She ran into her room, dropped her bag on the floor and fell onto her bed. The tears started to flow almost instantly. She slowly sat up and wiped her eyes as the yelling started again. The fights between her parents had become more frequent since she started her junior year of high school. Her mother said that she wanted her daughter to have more freedom since she was now 17 years old, but her father was saying that she wasn't old enough to do what she wanted, including having a boyfriend. The fights were starting to turn almost violent. As soon as she walked through the door of her house, the yelling started almost instantaneously. She never knew if it had started before she came home. But she had a feeling that it didn't. Right now, she was afraid to move. She could hear the words they were speaking perfectly.
"Are you blind?" She heard her mother yell. "Can you not see that she isn't a little girl any more? She's a woman!"
"She is not a woman! She is a teenage girl! She will not be a woman until she is 18!" Her father bit back. "And as long as she lives under my roof she will do as I say! And that means she is forbidden to see him!"
"What is so bad about him? He's just a boy."
"Exactly! He's a boy! He only wants to get inside her pants!"
"And what if he doesn't? Huh?" She heard her mother ask. "What if he really loves her? You would have ruined her life!" She waited for her fathers response, but it never came. Instead she heard a crack and the sound of something heavy hitting the floor. She gasped loudly, as she realized what it was when she heard her mothers sobs. She holds her breath as she waits to see if she was heard. She walks quickly to her door and locks it as footsteps come running up the stairs. Her father bangs on the door and yells for her to open it. She cries harder as the door cracks. She runs into her closet, closes the door and locks it from the inside as he bedroom door slams open. She holds her breath as he looks around her room, curses under his breath and slams the door shut behind him. She cries silently until she hears his footsteps retreat down the hall to his own bedroom and the door slams. She stands up quietly and goes out into her room. The TV is on loudly downstairs, to cover up her mothers sobs. She walks down the stairs quietly, so that her father cannot hear her. Her mother looks at her with terror in her eyes, begging her to leave before he comes back down. She nods silently, walks to the front door, opens it and leaves her house without making so much as a squeak. She takes one look at her house and runs.
