Okay guys! MY NEWEST MULTI CHAPTER! BE EXCITED!
Logan couldn't tell you when his mother broke.
He did know, however, when his mom first came home drunk, staggering though the front door and clutching the neck of a beer bottle clumsily in her hands. He also could remember when she first disappeared for a few days, leaving him home alone and scared, coming back after a while with running make up and a torn dress.
He could also remember the first time she hit him.
He'd been sitting quietly at the kitchen table, backpack strapped closely to his back and watching his mom. Her curlers hung loosely in her hair, bouncing against her face. Her old bathrobe hugged her tightly. Not for the first time, and definitely not the last, Logan wished his dad hadn't walked out on them.
He munched on a bowl of Captain Crunch. When his mother went to throw away a coffee filter, she noticed the overflowing trash and decided to take it out. The bag was stuck. She pulled and pulled, the barrels in her hair frustrating her as they wacked her in the face. She yanked while Logan watched, growing scared as anger etched into his mother's expression.
She cursed; throwing the trash can on the ground, its contents spilling out onto the floor. She kicked it in spite, emptying more garbage onto the kitchen tiles. Logan gulped, eyes shining with fear.
"Momma, you're making a mess!" he squeaked, only in third grade and already the voice of reason. Unfortunately, it was the wrong thing to say, and she turned on him with gritted teeth.
"You don't think I know that?" she screeched, voice consuming his thoughts. He backed away from her as far as he could in his chair, flinching as she yelled in his year, hot breath on his face. "Well, let's see you do better!"
Her hard hand smacked his face.
She grabbed him roughly by the shoulder and dragged him over to her mess, throwing him onto the ground. "Clean it up," she growled. Logan kneeled, doing as she asked, tears sliding down his stinging, bruising face.
The drive to school that day was silent until the very end. "Logan," his mother called to him as he climbed out of the car. He looked to her hopefully, thinking she might be about to apologize. His hope diminished at the hard look on her face. "Tell them you fell," she instructed him.
Logan nodded meekly as she drove away, holding his sore cheek in his hand, not knowing that this was the start to a long train of lies, pain, and torture.
Because that's how it starts, and this is how it ends.
Okay, I am PSYCHED for this! I don't know how great I'll be at updating, but we'll see.