I was always the girl who was left in the shadows. No one noticed me, Tessa. I was the freak of the school.
You see I have grown up with an alcohol addicted father. The alcohol usage came with bruises. I was being abused by my father mostly every day. He was never like this when my mother was still breathing.
At school, I was known as the punching bag for verbal abuse and mocking. I achieved in school but this didn't help my status to upgrade. Instead it created more words to make me feel like an outsider.
No one understood me or cared about me. And I learned to create a bubble around me. But even that imaginary bubble can't keep out those hurtful words. In spite of this, I keep on living. My life may never get easier, and I doubt it ever will.
It was the Monday of October 19th. I was walking the halls of the school I despised. I was counting down every second that I had left until freedom. Not only to leave my school, but to be free of the hell I lived at home.
On my way to my first period class, I got the breath knocked out of me. Someone collided into me with increasing force. When I looked up I saw him. It was the king of the school, Jake West. He had all the girls drooling over him. Well, not all.
"Uhm, I'm s-sooo sorry" I managed to say.
"Yeah well next time watch where you walk." He said.
Then he walked off. With being, the king of the school also came with being a major jerk.
At lunch, I ate away from my peers. I felt it was my only time to get a little peace in my day. I always had the same lunch every day, an apple. With all the alcohol my dad buys we don't have enough to buy a loaf of bread.
My dad changed for the worst when my mom died when I was twelve. He dealt with it with his own personal therapist, alcohol. With his heavy drinking, he changed. He became lazy and could barely afford the apartment we rented.
When my father lost his job, two years ago, he started to take his anger out on me. He drank more and more. The first night he laid a hand on me causing a bruise, my life changed. Now, I felt like I could never love someone or be loved without being hurt in the end. My father left me scarred for life.
By the end of the day, I received about a dozen mocks and a few stares. I never acted or dressed like my fellow classmates. I wore heavy clothing to cover the evidence about my dad's "loving treatment". And I was the loner in school who never spoke a word to others. I knew nothing would ever change as I grew older.
But, I still dream of a day when someone would rescue me from my life. And make the sun rise over my dark life.