Brute.

Eleven

"Mom!" I yelled after I was able to push myself up to sit where I was thrown.

She glared at me, the shell of my mom, and pushed the small glass table that was next to me. It tipped over and before I could react, it crashed onto the back of my hand. I pushed the table off my hand and stumbled up the stairs as quickly as possible. I locked my door, pushed myself into my bathroom and locked that door too. I turned on the water of my bathtub and let myself fully lose it.

I sat in my bathroom, drowning out everything with the running water of the tub. My mom was on another rampage. I did what I always do, try to help her to maybe get my mom back for a few seconds. And, of course, it ended very poorly for me just like it always does. My hand was starting to swell, and my cheekbone might be broken.

My phone had been going off for the last fifteen minutes, I knew it was Hannah. We were on FaceTime when my mom started. The state finals are tomorrow and first thing in the morning we have to drive to Charlotte. For the first time in a long time, being at home feels scary for me. I hesitated, but I unlocked my phone and read all of the texts from Hannah. I looked back at my hand, seeing the bruising and swelling intensify. I turned off the water and stood up from the bathroom floor. I quickly collected my stuff and tossed it out my window, onto the ground below. I did my best to fix up my appearance before I climbed out of my window. I drove over to Hannah's as fast as I could. I hated everything. Everything about myself, and everything about my life. When I parked my car in her driveway, I didn't get out of my car. Instead, I sat there and cried. After a few minutes, when my tears had run dry, my phone went off.

"Hello?" I answered quietly.

"Thank god, you need to come over now. You are not staying at home," Hannah demanded.

"I'm in your driveway," I sighed.

"Good!" Hannah asserted, "I'm coming out to get you."

"Myra," Hannah sighed a few moments later when she opened my car door to look at me.

"What did I do? What did I do to deserve this?" I cried.

"Nothing," Hannah hushed as she hugged me, "you didn't do anything to deserve this. Come on, let's get you inside."

Hannah grabbed my bag from my back seat and put her arm around me as we walked inside. Unfortunately for me, Mr. Hallow and Zach were standing there when we stepped through the front door.

"Myra," Mr. Hallow almost whimpered when he saw me, "you are staying here from now on. You will never go back to that house."

I didn't have the energy to fight about this. I knew I should have moved out years ago, but she's still my mom. And there are still times when she's actually my mom. We followed Hannah's dad into the kitchen. He grabbed a handful of ice and wrapped it in a towel for me, placing it carefully against my cheekbone.

"Your hand," Zach gasped when he saw it.

"I'm fine," I insisted, "I'll be fine. I know it's bad, but I'll be okay."

They knew it was all bullshit just as much as I did, but the last thing I needed was to get taken out of the state championship.

"At least let us look at it," Mr. Hallow demanded.

I nodded slowly and held the ice pack to my face so Mr. Hallow could turn on a light to see better. Hannah was texting and Zach looked like he was going to cry. I hated doing this to them. I show up and just ruin their lives all the time, it's not fair to them.

"Chandler's on his way home, I told him to go straight to the backyard since some of the guys are coming over with him, but I didn't tell him why," Hannah informed.