Careless

My name is Eve.
Well in reality, it's Evelyn, but that sounds like I'm sixty and only have cats for friends. Although, other than the fact that I'm sixteen, it's true. I find people careless, and as a result, my best friend is my cat, Lou.
I live with my mother. My father ran away. I have no idea who he is. I vaguely remember being slapped for asking my mother once. But that was when my mother was strong enough to slap me. But she does still bring up the reason he ran off: my existence drove him away.
I dragged myself off the wall and away from my thoughts and decided to check on her again.
I walked down the dim hallways, turning on lights as I approached the living room. The lights kept flicking on and off, which I was used to. But dim lights were better than no light. When I got to the kitchen, I stopped and looked inside. My mother was sitting on the floor, her arms wrapped around her knees.
"Mom?" I asked, leaning down beside her. "Mom, give me the drugs." I demanded. She pulled her head from between her arms and looked up at me, her eyelids half closed. She reeked. She smiled at me, if you could call it that, her teeth yellow and her skin yellow.

"You want them now, do you?" She croaked. I looked at her in disgust.

"I'm not like you." I said. "Now give them to me, and get back in bed." I said. She just gave a short, raspy bark of laughter and unfolded her arms. She had a syringe between her fingers and she waved it in front of me, her arms shaking.

"I'll die without this. So I'll find a way to get more. I always do Evelyn. So don't you fucking think for a second that you're helping anyone." Her eyes gleamed.

"You drove your father away, you little brat. So you don't get to play hero."
I carefully pried the syringe away from her hands, ignoring what she was saying. I pulled her up and made her lean against me. She weighed nothing. She was paper thin and slowly wasting away. I picked her up and put her into bed when we reached the bedroom.
I walked out and quietly shut the door behind me, pulling out the key I kept and locking it from the outside. I sat down and leaned my head against the door, twirling the syringe between my fingers.

Someone was banging on the door. My eyes flew open with a start and I jumped to my feet, realizing what must have happened. I stumbled for the key and unlatched the door. It flew open and my mother tumbled out of the room.
"You little bitch, you locked me in there?" She yelled at me, spittle flying everywhere. She stood up and stumbled to the kitchen. I followed behind her, wary of her falling over. "Where are my car keys?" She demanded.

"I don't know." I lied.

"You do know." She said angrily.

"I can't give them to you." I said, holding my ground. She brought her hand to my face to slap me. She was weak though and I felt nothing. I heard knocking at the door. My eyes widened and I glared at my mom.

"Don't come out. Or you'll get in trouble. I'll handle this." I said. I reached into my jeans pocket and made sure my wand was there, before walking over to the door and opening it a crack. There was a friendly looking teenage girl standing at the door, her hair in high pigtails and a dorky expression on her face.
"I'm selling cookies, and I was wondering if—"

"You asshole, you stole my fucking syringe didn't you? My drugs?" I heard my mom yell from behind me. Startled, I turned to give her a look, but when I turned back to the girl, I saw the damage was done. She was staring at me, wide eyed.

"It's not what you think." I started hastily. "That's just my mom. Look, what were you saying about cookies?" I asked, but she had already run toward the street.

"Damnit." I said allowed, shutting the door. Hopefully, she would be too scared to tell anyone and eventually forget about it. I hated summer. I ran toward the bathroom and opened the cabinet. The pills sat right where I had left them and I grabbed the bottle.

"Here mom, drink this and then I'll give you the drugs," I said, handing my mom a cup of water. I had crushed a sleeping pill inside one of them. She drank it and then looked at me expectantly.

"Um, in a minute. Why don't you go lie down?" I suggested. She looked at me suspiciously but nodded and made her way back to the bedroom.

"You better not be lying, you stupid girl," She shot at me.

"I'm not," I assured her, tucking her in, and leaving.

There was a knock at the door.
I prayed hard that it wasn't the girl.
I got up and opened the door a crack. A grown woman stood at the door. She had kind eyes. "Yes?" I asked.

"I have a warrant to search your house." She said simply. I stared at her. My heart was in my throat and I had never been more scared.

"I…um…"

"You have to let me in. I have backup if necessary." She said.

I looked her in the eye and saw no sign of a lie. I wasn't legally allowed to use magic, so I had no choice but to let her in. She entered and sat down on the sofa.
I stared at her. "What… um, what do you want?"

"Is this your house?" She inquired, looking up at me.

"My mother's," I replied hesitantly.

"Sit," She ordered. I glared at her. "That was an order, actually, young lady."

"It's Eve." I corrected. She smiled patronizingly at me and pointed to the sofa cushion next to her. I sat down hesitantly.

"You're a witch, I'm guessing."
This took me by surprise. "Yes." I said, looking at her more closely. She was dressed very well for a witch. Most dressed a bit funky when trying to look like muggles.

"You attend Salem Institute then?"

"Yes, but—"

"I'll just have a look around, shall I?" She asked sweetly. I stared at her as she pulled her wand out of her suit pocket.

"Accio pharmakeia," She said, as she waved her wand.
Nothing happened at first, but then to my horror, all the drugs in my house began to zoom toward her. She watched me as I stared at them in horror. The cocaine, the heroin, the pills—everything was lined up in front of her, clear as day. All the syringes even showed themselves. I didn't even know where my mom had hid all these.

"Are you a drug user, Ms. Eve?" The lady asked me. I looked up at her in defiance. I could say yes and get my mother out of trouble.
"I am a very practiced legilimens. So don't try and cover for your mother." She stated simply. Hatred began bubbling in my stomach and I just stared her, for lack of anything else to do.

"Eve, I'm afraid I'm going to have to get social services to get you out of jail, and put your mother into rehabilitation."

"But I'm working on it!" I said, jumping to my feet.
She looked at me pityingly. "Well it hasn't worked. We can get you far away from this place, and you will not have to take care of her again." She stated.

"It's my job to take care of her." I demanded.

"What do you do when school starts?"

"I… I come home every day without the dean knowing." I said. "But that's none of your business, is it?" I asked.

"I'm sorry, Eve. I'll have to take your mother in today, and someone will be sent for you shortly after. You'll have time to pack everything. I'll give you a moment to say your goodbyes." She said, standing up. I glared at her.

"Can you even do this?" I demanded.

"It's for your safety. Your mother is using intravenous drugs and is addicted. You are not in a good home environment, and by the looks of things," she paused and took a moment to look around the dingy house, "you haven't had one in a long time. Thanks to a girl scout who reported this house to her mother, you've been offered another chance. I would be smart and take advantage of it."

"I don't have much of a choice do I?" I spat at her.
She stopped and looked at me. "You do, actually. You have the choice to walk into this thinking of it as a second chance. Or you could walk into it thinking you're being coerced."

"As if it makes a difference." I snorted.

"It makes a world of difference." She said, before turning and walking out onto the porch to wait.
I walked toward my mother's bedroom, and opened the door. She was still sleeping and I leaned against the doorframe and watched her. She would die without me, and that was on my hands. How had I been so careless after being so careful all this time? I shouldn't have ever opened the door. It was stupid. It was what I hated in people.

"Bye mom." I whispered under my breath, before shutting the door and leaning against it once more. I pushed myself off of it and walked back toward the front door.

"You can take her. She's asleep in the bedroom." I said to the lady. "And she likes coffee in the morning. She usually sneaks off around midnight searching for drugs. I've hidden her car keys, but I didn't know about the stash of drugs she apparently had. Her favorite food is fried eggplant. She's lost her magic, and—" I made sure not to let my voice break. "And she likes when you tuck the sheet in around her before she falls asleep."
The woman watched me. "I'm sorry you had to go through this." She said. I shook my head.

"Don't pity me." I said fiercely. It was my fault. It was my fault my mother was like this. So it was my problem. It was supposed to be my responsibility to fix what I had broken.

A/N: Hey guys, I hope you liked the very first chapter of my very first fan-fiction! I would like to give a warm, warm, warm shout-out to Christy (christywithaCH) who is my lovely beta, and will hopefully continue to be! :)