WARNING - Swearing/Verbal Abuse
13 Years Earlier. New York City, Harlem. Thursday night.
Hazel Miller walked home from school, the same way she did every afternoon. She knew this route like the back of her hand and was glad to finally have some independence. Normally her mother wouldn't be so casual about letting her come home alone, but she had a lot more to worry about right now. It was just beginning to get dark when she reached the front door, door number 12.
"Hey Hazel," she heard a voice say as she unlocked the door.
"Hey Sam," she replied without looking up. Sam Wilson had been her next-door neighbour for as long as she could remember and was also her best friend. Two years older, he always looked out for her. 14 year old Sam would never admit to his friends that he was best friends with a 12 year old girl, but there was something about Hazel that kept him interested, something he liked. He wanted to protect her at whatever cost.
"Wanna go to a concert with me tomorrow after school?" he asked her with a grin, knowing that she wouldn't turn down his offer.
"Who's playing?" she asked, finally looking up at him. He sat on the wall that separated their houses, staring at her with an eyebrow raised.
"Does it matter?" he asked. She knew that it didn't. She would use any excuse that she could to get out of the house. Luckily, Sam was always ready with another opportunity to allow her to immediately leave the house. He had her back.
"See you tomorrow?" she asked with a smile that only he understood, walking into her house and shutting the door behind herself. Walking straight into the middle of an argument.
"I go out every day and make all the money, I provide for you and your fucking daughter - therefore, I expect a fucking hot meal on the table when I come home! Is that too much to ask?!" He was shouting again. He was always shouting these days. Hazel didn't understand whether he was becoming more aggressive, or if her mother was making him angrier, angrier than he'd ever been before, but either way, she didn't like where this was heading. They hadn't heard her come in, so she hid behind a wall. She knew that there was no point getting involved, it would just make him angrier. And the angrier he was, the more she was scared that his shouting would be the least of their worries.
"I'm... sorry," Mia Miller, her mother, said. Her voice was timid. She tried to appear assertive, but he knew her well enough to know that she didn't have an assertive bone in her body.
"Don't be sorry. Be fucking better!" he spat at her. "I'm going for a drink, don't wait up!" he left, slamming the door so hard on his way out that the foundation shook. Hazel ran to her mother's side and wrapped her arms around her tiny frame. She seemed to be shrinking.
"Let's run away," she said, repeating the sentence that she said every time her step-father got verbally aggressive. So far, he hadn't laid a finger on either one of them, but from the way he was speaking, it was only a matter of time.
"We can't run, baby. Joey's been good to us," she said, giving the same excuse that she always did. Joseph Jackson paid the bills, bought the food and made sure that nothing bad ever happened to the Millers. He used this to his advantage, treating Mia like his personal slave.
"He's not good. He shouts at us," Hazel said with a shudder.
"He shouts at me," her mother corrected. "And that's because I don't do what he says, I forget things. But I won't let him shout at you like that. You're my number one priority," she said, kissing her daughter's head.
"It's not your fault," Hazel said. "Don't make excuses for him."
Mia looked down at her daughter for a moment, before sniffing and straightening.
"Let's have a movie night!" she said, feigning enthusiasm. "We can have snacks and watch one of those horror things you like so much. You can even invite Sam."
Hazel could see right through her mother's façade, she was distracting her so that they'd both forget.
"No, it's fine, let's make it just the two of us," she said, running to the living room and popping in her favourite movie, 'Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets'. The next film was due to come out the following year and she was really excited to see how closely the movies would resemble the books.
Mia sat beside her daughter and wrapped an arm around her, keeping one eye on the television and the other on the front door, waiting for him to come home.
***
"You're fucking cheating on me, I know you are! You think I can't fucking see it?!" Hazel awoke to the sounds of shouting. She was lying on the sofa, the credits of the movie still rolling.
"You're drunk, honey... please just... let's go to bed," her mother said, her voice slightly trembling.
"You think I can't see what's clearly in front of me?!" he continued to shout. A glass smashed.
"Please be quiet, you're gonna wake Hazel."
There was silence. Hazel burrowed under the covers - she didn't want either of them to know that she was awake.
"Did you just ask me to be quiet?" he asked quietly.
"No - I - Hazel-"
"I don't give a damn about Hazel!" he cut her off. Mia couldn't think of a way to reply to him, she knew that he didn't care about her daughter. "I'm going to bed. You should sleep on the couch!" he said, going into the bedroom and slamming the door.
As footsteps approached the living room, Hazel shut her eyes and slowed her breathing, giving the impression that she was asleep. Mia crouched down and stroked her daughter's head.
"I can't take it anymore," Mia whispered into her ear. "We're gonna get out of here baby, tomorrow. He can't ruin our lives anymore." She kissed her forehead and sat on the ground, putting her head in her hands.
Hazel smiled. Tomorrow.
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What's going to happen tomorrow? Are Hazel and her mother going to get away? Find out next Saturday in the second flashback chapter!
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