Harrington

Routine

I wake up to a curtain of dirty blonde knots covering my face. My hand reaches to brush them away and I sigh, throwing my quilt covers from my legs and hopping off my bed. I rub my tired green eyes, and grab some clothes before heading to the bathroom. As I walk out of my room, I hear arguing downstairs, though the words are mere shouts so I ignore it.

The dull light fills the small space and I catch a glimpse of my face in the mirror. I can see my wavy hair messy from a restless night of tossing and turning, and I reluctantly pull out my brush and drag it through the tangles. My eyes are sitting on bags of exhaustion from lack of sleep, and I wash my face to give it some life. I brush my straight teeth and apply some deoderant. Next I slip on my clothes, a worn hand-me-down letterman jacket from Steve, my brother, and jeans that are slightly small along with my only pair of shoes, dirty white sneakers. I never get new clothes, my dad says it's a waste of his money. I do babysit sometimes, but it takes me a while to save enough money for even a new pair of socks, let alone another pair of much needed jeans. I'll just have to wait until Steve grows out of his jeans. Though I sometimes think he just holds onto his clothes to annoy me, in fact he probably looks forward to the day when I have to go to school in my shorts while it snows. I manage though, sometimes I rip up my old clothes and sew them together to make new clothes. I've made three shirts and a pair of jeans just by doing that, and I have a feeling I'm gonna have to do that again soon. I'm sure I'll be able to find old scraps of fabric somewhere, even my old socks will do.

For now, I can wear my snug jeans and my baggy letterman jacket, even if it makes me look slightly homeless.

I walk out of the bathroom and down the stairs, praying my dad has already left for work. Just my luck, he stands in the kitchen, talking angrily to someone on the phone.

My mom left when I was young. She abandoned me and Steve and left us in the custody of the man I most hate.

Whenever my dad leaves, Steve has people over and drinks from the private stash of alcohol that my father hold. His friends are usually as rotten as he is, and on the rare lucky occasion they'll leave me be in my room. But sometimes I will be called down and they'll push me into the freezing pool and be so drunk they'll kick my fingers if I try to pull myself out. This happened to me just a couple nights ago, and they were drunker than usual, so it was worse than usual.

~flashback~

I sit on my bed, reading a novel for English class when I hear it.

"Ooooohhh Liiiz!!" The slurred voice of my brother calls from downstairs and I freeze. My heart starts beating faster as I wait for another call, hoping he forgets mid thought what he was doing.

"LIZ GET DOWN HERE!" Steve hollers, and I start breathing heavily at the laughter that follows. I know I'll have to go down, or I'll be forced. I don't wanna have it worse than I already do, so I try not to feel rebellious.

I open the door to my room and trudge down the stairs, where Steve and two of his friends wait. I recognize Carol, a rotten bully who follows around her wicked boyfriend, Tommy. They're wasted, that's for sure, and they grin evilly at me as I make my way down.

As soon as I reach the bottom, my wrist is grabbed by my wretched brother, and I'm dragged outside, where the unheated pool awaits. Steve lets go of me to grab his drink, and I feel my rebelliousness getting the better of me as my eye catches Carol standing by the edge of the pool. Before I know it, I'm running towards her, and I put all of my force into my push, knocking her flat off her feet and into the freezing water. She screams, and I run, bolting back into the house, I don't look back as I fly inside looking frantically for a place to hide. I can't help but smile to myself slightly at the tiny victory I feel from my very own revenge, though that smile falls quickly as I realize I just put myself in a worse situation than I was already in.