Author's Note: I hope you liked the first chapter. It is a little brutal, but I hope you like it. Here's the second chapter...please R&R. Enjoy!
Chapter 2
Faith awoke at eight-o-clock and got up off the bathroom floor. She tried as best she could to cover her bruises with make up before waking her brother up. She took a quick look in the mirror and decided she couldn't do any better so she walked over to her sleeping brother.
"Ben? Ben? It's time for your first day at school kiddo." Faith whispered and then tapped him gently.
"NO!" Ben sat up abruptly, a look of sheer terror on his face.
"It's okay Benny. It's just me." Faith said sitting down and comforting him. She pulled back and looked at his face to see if he would be okay to go to school. He had a slight bump on the side of his head, but it wasn't too noticeable.
"Is mommy out there? Is she going to get us again?" Ben asked rubbing his eyes.
"No honey it's going to be okay. Mommy didn't mean to do those things okay. She didn't mean to hurt us." Faith said her chest aching at the words she was saying.
"But why did she do it then?" Ben asked, not understanding.
"Well sometimes parents do things they don't mean to when they drink too much, Benny." Faith said lifting him off the bed and kneeling in front of him.
"So mommy just had some beer and she didn't mean to hurt us?" Ben asked.
"That's right. Mommy loves you okay? And I love you too. Don't forget that okay Ben?" Faith said pulling his small body into a hug.
"Okay I know." Ben said, smiling again. "Can I have pancakes for breakfast?" He asked.
"Of course you can." Faith said and she took his hand and led him out of the room, wishing she had a six-year-old's mind and could just forget last night too.
After making sure Ben got on the school bus okay, Faith went inside and did the dishes and cleaned up the kitchen and her mother's puke from the hallway carpet, and when she finally finished it was already eleven and she heard her mother coming downstairs.
"Hi mom." Faith said still feeling shaken, but trying to remain calm.
"Hi honey." Her mother said, "Look about last night..."
"It's okay mom. It was my fault I should have done the dishes and cleaned up. I'm sorry." Faith said.
"No I shouldn't have hit you." Joanne said hugging Faith softly so that Faith could again smell the alcohol on her.
"I know you didn't mean it mom. I'm fine, really." Faith lied, knowing it wouldn't be the last time because it certainly wasn't the first.