that he would come back for us. That was nine years ago, I don't believe in anything anymore.

After leaving the parking lot and passing the "DON'T PICK UP HITCHIKERS" sign, my mom turned the radio off. I knew what was coming, what she always did after I had been arrested.

"Georgia, why are you always doing this. It's getting more and more frequent and I'm worried about you." she said, her eyes still intently focused on the road.

"Oh like your concerned about me, if you were so worried than why didn't you come bail me out of that rat hole last night when I called you?"

"Because I thought you needed more of a punishment than not having your phone and being grounded for a month."

"I'd rather not have my phone for a year than spend the night behind the cold, gray, bleak stone walls of that place!"

"Than you should have thought about that before you robbed that Wawa."

Oh yeah, the Wawa. My worst attempt at a robbery ever. The guy behind the counter punched me in the neck and sat on me until the cops got there. Dude must have weighed over 200 pounds. While I was lying on the floor I was wishing that his little friend had attacked me instead of him. And by little, I mean little, he was probably only 5 feet tall and was skinny as a french fry. Also he'd most likely been in America a few months because he didn't know any English, besides "HELP." Bad luck for me, he was talking to the cops for a half hour, while chubby felt like he was getting heavier and heavier on my internal organs. While eating a foot long meat lovers sub from Subway.

Meanwhile my mom is still talking about how she wants me to have a good future, "Bla bla bla." She should know that I zone out every time she repeats this speech.

"Your father would be very disappointed in you Georgia, and what you have turned yourself into."

"What I've turned myself into?! A better statement is what the both of you turned me into. Dad leaving is the whole reason I do this."

"Georgia how is it -"

"It's both your faults for him leaving, you always tell me it takes two people to make a relationship work. You were always saying how much you both loved each other."

That is when I saw sadness take over her face. She wasn't much of a cry baby, but every time dad is mentioned around the house she can't help but make her eyes water.

"I did love your father, believe me Georgia please, I never wanted him to leave. All he wanted was money and after I lost my job he had no use for me."

"Before he left he promised he would come back for Star and me, but he never did. I just thought that if I was on the news or something that would get his attention. There, does that make you happy? Now you know."

"Your father did come back for you and your sister." she said hesitantly.

"What?" I sad, baffled.

"But I wouldn't let him take you. He was crazy and I was afraid he would hurt you." Tears started to run down my face.

"I-I have been waiting for him to come back for nine years, and you just stopped him?! Mom I-I hate you!" I screamed.

Tears started to form in her eyes, even a small tear ran down her right cheek.

"Georgia, please don't say-"

I could hear the crunch of the rusted hood of the car as the air bag blew up in my face. Feeling the dashboard pierce my skin and crack my bones. My temples were throbbing as I looked over at my mom, blood dripping from her face. I noticed her airbag had not gone off and her head lying against the steering wheel. Looking down I saw the crunched dashboard cutting into my skin. Even though I could not feel any pain I started to cry, because she wouldn't wake up. I reached my battered hand to hers and squeezed her cold hand before everything went pitch black.