This is just the first chapter of a love story - it doesn't start out as one, but it is. And I have no idea what to name it
WARNING:: there is some language in this...
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“Lynn!” Lynn’s mother called from downstairs. She was always such a grump. Especially to Lynn.
Her feet pounded down the old, rotting stairs. “What?” Lynn snapped. If Erica wasn’t in a good mood, she wasn’t in a good mood.
“Don’t talk like that to me, you shit.”
Lynn raised her eyebrows, pursed her lips, and folded her arms. Erica was not in a good mood, it wasn’t going to be pretty.
“I want you to try this to see if it’s still good.” Erica shoved a piece of moldy cheese up to Lynn’s lips. Lynn gently pushed it away, like she was handling a little kid.
“No.”
Erica did a double take. Lynn had never said no to Erica before in her life. Erica slapped Lynn. Hard. Lynn had a red and print on the side of her face.
“What did you say?”
“I said no. Are you that deaf?”
Another hard slap. Lynn winced but didn’t back down. She loved seeing the anger grown on Erica’s face. It was one thing why she stood up to her mother.
“You are going to try it,” Erica growled, prying the rotten cheese in between Lynn’s lips. Lynn refused. She hit Erica’s arm, knocking the cheese to the floor.
“I said no,” Lynn repeated firmly.
Erica looked from the piece of cheese and back to Lynn. Her face grew from shock to red hot anger.
“You ass hole! Never ever hit me. Got that?” She pointed a long, bony finger at Lynn.
“No, I don’t.”
“Ugh, I can’t stand you one more minute! I only wanted you to try this,” she said pointing to the rotten cheese. “To see if it is good to eat. And then you get all nasty about it.”
Lynn hated Erica! She could twist anything. Like this for example…
“To your room.”
Erica marched behind Lynn to her room. She slammed the door, making some of the ceiling fall, and locked it. There was only a lock on the outside, giving Erica the choice if she wanted Lynn in there or not.
Lynn’s stomach growled. He last time she had eaten was this after noon. Her mother had only given her a small bowl of stale cheerios. She knew that she wasn’t going to get anything to eat for a few days.
Lynn’s room wasn’t much – only a bed, a dresser, and a small mirror. The room was lit by one small light bulb that was almost dead, there were no windows.
In overall her bedroom was as crappy as the rest of the house. The stairs were unstable; you could fall if you didn’t watch were you stepped. The roof was going to fall at any minute. The carpet was encrusted with layers of dirt and dust. The whole house was falling apart.
Lynn was surprised the government didn’t make them move out – considering that the house was so unstable. She wished they would. Then Erica would be exposed and she would be free of her. Maybe. Erica was always good at hiding things.
She opened the bottom dresser drawer. A mouse had made it’s nest in there, out of the assortment of old, must clothes that were in there.
“Hey Alfred, how are you doin’?”
She picked the chestnut colored fur ball up. She had developed a liking to Alfred, her only friend. He was always there when she needed him. She told him all of her secrets.
Lynn wondered what it would be like to have a real best friend. She’d seen in clips of movies what teenage girls did. They had sleepovers, talking about boys, shoes, and doing each other’s make up.
So that’s what she talked to Alfred about.
“What’s your favorite kind of shoes?”
Alfred sniffed her hand and climbed up her shirt soundlessly.
“I think I like my shoes the best.” Lynn’s shoes were old dry mud encrusted tennis shoes. Luckily they didn’t have any holes in them yet.
She sighed it was no use. She didn’t like that Alfred, a mouse, was her only friend. He couldn’t even talk back. But she still talked to him.
“Erica is herself – a bitch.”
She paused, like she would if she was talking to someone else so they could reply. “She tried to make me eat rotten cheese and I said no. Then she slapped me twice.” Lynn touched where she got hit, it still stung. “But it was fun watching her face.”
“Good night, Alfred.” She put the mouse back in it’s nest, with a small kiss on the head.
“Lynn, sweetie, wake up.” This had to be a dream. The voice was really familiar. It was the one that had abused her her whole life. It was the one that yelled at her last night.
Lynn opened her eyes. She knew right away why Erica was being so nice. In the doorway a man in a black suite was standing. She groaned and sat up.
“Here is a bag. Put your stuff in it. We’re leaving.” Leaving? Lynn didn’t feel like protesting. She went over to the oak dresser and pulled open the first drawer. Erica is going to be pissed because she had to act so nice to me, she thought, shoving random items in her bag. Great.
She waited until the man and Erica left so she could do the last drawer in private. “We’ll be in the kitchen when you’re ready,” Erica said, following the man out.
“Good-bye, Alfred, my only friend. I’ll miss you.” She encased the small mouse in her hands, tucked it under her chin, and closed her eyes, enjoying the moment.
She gave him on final kiss on the head and placed him back in his drawer. She stared at it for a minute. Alfred came scrambling out from underneath it to her feet. She laughed and picked him up. “You have to stay here.”
She smiled, placing Alfred back on in his drawer. She was half way across the room when she felt something crawling up her leg. She looked down.
“Alfred…Okay. Fine.” She picked up the mouse and put it in her backpack, making sure the zipper was unzipped just a little so it could get air and not escape.
Erica and the bald-headed man were talking at the kitchen table. Erica had set out two cups of coffee, sugar, and creamer. “Can I have some?” Lynn asked, just to make Erica mad. She glared at Lynn, but got up and poured another cup.
She looked at Erica. It looked like she had been crying. Lynn looked at the bald-headed stranger and she knew. Erica had lost the house.
