Disclaimer: Don't own them.
Lilly could hear the screams of her baby sister as soon as she entered the building and that's all it took to forget about the boy who had confronted her only moments earlier. She walked quickly into the small room she had called home for nearly eight years and threw her bags down next to the door.
Her baby sister was sitting against a wall screaming, her arms extended in front of her. Lilly immediately recognized this action and grabbed a bottle from the counter and filled it with water. She took it over to her baby sister and handed it to her before going back to the cupboards, searching for anything to feed the nine-month-old. She was relieved to find a small bag of soda crackers and pulled them down.
Even though she was starving, she didn't eat; there wasn't enough food or both of them. Lilly could tell that Christina was still hungry, even after finishing the crackers, but there was nothing left. Lilly sighed as she refilled the bottle and gave it back to her sister. She glanced into the small living area of the apartment half expecting to see her mother passed out on the couch. When Lilly didn't see her mother there, she figured she had made it to her bedroom, or that she had gone out, leaving Christina alone; something that wasn't at all rare.
Things hadn't always been so bad for Lilly. Sure, her family never had much money, but when her dad was around, he always made sure there was food on the table. But he had left for unknown reasons in August the year before, and since then things had only gone downhill. Ellen had always had problems with alcohol, but after her husband had left the family, her drinking habits only got worse. She lost the job she had and didn't bother to look for a new job. She began spending her nights away from home, staying out until the wee hours of the morning with different men. Lilly rarely ever saw her sober.
Lilly grabbed her school bag and sat down on the ground beside her sister. She pulled out her notebook and a pencil and attempted to do her school work despite all of the noise in the apartment. Her neighbours had their music blaring, and the people shouting at each other down the hall didn't help either. She was already a week behind in school, and knew she would get into a lot of trouble if she didn't catch up on her school work.
Christina, who was a bit happier because of the food in her system, began playing peek-a-boo behind Lilly's notebook. This involved her pulling the book up and down, making it even harder for the seven year old to concentrate. Finally Lilly snapped. "Stop it!" She screamed, shoving her sister away slightly. Christina's eyes filled with tears and she crawled away. Lilly felt bad, but she couldn't afford to not get her work done.
Lilly spent nearly four hours finishing her homework, and by the time she was done she was exhausted. Christina had already fallen asleep on the floor beside her. Lilly went over to the couch and pulled out the bed hidden within it. It wasn't at all comfortable, but their mother wouldn't allow them into the only bedroom of the apartment which had the only bed, and it was better than the floor. Lilly lifted her sister awkwardly; Lilly was very small for her age, and carrying her sister was always difficult, but she managed to carry Christina to the bed without waking her. Lilly placed some pillows on one side of Christina, and then laid herself down on the other side. It too Lilly well over an hour to fall asleep with all of the noise in the building.
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At around midnight, Christina woke up crying, and Lilly had to get her another bottle of water and change her cloth diaper. Again, it took a long time for Lilly to get back to sleep, only to be awoken a couple of hours later by the sound of her mother stumbling into the apartment with an unknown man. Lilly rolled onto her side and pretended to be asleep so that she didn't have to witness her mother and this man stripping each other down to nothing and stumbling into the bedroom. Lilly could hear the bed moving in the bedroom, and threw her arms over her head to try to block out the sounds of her mother having sex.
A/N: Review?