Carmen Karma[Adopted by MCR]

Chapter 10- I'm Okay Now

Day 3:

Knock Knock Knock

Someone was knocking on the door. Frank was asleep on the floor next to me, and Carmen was on the couch behind me. I slowly got up and walked to the door. I rubbed my eyes open the door. "Hello?"

"Hello, Mr. Way." I recognized this voice as Rose's. She stepped onto the bus with ease taking off her heels.

"Rose! I'm sorry we had a rough night so everyone is probably still sleeping." I rambled on. Rose giggled.

"Don't worry Mr.Way, I understand. I'll let you get the others and yourself ready." She sat at the table.

I woke up Frankie, and then everyone in the bunks. I left Carmen sleeping. She's been through too much these past few days, she needs to sleep. We all showered which took us all a few hours, but we made sure someone was always talking with Rose.

"Mr. Way?" Rose tapped my shoulder as I was pouring myself another cup of coffee.

"You can call me Gerard." I laughed.

"Alright, Gerard." She chuckled. "Can I see the bruise you mentioned? The one on Carmen."

"Of course." I walked over to the couch. Carmen's shirt was already kind of rolled up because of her tossing and turning. I moved it a little more so the bruise was visible. "There you are."

"What are those scratched from?" Rose said running her hand over the bruise and some of the scratches causing Carmen to flinch.

"Oh, she sometimes scratches herself when she's nervous or depressed, in a way it's her coping mechanism. We are slowly getting her to stop, we didn't notice those ones until last night." I said sadly.

Rose shook her head and went back to the table. Everyone sat down after a few minutes and we began talking.

...

"So, Mr. Jones, did you hurt your daughter on purpose?" I heard a female's voice. I wanted to see who it was so I opened my eyes. The light was on so I quickly shut them.

"No, I never meant to hurt her. I went to check if she was sleeping, and when I opened her curtain she fell out of bed. I went to pick her up but she moved and my foot hit her stomach." That was my dad, so the lady must be Rose.

I quickly sat up. I looked at everyone at the table. Everyone smiled, my parents included. Their smiles were fake. I could tell.

"Carmen I'm glad to see you're awake." Rose said waving me over.

"Everything my father just said is wrong."

"Please come sit, and then explain." Rose held out her hand.

I sat in between Gerard and Frank this time. I don't want to be kicked under the table or anything while sitting next to my dad. "My father, he's lying."

"How so?" Rose tilted her head.

"It was around eight o'clock last night. I had a long day between cooking and cleaning, so I went to sleep. About thirty minutes later my father yelled at me, opened my curtain, pulled me off of my bunk, and then kicked me in the stomach." I said, not even blinking once.

"Why were you cleaning and cooking?"

"My parents told me to. I didn't have a choice. I made breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Plus, I cleaned the bus."

"Is this true Mr. and Mrs. Jones?" Rose gave them a very serious look.

"No. We simply asked her to clean up her bunk. She finished before we did so we asked her to make us something like Cup Noodles-" My mother stated, but I interrupted.