Not even going to lie, if I had been in his position just then, I probably would have pissed myself.
That's probably why I am stuck here narrating this book.
You know, I worked my whole life to get here.
And for what?
Ah well, that's life. One can waste it and not even realize it.
Wow. I should write that down, that was awesome.
Needless to say, my mom freaked out.
I was bombarded with thousands of are you okay?
From the moment she laid eyes on me to the minute I fell asleep, I got treated like a package that had Delicate! This way up printed on the side of it.
But if I was being honest, I liked the attention. These days my mom spent all of her time either at work or caring for Gabe. And Gabe needed a whole lot of caring for.
Today was a perfect example. I woke up feeling terrible as usual. Gabe woke up feeling a lot worse.
"SALLY!" A voice roared from the bedroom.
I sneaked up to the room, hiding behind a corner. I usually wasn't an eavesdropper, but I really needed to find out how Gabe treated her when I wasn't around.
"Yes, honey?" My mom's tired voice was hard to recognize.
"My back is aching. I don't think I'll be able to do much today," he said grumpily.
It's not like he does much anyways. And how did you hurt your back? All you ever do is sit on the couch. Or the toilet. Actually, his normal weekend day consisted of the never-ending trek between the couch and the toilet.
"Ok, honey," my mom replied. "What can I get for you?"
"A pack of ice would be nice," Gabe grumbled.
"We ran out."
"Well then go buy some!" He snarled at my mom, his whole attitude changing from in pain to inraged.
"Of- of course," my mom stuttered.
"Why was she stuttering? My mom wasn't scared of anything! What had Gabe done!
I heard footsteps coming toward me and I quickly scampered back to my room and dove under the covers. Hopefully, she thought I was sleeping in or something along those lines.
"Percy! I'm going out!" My mom called from the hallway.
I covered my mouth with my hand and waited for her to realize I was still sleeping. When the footsteps faded away, I finally allowed myself to breathe.
A couple of hours later, my mom got home from the store.
I know she went somewhere else because it doesn't take anyone three hours to buy some ice at a store a couple of minutes away.
Apparently, Gabe was smart enough to realize that as well.
"Where have you been?" He asked from his stinky green armchair. His bottle of beer swung lazily back and forth between his fingertips.
"I was getting you some ice," my mom replied.
"It doesn't take all day to get some ice," he said, his voice slowly rising in volume.
"There was a long line at the store," my mom replied weakly.
"Don't give me excuses!" Gabe yelled at her.
I jumped from my hiding spot behind the fridge. Jeez, Gabe needs to start using his inside voice. Maybe he should go back to kindergarten, Not that he graduated in the first place.
"I- I'm sorry, honey," my mom replied.
There was stuttering again. What was happening?
"THAT'S NOT GOOD ENOUGH!" Gabe roared and then lowered his voice. "If the pest wasn't in the other room, you would be in BIG trouble."
My mom's voice wobbled. "I'm -I'm so so sorry. Please -Don't hurt Percy."
"Don't worry, I won't do anything as long as you don't tell him."
Realization dawned on me. Gabe had said the same thing to me. He was threatening both of us to keep quiet, and if we didn't, they would hurt the other. But he was already abusing me; every day. And I was pretty sure he was hurting my mom too.
Indignation filled me, accompanied with rage. How dare he! He can't do that! I gotta tell the police or someone. Maybe Mr. D would listen to me. I walked back to my room and picked up the home phone. I was about to dial the destined numbers when I froze.
What was I doing?
I slowly put the phone back down and fell to the ground. I couldn't tell the police. Gabe would find out and he would do something terrible to us before they got here. I was afraid to think about what he would do. Would he injure us beyond repair? Or... kill us?
I got to my feet and backed away from the phone. I bumped into the door, my head hitting the hardwood, but I ignored the sharp pain.
I'm never going to get rid of Gabe.
Gabe was never leaving.
I was stuck with Gabe for the rest of my short puny life.
I backed up into the hallway before turning around and running through the apartment and out the door.
I ran, and ran, and ran, and ran. I ran until my chest pained, until my arms were numb. I ran until my legs wouldn't worm anymore. I ran until I collapsed on a park bench, my eyes heavy. I looked around me and realized it was pitch black. I had been running for hours.
But running from what?
"Hey!"
"HEY! Kid!"
I cracked open my eyes to be momentarily blinded by light. When my eyes adjusted, I found an officer standing in front of me, waving his flashlight at my face. He had blond, short hair and dark brown eyes. It wasn't detective D, that was for sure.
"You can't sleep here, kid," the officer told me.
I groaned internally but answered politely. "Of course. I'm so sorry."
I got up and quickly walked away, not bothering to look back.
I made my way back to my house, navigating the streets of the Upper Eastside in the dark. When I finally got to my apartment, I walked straight through to my room and tried my best to fall asleep.
Falling asleep had never seemed harder. My mind kept wandering. Gabe, cancer, my mom, school, all running through my head like Olympic Athletes. Right now, cancer was winning.
There was always doubt for me. How long could I keep this up? The headaches, nausea, fatigue, personality shifts, the list goes on and on. Then there was Gabe, who was running second place. The abuse, well, hurt. The pain of constant beat-ups, not only from Gabe, on top of the pain of cancer... I was surprised my heart was still beating.
And my mom... I was worried about her. If Gabe was treating her the same way she was treating me...
Sometimes, though, it was hard to feel bad for her. Every day when I got home from school she would hound me. Did you do any work today? Did you see your marks on that test? Did you study even a little?
What hurts the most, is that I do try. It's just hard for me, ADHD, dyslexia, and all. But she was right. I needed to try harder. Even my teacher had said: I have the potential, I just need to sit still in class and actually pay attention.
Easier said than done.
Zzz zzz zzz
For the next few weeks, life went on as usual. I got up in the morning, went to school, came home and watched tv, and maybe did some homework from time to time.
And in between, there was always the abuse and cancer.
Things stayed the same like they were on repeat. Change is the only constant. Whoever came up with that is stupid. Lots of people spend their lives doing the same thing, over and over. Look at Stephen Hawking, one of the smartest people alive; he does the same thing every day! Search it up, it's true. The only thing that ever changes in his life is the location of his lectures.
Then one day, something happened that would change my life forever.
Well, not really. It's more like the start of it. Like, let's say the change was eating pancakes. What happened right now is basically like making the pancakes; preparing to eat them. But important, nonetheless.
It started simply: I was opening the door to my apartment after a long walk from the school. As soon as the door was halfway open, a loud shout came from inside the building.
"WHAT?" My mom's voice, definitely. I would have rushed in to see if she was alright, but I could tell this wasn't a bad what. More like an I'm-so-shocked-but-also-kind-of-happy what.
I froze, holding the door open with my foot.
"San Francisco? Seriously?" My mom asked whoever she was talking to. "But..."
The man on the other side of the line said something and my mom sighed.
"I'll have to talk about it with my husband," she said, pausing before saying, husband. I flinched.
My mom put the phone down as I closed the door behind me.
"Who was that?" I asked her.
"No one important, they were just trying to sell me something," she replied.
It was weird. I could usually tell when my mom lied, and I knew she wasn't right now. But at the same time, it wasn't the whole story. She was leaving something out. Something important.
I decided to drop it for a while. "What's for dinner?"
"Make yourself some kraft, Gabe and I are going out."
To talk, I realized. They weren't just trying to sell her something. California... What does California have to do with us?
What does it have to do with me?
End of Part 3