New Reality✖

I-Bruises

5:05 pm

I grabbed my denim backpack and hopped off of the school bus and onto the driveway of my house.

The sounds of my stepdad and his stupid friends could be heard throughout the tiny neighborhood. We lived in the middle of no where, our house was one of only three houses in the area. A run down old factory sat behind all three houses giving an unwelcoming, eerie atmosphere to the whole place.

I walked up the driveway and opened the door to our little house. The room was filled with cigarette smoke, the only source of light was the small window at the front of the house and there was muffled out blues music playing in the background. 5 men sat around the dining table playing cards as my mom sat on a chair reading some vintage magazine with a cigarette in her mouth.

"Ah, is this the little bitch you were talking about?" Said an old, wrinkly man eyeing me from head to toe.

"That's her." Sighed Frank, "Codi, grab me a beer."

I was used to being bossed about by Frank. Frank was my stepdad, unfortunately. He was a horrible, sexist pig of a man and we both couldn't stand eachother.

He made me want to leave, to take myself out of that horrible house and to find somewhere, anywhere, away from him. I thought about it everyday.

I grabbed a beer and opened it then put it on to the table next to Frank.

"There you go asshole" I said as I started to walk away to my room.

"That's not very nice to talk to your father that way." chuckled a man sitting to the right of Frank.

I laughed sarcastically, "He's not my dad."

I stared at the pervy old man in the eyes.All of the men around that table were pervy, they all had that same creepy look when they saw me walk in the door and I even caught a few of them looking at my behind as I walked passed them.

"Damn she's a fiesty one isn't she Frank?" Said a man with a long straggly beard sitting across from him.

"She's a pain in the ass that's what she is."

I glanced over at my mom who was clearly listening to the conversation but obviously found her magazine way more interesting. Mom never defended me. She knew quite clearly what went on in the house but she never said a word. She was scared of Frank. I knew she was, that's why she never stood up for me or herself.

I noticed more bruises on my mom's arm as she flipped the page of her magazine and took a puff from her cigarette. Frank had been hitting her again, it usually happened about twice a week. He would get mad at her for something and she would automatically apologize but that was never enough for him. He liked to see her in pain it brought him joy to watch the tears roll down her eyes and her mental health deteriorate bit by bit. The light had left my mother's eyes years ago, there was nothing left, she was empty. Exactly the way Frank wanted her.

"If I'm a pain in the ass, what does that make you?" I asked staring at Frank in the eyes.

"DAMNN Frank, you better get that little one under control, She has a big attitude for a seventeen year old, I swear she's trouble." Said the man with the beard.

I glared at him then left the room.
I knew that I was in for a big punishment that night, I knew that Frank was going to beat my ass but I was used to it. The one thing Frank hated the most was being embarrassed infront of his disgusting little pedophile friends.

I walked into my room that I shared with my two little sisters. They are actually my half sisters because Frank is their dad.
My dad left when I was three years old leaving my mom with no money, struggling to stay alive. That's when she met Frank, at first everything was good but it was after the birth of my sister Sasha when I was five that everything changed.

Frank didn't find her attractive anymore after she gave birth as she had put on a lot of weight. This hurt my mom a lot and she tried everything to make herself acceptable enough for him.

It never worked.

My second little sister Izzy was born when I was twelve. She never got any attention around the house and I was the one who looked after her from the day she was born. Izzy looked up to me as her mother figure as our real mother was too busy drinking away her feelings and watching TV to look after her kids. And Frank, well he was just Frank, he didn't give a crap about those kids. He didn't care about anyone but himself.

"Codi look at what I done at school today!" Yelled Izzy as I closed the bedroom door behind me. She held up a painting that consisted of a bunch of swirls and dots on a piece of paper that she had done. "Do you like it?" She smiled at me with her big brown eyes staring into mine.

"It looks great Izzy." I said as I patted her little head. She was only five years old. No one apart from Sasha and I appreciated her in our family. She had a creative little mind and a beautiful little spirit that was never crushed even with the constant verbal abuse from her father and the constant fighting that went on in the house.

"Daddy said it was bad and that it wasn't beautiful at all." She said as she bowed her head.

"Don't listen to him. He's just being silly" I sat down on my bed and sat her on my lap with the painting in her hands, "look at the painting, it's art. Art isn't always supposed to be beautiful, it's supposed to make you feel something."

She smiled, "do you think mommy will like it? I wanted to give it to her as a present"

I paused, "why don't we hang it up instead? On the wall next to my bed? It would look so beautiful there and everyday when I wake up I will see it." I pushed her straight dark hair behind her ear and kissed her little cheek.

"Okay, good idea!" she said enthusiastically. She jumped off of my lap and ran to the living room to get duck tape.

"You okay Sash?" I said looking over at Sasha who was spread out on her bed, her face buried in a book.

She nodded, "I'm ok. Dad was being an asshole to Izzy on the way back from school. He told her that she would never be an artist and that she was worthless."

I sighed, "Can't he leave the poor girl alone? She's five years old for god's sake!"

"I guess not." She replied as she stared at my arm, "Is that another bruise from dad?"

I nodded, "I'm used to it now it doesn't hurt when he bruises me, it only hurts when he draws blood." I looked into her almost black eyes, "I'm just warning you so that you know, he's going to hurt me again tonight I can sense it."

She shook her head, "I hate this Codi.."

"Me too."

Me and my mother were Frank's punching bags, when something went wrong in his day we got hurt, when things didn't quite go his way we got hurt, when we didn't agree with him we got hurt. He never touched Izzy or Sasha, he didn't physically abuse them, more mentally. I usually ended up with bruises all over my body, I went to school wearing long sleeved sweatshirts and skinny jeans, completely covering up my marks.

"Found the ducktape!" Izzy yelled as the entered the bedroom slamming the door behind her. We taped her masterpiece to the wall and she sat down on my bed and smiled looking at her work.

"I want to be an artist when I'm older Codi." She said softly.

"I don't see why you couldn't be!" I smiled, "all you have to do is dream, and work hard and you can become whatever you want!" I said as I watched her precious little face light up.

Even if I knew that life wasn't exactly as straight forward as that, I didn't want to crush her goals, I didn't want to crush her innocence.

I wanted to let her dream. It's not like she had anything else in her life to look forward to...