Chapter 4

"GET UP!!!" Tom shouted right in her ear.

Litt jolted upright, eyes wide. Realizing what happened, she turned to him and her eyes narrowed. "What the hell do you want?!" she muttered, still half asleep.

"I SAID get up!" he shouted again.

She turned her back to him and mumbled, "Just go away."

He just stood up and glared down at her. "You are going to school. Either you get up on your own, or I'll do it for you," he threatened, kicking her sharply in the back.

Groaning, she muttered curses inaudibly and slowly sat up. Ignoring him entirely, she ran her hands through her matted hair and massaged her cramped shoulder. She managed to stand up, although not without feeling pain shoot through her body. But she didn't give him the satisfaction of a wince. Pretending not to notice, she brushed past him and went into the bathroom, slamming the door behind her. She could hear him yell, "You and me are gonna have a talk when I get home, you got that?" Her face fell, she knew what that meant. They weren't going to have a "talk" at all.

Having to get up so suddenly, after doing absolutely nothing for three days straight, made her feel extremely queasy, and she quickly got reacquainted with the toilet. When she finished puking, she took a shower, redressed her wounds, and grabbed a little something to eat before hurrying out the door ahead of Tom.

Litt knew she looked like hell, and she knew she was going to get flak for it from everyone. But as she walked down the street to the city bus stop, she muttered, "Aw screw it. I'm gonna have to face them sometime. But...I have a feeling it's going to be different this time 'round..."

The bus took her close to the school, but not to it. The school she went to was small, and held about a thousand students, K-12. It was a charter school, focusing on academics, but a sanctuary for students who were having problems at other schools. Everybody was welcome to Horizon, it wasn't within any specific school zone. Litt had been expelled from Corona, and Mike had forced her to attend Horizon. She had made friends, and one even had similar problems. That was Amber and the two were close. Litt wanted to talk to her about everything, again.

Yawning, she limped onto campus and walked over to her friends. They all had surprised and concerned expressions on their faces except for Amber. She seemed to have a feeling as to what had happened, and while everyone began to ask what was going on, she just stood there, anger building inside.

"Amber, I need to talk to you before any teachers see me," Litt spoke softly.

She nodded and the two stepped away from the group.

Amber had a lot of the same problems as her. She was doing better now, but she continuously had gotten into fights at her old school, Marcos, and attempted to run away a lot. Her mom gave her hell, but nowhere near what Tom did.

"Litt, what the hell did he do to you?! God, you haven't been in school for three days, and I figured you really did run away," she looked at her worriedly.

"God, don't I wish!" she rolled her eyes. "Mike found me, as always." Then she looked down. "Amber, he got me bad this time...I almost called Mike."

"Why don't you?" she asked softly. "This isn't right, and you know it. Come on, I'll come with you and we'll do it together."

Looking up again, she shook her head. Indecision commanded her features, and there were tears in her eyes. "Amber, I can't."

"Litt! Put his ass in jail! He needs to be punished, teach him a lesson he'll never forget."

"But what about Michael and Willy and Sam and Lizzy? I can't do that to them! Unlike me, they actually have a nice home life."

"Litt, you know I'm not going to make you do anything, but seriously think about all the shit you've had to go through. It doesn't have to be that way till you're eighteen. There's only one way out, and that's calling Mike." Amber spoke sternly, and as Litt looked her in the eye, she could tell the words came from the heart. "If you didn't have your brothers and sisters to worry about, what would you choose?"

Litt just looked at her. "I-I don't know."

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