For Worse Or For Better

    The final line had been drawn and a foot had been put down though, to Blair's surprise, it wasn't her own. The seventeen-year-old had been overruled as she sat in the passenger seat of her grandfather's car. He stared over at her, disappointment written all over his weathered features before he put the Cadillac in reverse and pulled out of the police station's parking lot. She'd really messed up this time and there was no letting it go, as her grandfather always did.      "Grandpa, if you'd just let me talk for five seconds-" with a flick of his wrist, he'd cut her off without even saying a word. She pressed her lips together, grimacing at how dry they felt after spending a night in the Sahara Desert of all jail cells. There was no chance she even wanted to see how she looked after a night like the one before.      "We'll talk when we're home."      Her grandfather, or Joe as everyone else in his world knew him as, was a gruff man with a heart of gold. Blair had always been a problem child, which was nothing he wasn't used to seeing as she was the replica of her mother, his own daughter. But as his only grandchild, Blair seemed to always get a pass when it came to the old man. She was the apple of his eye and she'd ruined their bond by continuously ignoring his wishes that she'd just behave.      The ride home was a silent one. Joe wasn't much of a talker and neither was Blair, unless she needed to be, but while silence wasn't uncommon among the two of them, this time it felt different. Like they were strangers forced to ride to their destination together.      "Inside," he sputtered out when they pulled up to the modest three bedroom suburban home. It looked foreign to Blair as she gathered her things and stepped out of the car, stretching her legs for the first real time after being cooped up on the poor excuse of a bed that they offered at the station. Her limbs ached, but she forced herself forward, following meekly behind her grandfather.      They'd been inside for what seemed like less than a second before the man turned around to face her. His cheeks were red and his eyebrows were knitted down so far over his eyes, she couldn't even see the bright baby blue that normally stared back at her.      "This is it, Blair."      Her eyes blinked a few times as she looked at him, trying to comprehend what he meant. "What's that mean?" She felt stupid even asking.      "I can't keep doing this with you. You'll never learn."      "You haven't even let me explain."      "You can explain to me on the car ride."      "What? What car ride? Where are you taking me?" Nothing was making sense and she wasn't sure if she was still hungover or high from the night before because this felt like a hallucination. The look on Joe's face was enough to tell her that this was no dream. His popped eyebrow was enough to explain to her what she wasn't quite understanding and she immediately realized what he meant.      The past few times Blair had gotten herself into trouble, whether it was the time that she stole sunglasses at the mall or when she'd been caught skipping school for the fifth day in a row, her grandfather had used the threat of sending her away to a reformatory school but she'd never taken his threats seriously. He was always lenient with her and never followed through on any of the punishments he threatened and she, had clearly, taken advantage of that one too many times.     "You don't mean..." she sputtered out the words, afraid of the answer she'd get.      "Pack your bags, Blair. You've got two hours before we leave."      Her eyes trailed after the only person in her life that she truly loved and who, she thought, was the only one who truly loved her back. He'd taken her in when she was thirteen, after her parents were falling apart themselves. Her dad, who was abusive and overall a disgusting human being who should've never been allowed to have kids, let alone a daughter. And her mother, a drunken fool who wasn't strong enough to leave the man who'd hurt them both more times than Blair could count, but could leave her only daughter on the front step of the only other living relative she had.      Time froze around the teenager as she collected herself and ran up the stairs, her long legs taking two at a time as she slammed the door to the bathroom behind her. A scream ripped through her throat as she thrashed around the obnoxiously white room, knocking bottles off shelves and pulling the shower curtain, along with the rod, down to the floor, desperate to destroy anything within reach. Her shoe caught on the fabric, ironically causing her to tumble to the floor as well, where she sat.      Seconds, maybe minutes, later, she weaving her hands through her hair, pulling it out of her face before fumbling around to get up, finding her image in the vanity mirror. The person she saw in front of her barely looked like how she remembered herself to look. All of the same features were there but they were all slightly off kilter. Her large, hazel eyes were bloodshot from the tears the streaked down her cheeks, bringing black mascara down with them. The flat-ironed hair from her night out was returning to it's normal frizzy, brown mess and her lips were larger than normal, puffed from the nervous biting and flaky from dehydration.      If the one person in her life was going to give up on her, she was going to give up on herself too. What was the point anymore? No one else was going to give her a real second chance, especially not the place she was being shipped off to. Her breathing hitched in her throat as she recalled the name of her new school.  Wolf Creek Therapeutic Boarding School. Might as well just call it Hell.