Damage
She touches her face. Her slender finger runs along the thin red three inch streak down the right cheek from just below her eye to the corner of her mouth. She looks in the mirror and allows a tear to run down this ugly reminder. She used to like the way she looked, a lot of it is still there. The dark violet eyes, the long flaxen hair, the mouth is still pretty, small with well proportioned lips, she has a slender rather sharp nose that makes her look regal. Now there is this...blemish. She will always need to cover it, always see it after every shower and every morning upon awakening. She had almost knocked that glass out of Jessie's hand but she was too strong, she still grasped it after it shattered in dozens of lethal shards. Then Jessie lost it. "Maybe I shouldn't have pushed so hard, let my tongue do the cutting, then lashing out with my hand. No, it was all Jessie's fault, surely not mine."
She surveys the waste basket. Mom had yet to dump it and that simpering hand made card still sits atop the used floss and facial tissues. "Cassie please get better, I'm really sorry! Can we be sisters again? - Jess". "Never! You wicked...!" "Cassie!" it's mom, "Your dad's home from social services." She sighs, looks at her flawed face again and heads for the stairs.
Her mom and dad are near the front door at the foot of the stairs. "So did you tell her off dad?" she asks as she descends the stairs.
He looks darkly at her, "Have a little sympathy Cass. We just turned a girl out of her home."
"That's no girl, she's an alleycat! Look at my face it you doubt it."
Her mother, a red haired woman with looped braids at either side of her rather round face with sympathetic blue eyes, looks sharply at her, "Cassidy! This was a hard thing for your father and I to do. She's a girl with a lot of promise and spirit. She even wanted to go into nursing. You haven't shown much interest in anything except pokémon, shoplifting, and boys."
"Yeah and I shared all of 'em with Jess," Cassidy thinks, "She wanted to share one
too many boys."
"Look mom, give me a good reason to miss her."
Joy Yamato sighs and, not for the first time, tries to understand her bitter, distant, seemingly unreachable daughter. "I suppose I won't change your mind, but I still care about Jessica, dear."
"If you don't want to talk about something important I'm outta here," Cassidy says dismissively.
"Fine, be that way," says Geoff Yamato, "We should have known better than to take a girl about your age into foster care, although I swear it was a better idea than a boy."
She is already halfway up the stairs trying to ignore her father's parting shot.
"And another thing young lady we've decided to keep you away from that delinquent Butch Kosaburo. We're taking you out of Pokémon Tech, it'll save us tuition money anyway," her father is coldly angry.
She turns around, her eyes filled with fury and defiance, "If you think that'll keep me from seeing Butch you sure don't know me. Just try and keep track of me!"
Her parents look up at her from the front hall, their eyes reveal as much fear as anger and determination. She smirks cruelly at them, and returns to the journey up to her room.
Once in her room, the one she used to share with that red haired demon, she throws herself on her bed. Oh Jessie, the fire that once complemented her own ice. The enforcer and the assassin, that's who they were. But Jess insisted on going after Butch, that was where she had to draw the line. She had no idea that the battling would become so destructive, surely a girl as pretty as Jess could find someone else. Maybe Butch led her on, no that couldn't be, Butch was her guy no one else's. She banishes the thought as best she can. She badly underestimated Jessie's anger that's for sure. Never again, she'll never turn her back on a snake like that again, even a loser like Jessie. She gets up and goes into her closet and picks out a large suitcase. She opens it and lays it across her bed. "Let's see, what do I need," she thinks.
She works her way methodically through her two dressers and closet, carefully picking clothing and laying it into the luggage. She slips down the hall to the bathroom and collects what she needs. She looks into the mirror again and selects some pancake makeup and carefully covers the line running down her cheek. She puts on the large triangle earrings she five finger discounted two months ago with Jessie (Jess had made off with some big, tacky green ball studs). She likes the earrings, they give her a rakish look.
She softly treads back to her room, and picks up a cell phone from her dresser and punches out a familiar number. She rolls her eyes toward the ceiling as she waits for Butch to pick up. "Hey Butch, I'm outta here. Are you with me? Good. I wanna meet those 'friends' you talked about. Yeah I'm leaving here," she listens to his lengthy reply softly tapping her left foot. "Um, sure I guess we could raid mom's Poké Centre. I'm sure I can get you in. Yeah don't mention it. See you soon," She makes a kissing sound into the mouthpiece. She punches the phone, smiles, and flushes ever so slightly. She'll leave tonight, she's not sure she wants to but it's gotten too tough at home, even without that red haired girl around anymore. Her folks will never let her forget about the girl, maybe they loved her more than her. One thing she is sure of, she has to be free, and she will be.