As I’m watching the volleyball game in the auditorium, loud with cheers, I glance over to Levi, whose eyes have already been looking at mine. I turn my head just so no one gets the wrong idea. But it’s tempting to look back. Eventually, our team scores, and everyone erupts with screams of excitement. Our team wins by two points. I head home and catch my friend with a gloomy expression.
”What’s wrong?” I ask, trying to be helpful.
“Like you’d be any help,” Jennie replies.
“What’s wrong with you? I was just trying to see if you were okay. Is that so bad?”
”Well, you wouldn’t care to hear anyway,” she says as she rolls her eyes.
“Yeah, you’re right. I don’t care,” I say as I walk away, and whisper “jerk” under my breath, cautiously making sure she doesn’t hear me. I walk to my friend Jessie’s house to let off some steam. I make it to Jessie’s house and we plan a sleepover
“You sure your mom is good with this?” she asks.
“I don’t care what my mom says,” I reply.
We get all cozy under a blanket. Jessie’s mom brings in snacks and drinks. We stay up till 2 in the morning then we finally go to sleep. I wake up to 150 messages from my mom. I panic, realizing I forgot to say I was sleeping over at Jessie’s. I leap up from the bed and leave while Maya and Jessie are asleep, making sure her parents know I’m leaving. I sprint home as fast as I can and open the door to be met by my mom crying and my dad comforting her.
“WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN? I WAS WORRIED SICK!” my mother screams between sobs. I tighten all my muscles, bracing myself for a beating, and just as expected, BLAM! I’m knocked down to the floor by my father’s clenched fist. I sit up just to be knocked down again. I can feel my body going numb as my father screams and hits me. I wake up to my brother standing above me with a disappointed look, then just walks away.
I stand up with my bruised legs and head to my room. I lay down on the bed and drift asleep, exhausted and hurt. I wake up to the morning sun on my face and gather myself to start the day. It’s Thursday, so I have basketball practice. But when I look in the mirror, I start to sob. A black eye and a bloody nose is what I’m met with. I know I can’t go to school looking like this.
I step back into my room, tired and exhausted. I don’t even bother getting back up. I close my eyes again, hoping not to ever wake up again. But, alas, I wake back up at around 3 PM. I get up to grab a snack and I realize my parents are not home. It’s a school day but I guess my parents didn’t care enough to wake me. I check my phone for any messages, but I’m left with a blank screen. I grab my snack and turn on a show to distract myself from all the pain in my body. Then I get a call from Jessie.
“Where were you?” she asks.
“Oh, you know I was feeling a bit sick,” I reply.
“Oh well, we have a ton of homework,” she says.
“I’ll do that stuff tomorrow. I need to focus on getting rest,” I say.
“Well, do you want me to come over to help you? I’m bored and I promise it won’t take long,” she says.
I giggle.
“Sure but hurry. I don’t know where my parents are or when they will be back so I don’t wanna get in trouble.”
As I wait, I tidy up the house. Jessie arrives 10 minutes later. I open the door and Jessie’s met with my painful looking black eye.
”Woah, dude, what happened? Are you alright?” she says in shock.
“Yeah, I’m fine. I just fell, but I’m feeling a lot better, so there’s nothing to worry about,” I say, trying to lighten the mood.
”You got a black eye from falling down!?”
“Yeah, I took a pretty bad fall,” I say.
“Well, you should get some ice on that. But in the meantime, I’ll get our stuff ready,” she says as she walks over to the small table in the living room.
I head over to my freezer and grab an ice pack.
“Alright, so I grabbed extra worksheets for the both of us to work on,” she says enthusiastically.
“Geometry, I see. Huh, the teacher must really hate us for her to give us 5 pages of just geometry,” I say as I continue to flip through multiple pages.
“I guess she really does,” she says as she quickly looks over the worksheet.
“This is a whole lot longer than I thought it would be.”
“I know, right?”
“I don’t even understand this.”
“Me neither,” Jessie says.
“Let’s just start on the science homework,” I say.
“Sure, I guess. But I don’t think you’d be too happy to realize that it’s literally as hard as Geometry.”
“Well, that’s great,” I say. “Geometry it is.”
“Finally,” I say. “We’re done.”
“Thank God.”
“Hey, it’s been like 3 hours. Where are your parents?”
Until that point, I hadn’t thought about where my parents were and when they would be coming back.
“I’m actually not sure where they are,” I say, worried. Jessie must have heard the worry in my voice because she says, “It’s okay. If you want, I can have my mom call your parents to see where they are.”
I think for a minute and respond.
“Yeah, that would be great.”
“Thank you so much, Jessie.”
“There’s no need to thank me.”
She calls her mom and explains the situation. Her mom calls my mom’s number but no answer. Her mom calls my dad but still no answer. I tell her to try my brother’s number but again no answer. At this point, I’m getting really worried. I feel a knot in my stomach, but I hold it together. Eventually, after about 30 minutes of calling, her mom says, “I could come over to their house until my parents come back.”
Jessie’s mom picks me up, and I’m at her house. Minutes turn into hours, and my parents still haven’t arrived back.
“Girl, you good?” Jessie asks.
“Earth to Jordan,” Jessie says as she waves her hand in front of my face.
“Sorry, I’m just not feeling good right now.”
“Is it because of your parents?”
I decide to come clean.
“I didn’t fall.”
“What are you talking about?”
I point to my black eye.
“Yeah, I figured, but what actually happened?”
I start to tear up as I tell her everything.
Her bright, cheerful look goes away, and she leans in to hug me.
“Why haven’t you told me this before?” she asks, still hugging me.
At this point, I’m bawling, and I can’t stop. Not even to speak.
“You know what I’m telling my mom this. You are not going back there!”
“No!” I shout.
“I’ll get even more hurt if they find out. And I don’t want you to be—”
She cuts me off and says, “Absolutely not! How do you think this is okay for you to be going through?”
She gets up and hurries to her mom to explain what I just said to her…
