The Girl Next Door

Part 18 - Pierce

Part 18 - Princess of Puke

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My mother takes the slowly rotting flowers, the bouquet of artificially dyed daisies wrapped in rubber bands by the stem and film of plastic. Between her fingers is a tobacco cigarette she puts out using the ash tray on the kitchen table, giving her full attention to my father. He stands with his shoulders down, his gaze meeting my mother's with his fake shy blue eyes — blue eyes that contain patches of brown.

"I have a lot I need to apologize for," he says, and he does say sorry for hitting her and being so disrespectful and everything. When his whole speech is over, the one I've heard him say a lot, my mother sets the daisies on the table so that she can forget they existed again. She wraps her frail arms with yellow bruises around his torso, and he holds her waist with one hand while stroking her thick, dark brown hair using the other.

The old cigarette smoke still lingers in the air, and I can smell it from my spot behind the wall where I watch them. In my hand is a cheap toy car made out of plastic that Dad got me, when he apologized for pulling my arm out of its socket once a few months ago. I didn't know what that meant but Mom said that's what happened, and I just know it hurt real bad.

When Dad apologizes, that's when I know he'll hit Mom some time again. That's why I sit where I'm at, behind walls. That or I listen from other rooms. I've become a really good listener.

A few days later he does hit mom. They argue about money, and how Dad has been making money and not spending it on the right things. That's when I start to smell the cigarette smoke. Mom wants a job but Dad says she can't get one. She says if she wants to, she can leave and go wherever she wants, but she won't because of me. And Dad slaps her for it, and tells her he just wanted her to 'honor and obey' like their wedding vows said.

He takes her by the arm, which I see with my own eyes when I'm hiding behind the wall. But he doesn't spare a single glance at me, because he takes mom into their bedroom and he slams the door. And she says she doesn't want to and that she'll run away if he 'does it.' But he tells her to 'Shh.'

I don't know what goes on behind the door, if he hits her more, or if it's something else I don't know about. This doesn't happen often, but it's always after he gets her the dying daisies.

"Pierce," Iris comes up to me, her eyes going up and down myself. "Thanks a lot, for getting Logan off of me. I didn't think you'd show up." She slurs a lot, stumbling and blinking fast to keep her eyes steady.

"How many drinks have you had tonight, Iris?" I ask.

She laughs, shrugging. "Good question, Pierce. Hey, where's Sophie?"

"She fell asleep on the couch," I tell her. "She went with Julian and they got drunk, but they don't quite seem quite as bad as you do."

She stares at me blankly, blinking a few times but not saying a word. After an awkward moment, I slowly ask, "What? Is there something on my face?"

"I said Logan's eyes are shiny," she says, "but yours aren't. Yours are dark. Your eyes though, they make you look sad. Are you sad?"

I shake my head with a chuckle. "No, I'm not sad. We need to get out of here, it looks like you're way too intoxicated."

"We will. But the thing about your eyes is that they shine from the dark. Reflections. But his shine because they're... I don't know, but his are shallow when I look at yours." She blinks up at me, the lipstick faintly smeared off from Logan.