Lick, age 17
For three years, I took Teddy’s shit.
I was too weak, and small to defend myself from his advances. But once I started growing, I used both my size and my hatred for him to finally get out from under his thumb. The night when I left him broken and wheezing was the first time since my father was taken that I felt free. I spent three years of my life getting fucked by people who I didn’t want touching me. What I did to Teddy was minor to what I was owed by every single fuck who came into my room and got off a hurting a fucking child. There are some sick fucks out there and I know I’d only had a taste of their perversion.
Anger became my go to when things would start to go to shit. With my anger, came fighting, stealing, and anything else that I felt I could use as an outlet. Suddenly school didn’t mean shit to me. Who the fuck has time to study when their mother is tweaked out of her mind, and your job is to make sure your baby sister isn’t touched? Who the hell has time to learn who sailed the ocean fucking blue in 1492?
Moving was probably one of the best things that happened. Most of our problems stayed behind, and getting the fuck out of that town allowed me to meet Devin Jr. He’s become my life saver. His dad is the president of one of the local MC clubs and he’s given me a job. It’s crap work, but he tells me once I’m of age I can become a prospect. Devin Jr. says he’s doing the same thing and there’s a chance that one day he’ll follow in his father’s footsteps and lead Devil’s Fury, just like his old man.
Hanging with the MC allows me plenty of time to stay away from the apartment we live in. There’s a new dude who hangs around my mom all the time. He’s still as seedy as Teddy ever was, but he doesn’t give me shit and I don’t have to do shit for my mom to get what she needs. That’s all that matters to me. I still make sure that my sister is good, but as soon as she got her boobs and started having her mood swings it’s been hard for me to be around her. She and the bitch go at it all the time. There’s only so much female hormones I can take.
“I can’t stand you!” I hear my sister’s voice coming from the apartment as I walk up.
“I don’t give a fuck if you can’t. I’m your mother.”
“You’re nothing to me!” my sister yells back.
I open the front door. My sister comes stomping in from the hallway with a bag in her hand. “What are you doing?” I ask.
“I’m sorry, Ty, but I can’t stay here anymore. I can’t keep…” Her words fall as she shakes her head.
“Hey.” I reach out and grab her hand. “You can’t what?”
“Don’t fucking coddle her,” my mother says, stumbling from her room. Her hair is greasier than normal, and she hasn’t changed her clothes in almost a week.
I can’t stand her. I fucking hate her, and the only reason I put up with her shit is because of Betsy. I’m not leaving her here alone, and I’ve got no place for us right now. But once I’m in at the MC, I’m taking my sister away from this place and hopefully get her a life that she deserves.
“What the fuck are you fighting about now?”
“She ain’t pulling her weight around here,” she says as my blood runs cold.
My back tenses up as I turn to face my mother. I bring myself to my full height. “What the fuck does that mean?” I know what it means, but I need to hear it come from my mother’s mouth.
“She thinks she can live here and eat my motherfucking food and watch my motherfucking TV and sleep in my motherfucking bed and not have to pay for anything?”
The urge to wrap my fingers around her neck and squeeze the life from her pathetic body is great. “Betsy, you need to go to your room.” I stalk towards my mother, making her step back.
“I want to go, Ty.” Betsy’s voice is small.
“Get in your room, Betsy. Now!” I roar. She grumbles about me not being the boss of her, but takes her bag and walks back down the hall.
Once she’s gone, I continue to stalk the piece of shit that gave me life. “Tell me you’re yelling because your thirteen-year-old daughter doesn’t want to get a job at the local burger joint.” I take another step, lifting my finger to her face. “Please tell me that you’re yelling because your child doesn’t want to do her chores.” Taking another step, I crowd her space causing her to continue to walk back until she’s up against the wall of the living room.
“I need my stuff,” she tells me point blank.
I slam my fist into the sheetrock right above her head making her jump. “You’re a piece of shit,” I seethe.
Fire rips across my cheek as her hand connects with my skin. “I’m your mother. Don’t you even think to speak to me that way!” Her breath smells like rotten food, and I can feel the taste of bile rise in the back of my throat.
“You haven’t been our mother for years.” My voice is low, my words slow so I know she can hear me. “You are shit.” I push my finger into her boney chest. “You look like shit,” poke “You talk like shit,” poke “and you smell like shit.” Poke.
Her eyes start to fill with unshed tears as she takes in my words.
I smirk. “One day soon, I hope you’ll end up alone and pissing yourself, wondering where your life has gone. The shit you stick in your arm is going to eat away at more than your teeth and your body, and I hope the day it happens I get to see it. I hope you’ll get one second of clarity and reach out to me for help so I can finally tell you to fuck off.” I pound my fist into the wall again leaving her shaking and hopefully pissing herself.
When I reach my sister’s door, I knock. I hope to God Betsy hasn’t been through what I’ve been through. I know I need to get us out of here and never come back and that’s gonna have to happen sooner rather than later. I’m going to go to Devin Sr. and see if we can stay with him. I’m sure my mom won’t even realize Betsy’s gone.
I knock again. “Bets, open up.”
When I’m met with silence again, I turn the handle and push through the door, feeling the breeze of air across my face. The window is wide open, curtains blowing around with no sister in sight. Drawers are pulled open, clothes pulled from their hangers, and the picture of us I gave her for her birthday that usually sits on her nightstand is gone.
My sister’s gone.