~*Superstar*~

~*Chapter 6*~

~Lisa~

"I am not an alcoholic! You aren't so then why are you here? An accident! Regular people don't set their house on fire. I didn't set the damn house on fire! Ok calm down! No, I am not calming down because you trying to make it seem like I intentionally meant to set the house on fire and I didn't. It was an accident, I forgot we replaced the tub. So, it wasn't the first time" she said looking at me?

I am required to do therapy as a part of my stay at the diversion center, and the counselor is pissing me off trying to make me admit to being an alcoholic and that I set the fire. I am not an alcoholic nor am I an arsonist and this bitch got one more time to imply that I am.

"Ok Ms. Lopes you don't have an alcohol problem and the fire was an accident. Why did you do it? I was upset! Why? Because of so many things, and that night was the straw that broke the camel's back. What exactly happen? He told me to come to his house, he wanted to talk and work things out. I show up ready and expecting him to be there. Instead he wasn't. I waited 5 hours for him to come to the house and he didn't. My friends called and asked if I wanted to go out. I went along with it, we went to the club, had fun. I had a few drinks but not as many as you think. When we left, we went back to his, thinking he'd be there and she still wasn't there. But he had been there after I left.

How do you know? When I went up to the room this nigga went shopping. There were bags of clothes and shoes in the closet. I am thinking oh it was a surprise for me, you know to welcome me home. Nope, all of it was for his selfish ass. I snapped and I through the shoes in the tub. I wanted to burn them and then put the fire out but it spread so fast. If my sister didn't pull me out of the room, I would have perished in the fire. Did the two of you fight before that? We fought afterwards, at the time he didn't realize that the bathroom was on fire and we started fighting and then at some point I was locked in a room. There was so much going on that I didn't really even know what happened till I got to the hotel and I saw my face. We'd fought before and he'd never hit me in the face. But this time he'd hit me in the mouth and eye. I looked like I said trailing off. Like what? I looked like my mom after my father had hit her."

That was the truth and everyone knew there was abuse between my parents. But no one knew that I'd seen it a lot of the time. Me, Rei, and Ron knew exactly what was going on between them and we knew that our father for sure had a drinking problem. After I told her that I didn't want to talk anymore. I'd exposed to much and now I feel way to vulnerable. I went back to my room to calm down and relax. I'd just laid on the bed when I heard someone's voice.

Hey! I mentally rolled my eyes and looked over at the door. Hey! What you doing? Trying to decompress from my session. You met with Becky huh! Becky, I said looking at her funny. Yeah white lady with the weird bob haircut that thinks she knows us cause she got some letter behind her name. I chuckled a little bit. Yeah, I met with her, what's her deal though, she spent thirty minutes trying to get me to say I was an alcoholic. They treat everyone that way, they assume we all got substance issues. Well I don't, I like to drink a little bit here and there but I've never been one to just be drunk all the damn time. I feel you on that. What's your name? Trena! I am Lisa. Oh girl we all know who you are, we trying to figure out how the hell you ended up in here with us. Long story! We ain't got nothing but time she said sitting on the bed across from me.

Trena was mad cool, she didn't seem like the rest of these folks in here looking for handouts. And when I say they looking for handouts, I literally mean that, some folks asked me to loan them money. Like for real do I look like I got any money on me? I came in here with a duffle bag of clothes, a journal, some pens, a picture of Remi from when were in high school and that's it. I can't do no more for them then they can do for they damn self and I let them know that too. Trena talked for a few hours before it was time for us to do our designated choirs. I guess newbies get dish duty, their first week, that was cool with me as long as I wasn't cleaning no bathrooms, I was cool on it. After that day Trena and I became real tight, she told me about her life back at home and I told her about the whole situation with Andre. What I didn't tell her about was Remi. Remi is a closely guarded person to me that not everyone needs to know about. Not because I wasn't comfortable with people knowing but because her feelings mean more to me than anything that anyone else had to say.