Group Home
662 Words
Uncle Ray hadn’t ridden with them. He hadn’t wanted to see the look Brianna was sure she had on her face now. It was a look of disappointment, but it was also mixed with acceptance and a wariness she had hidden for months.
Her Aunt Pam kept saying how it was only until her Aunt Dallas, her mother’s sister, came to get her.
But Brianna had only heard vaguely of this Aunt Dallas. A scattered brained and responsibility-phobe who’d repelled anything serious or commitment wise her whole life.
It was a lifestyle that had put the younger woman at a distance from her older sister. And taking care of her daughter, wasn’t going to happen.
Brianna guessed then it had been what Uncle Ray had told his wife to say to make Brianna feel okay with being dumped. But Brianna wasn’t an i***t, and she knew her aunt wasn’t coming for her.
So, when they pulled up to the large grey building that reminded her of a prison, Brianna wanted to haul ass. But the fact she was broke, paired with nowhere to go, had her stuck.
Pam walked Brianna in and after signing documents had barely looked at her as she gave a quick hug in goodbye. Crying on the way home, Pam knew she’d regret what had been done.
But Brianna? She suffered for what had been done.
The first walkthrough of the group home had been nerve-wracking. Groups of girls and boys were kept separated by ages and the possibility to have s*x. And after the house manager, Shona showed her around, Brianna was left in a room with fourteen other beds.
Twelve already occupied by girls looking at her curiously. Sitting down on a thin mattress on a single bed not taken, a girl from a top bunk came over. Head shaved on the side, the other dark purple and curly.
Brianna attentively watched her approach and immediately wanted to run. Her face was full of piercings and even though she looked Brianna’s age she had tattoos all over. And before this, Brianna would have never thought she’d be associated or even in the same place as someone looking like this.
“Damn, where they drag you in from?” She asked looking her over. Brianna nervously muttered, “I was dropped off.” c*****g a pierced eyebrow, two girls came up looking almost identical to their friend.
Broken and showing it.
“Parents?” The girl questioned nosily. Brianna shook her head, “N-no.” Suddenly one of the girl’s friends smacked her shoulder, “Yo, that’s that chick on the news! Her daddy was some hotshot lawyer!”
Flinching at the mention of her father, the girl pierced and tatted didn’t care to notice and asked, “Oh yeah?” Brianna nodded stiffly making the girl scoff in disgust. “Well, he must have left you something in a will, right?”
Brianna met the brown eyes narrowed on hers and whispered afraid, “I don’t have anything.”
But that didn’t stop the girls from taking the other pair of shoes she had and a couple of cute shirts she did own. All she had after was two tank tops and a pair of tattered chucks she’d kept for sentimental value.
And you’d think that would be all.
But dinner that night had been bland chicken and rice. The water they gave her to wash it down with hot and tasting more like dish soap. That night that Brianna went to sleep, she was sure she was as miserable as she could get.
Until she was dragged from her bed by three other girls. All claiming she thought she was better than them, they quickly showed her, she was indeed not.
- Writer
