When Everything Changes

Divorce Pended (2)

She was just a little girl. It wasn't anything she did.
He was just a father. He could've done anything.

She was so lonely with her father, while her father kept his booze company all the time. New York, one of the busiest cities in America, stood strong in the background of their messed up life, but she felt like she was abandoned in the middle of an empty box with no way out.

The little girl stared at her father snoring on the couch, bottle in hand and baseball on the TV. The lights were always off, curtains pulled. She took out her flashlight to do her homework once her father fell asleep, which as an everyday routine of hers. She knew if she opened the curtain even a little, the constantly hungover man would wake up and make her life miserable. The studio apartment was already hard enough to live together in. She was only 11, yet was raising a grown man. Her homework usually had dried teardrops stuck to it.

It was after her work was over and the moon was out that she dreamed of a better life. She, for whatever reason, had a constant hope. One of these days she would be happy. Just not today, she repeated to herself.