Chapter 1
1130 Words
The first slap came before Olivia could even finish counting the coins in her hand.
Crack. Just like that. Through the whole house.
Olivia didn't cry. She gripped the coins and looked down at the floor.
Outside the carnival was still loud. Music coming through the window. People out there laughing like nothing bad existed in the world tonight.
In here it was a completely different thing.
"Give it to me." Her stepmother moved closer. Eyes red. Wrapper halfway off her shoulder. Alcohol smell filling everything around her.
"I can't." Olivia kept her voice low. "It's for my exam registration."
"I don't care about any exam."
"Please. I put this money aside for weeks…"
SPLASH!
The second slap came harder. It threw her into the wooden table. A plate went down and smashed on the floor. Coins everywhere.
"You ungrateful child!" The woman's voice took over the whole room.
"You stay under my roof. You eat my food. And you cannot hand me small change? Uhn?"
Olivia dropped to her knees picking coins up one after the other. Her fingers kept trembling and she couldn't make them stop.
"I scrubbed people's dirty clothes for three solid weeks for this money," she said. "Three weeks. This belongs to me."
"I don't care what you did."
"It's for my future!"
"You don't have a future here." The woman came closer. "Not in my house. Not anywhere."
The room fell dead quiet.
Those words hit Olivia somewhere that would hurt for a very long time.
One coin dropped from her hand and rolled across the floor. She didn't chase it. She just stayed there on her knees. Still. Like the part of her that kept trying had finally just stopped.
That was when Mia showed up at the doorway.
She had been in the kitchen the whole time hearing everything.
"Leave her alone."
Calm voice. Shaking hands she kept hidden behind her back.
The woman turned around. "Nobody asked you anything."
"I'm the one asking you." Mia came in. "She is not yours to do this to. She is a human being."
"Get out of my house."
"I'm not going anywhere without her."
The woman grabbed Olivia by the hair and pulled her through the front door into the dirt road outside. No warning. No words.
Olivia landed hard. Dust came up around her. The sun was still high and it didn't soften anything.
People came to windows. To doors.
Watching every move.
They always watched. Not one of them ever stepped in.
Mia was already outside next to her. "Livy. Hey. Look at me."
Olivia lifted her head up. One eye puffed up already. Cheek burning red. Dirt and tears all over her face making it worse.
"I'm fine," she said. Same thing she always said.
"No you're not." Mia got her up carefully. "You're coming home with me. You're not spending tonight here."
The woman was still in the doorway shouting. "Walk out that gate and don't ever come back!"
Olivia stopped walking.
She turned and looked at her properly. At this woman who was supposed to be the person who looked after her. Who kept picking up that bottle instead. Year after year after year.
Then she faced forward again.
And walked.
Mia held her the whole way through the village. Olivia kept her eyes on the ground.
She didn't want to look at anyone who had stood at their windows and done absolutely nothing.
That night the two of them sat outside Mia's house long after the rest of the house had gone to sleep.
The carnival was still going somewhere far off. The music drifting over felt wrong given everything they were sitting with.
"I'm tired Mia." Olivia's voice was almost gone. "Not just from tonight. I'm worn out from all of it."
Mia held her hand and kept holding it.
"We are going to get out of this place," she said. "Both of us. Together. Doesn't matter how long it takes. I'll drag you out myself if I have to."
Olivia looked at her for a moment.
"You really think so?"
"I know it."
Nothing more was said for a while. The quiet between them felt okay. Like something neither of them needed to fill.
"Alright," Olivia said softly.
One word. But it carried weight.
The letter showed up on a Tuesday.
Mia had left early for the market. The place was quiet when Olivia came in.
She spotted the envelope immediately. Half hanging out of Mia's bag on the table. Something official about it. A stamp she didn't recognise. Return address from the city.
She picked it up telling herself she was just checking if it needed urgent attention. A bill or something. Something Mia should know about.
That's what she told herself anyway.
She pulled it open.
Read it through once. Went back and read it again.
Selected. Professional fashion exams. City institute. Register immediately.
Something moved inside her chest.
Not pain exactly. Heavier than pain. The kind of thing that sits in your stomach and doesn't shift no matter how you breathe.
She folded the letter back up. Placed it exactly where it had been. Her hands didn't leave it straight away though.
"You're really going to leave me behind," she said under her breath.
The way she said it didn't sound like grief.
It sounded like a decision getting made.
When Mia came back she went straight for the envelope and pulled it open. Read it. Read it again. Her hands were trembling before she even looked up.
"Livy." She grabbed Olivia's arm. "Livy they picked me. For the professional fashion exams. In the city. I actually made it."
Olivia's face opened into a big smile. Looked genuine. Looked warm.
"That's so good," she said. "I'm really happy for you."
Voice steady. Eyes lit up. Everything about her looked the way a real best friend looks when they hear something great.
Mia went back to staring at the letter, smiling so wide her face ached. She didn't catch what happened behind her.
The smile stayed on Olivia's face.
But the thing that had been behind it quietly left.
Three weeks on Mia picked up her phone and rang Olivia.
Same as she always did. Same as she had since they were little.
Once. Twice. Three times it rang.
Across the village Olivia was sitting on the side of her bed watching the name on her screen light up again and again.
She sat there.
She didn't answer.
First time she had ever chosen not to.
And as the ringing stopped and the screen went dark one thought settled cold and slow in her chest.
If Mia was going to leave her behind.
She was going to take something of Mia's before she did.
- Writer
