"Get out.”
I stop and shoot her a look. “I’m just going to bed—”
“No.” She burps and stumbles towards the door, which she flings wide. “Get out. Now.”
I glare at her. “What are you talking about? It’s the middle of the night!”
A hateful smirk forms on her three-day-old makeup-caked face. “Damn straight, it’s the middle of the night. I think some birthday congratulations are in order, Theodora.”
I can’t stand that name, and she knows it.
Her smirk turns into a wicked grin for a moment. “So, happy birthday. You’re eighteen now. Time for you to get the hell out of here.” She lurches over to the sink and thrusts a plastic garbage bag at me. “Here. Pack your crap and get out.”
Panic shoots through me and my eyes grow wide. This is the last place on earth I want to be, but it’s the only place I have.
“I can’t leave right now, I don’t have anywhere to go!”
“That ain’t my problem, kid.” She turns and loses her balance, reaching for the countertop to save herself from falling on the floor.
“Look, I don’t want to be here any more than you want me to be, but if you kick me out before Monday, I’ll be on the street!” My heart is racing and the icy fingers of fear grip me. I always knew this would happen. Eventually, it’s where people like me always end up. The unwanted. The delinquent. I just didn’t think it would be right here, right now.
She shrugs. “Like I said, it ain’t my problem. As of two hours ago, I don’t get paid squat for you, so you’re out. You’re an adult now. Go find your own way in the world.”
My mind is racing. Even if I did have a place to go, I don’t have a way to get in touch with anyone. I don’t have a phone or access to a computer. I’ve even been banned from the public library thanks to Ms. Martin’s tendency to use books for doorstoppers. Not that they’d be open at this hour.
I just need a couple more days. That’s all. I promise to do whatever she needs; cooking, cleaning, looking after the kids—anything. She just keeps that stupid, evil smile on her face the whole time.
“Shoulda thought about that when you stopped giving me my money,” she says, her face suddenly going cold.
It takes me a second to realize she means the blackmail she extorted out of me last year, and I’m left nearly speechless.
“Are you … you’ve got to be kidding me,” I say, still floundering for words.
Her face stays immobile, and she throws herself to the door again, pointing her claw-like fingers out towards the dark streets.
“I’ve never been so serious in my life. Get the hell out of my house Theodora Price, or I’m going to call the cops on your sorry ass.”
I snatch the plastic bag from her. “At least then I’d have a place to spend the night.”
It takes me less than five minutes to gather all my earthly possessions. I can’t stand to look any of the kids in the face, least of all Cassie and Rachel. I can’t let them see the hot tears of anger and frustration streaming down my face in the moments before I step out of the house I’ve come, however reluctantly, to call home for the last couple years.
I stand in the street, staring staunchly forward as the door slams behind me. I always told myself it could be worse.
Now it is.
Chapter 2
I’ve looked forward to this moment all of my life; when I’d age out of the system and no longer be a ward of the state, no longer under the control of that wicked woman. It was supposed to be my moment of triumph, a badge of honor for surviving. But now, it’s here and I just never imagined it would leave me feeling like this. So … empty.
All I needed was three days. Three days until I can use my prepaid, one-way bus ticket back to the school. Three days until I have my own bed once again.
Now, thanks to Ms. Martin’s final spite, I am three days homeless.
Three days have never seemed so long.
I’m not usually a crier … but cry I do. Barely hours into adulthood, and already I’ve sunk to new depths. I’ve never felt so alone in my life; so totally and completely abandoned. For someone who’s been abandoned time and time again in my life, that’s saying a lot.
It’s terrifying. I have nowhere to go, no way to get there, and no money to use, since I sent my last check to the school to pay for the last of Ms. Martin’s blackmail debt just this morning.