Same Story, Different People
We all were standing there dumbfounded. What the hell was she thinking, stumbling in here with her drunken, muddled, possibly Irish accent? I saw Ellie cringe as 'Mommy Dearest' started talking, unable to keep the slur from her voice. We'd all heard the rumors about Ellie and a few of us knew the truth. Hell, Jay damn near busted some kid's nose for calling her a 'vampire'. I really felt sorry for her at that moment, and sympathy is definitely not one of my more exhibited qualities. The Cause stood before us, none too steadily on her feet. Demanding loudly that Ellie come home, yelling right into her face what was incredibly obvious to anyone with working eyes. Courtesy of Marco and his dad's printing machine. Ellie looked like she was gonna cry as she nodded her head. I started over to them, I wanted to give her a piece of my mind so bad. But Jay grabbed my arm, refusing to let go as he mouthed a big 'no'. I knew it wasn't my fight, but my skin was crawling. She dragged Ellie out, but not before taking time to slap Sean. Maybe she knew he had a point, but most likely she was just lashing out at the nearest person. I don't know what was going through Jay's head as he stood there with his mouth gaping open, but I was nauseated. And scared. Ellie said her mom had never hit her, yet. Yet. What a wonderful word. You say it when you know something will happen eventually. The party broke up after that. Pretty much right after that. But me and Jay, we stuck around. When most people think of Jay, they think cold as ice, no feelings. But he has them, hell knows he has them. Even though he tries to out run them. Live fast, leave your emotions in the dust. Yuh right. Sean just started slamming plastic cups into the sink, beer and soda going everywhere. So I grabbed a rag and tried to wipe the counter off, pushing all the crumbs into little piles. Jay just sat there, making wise ass comments. Although he did apologize to Sean for the comment he made about Ellie earlier. I don't know if the jab to his ribs had anything to do with it or not. Ellie just seems bigger than that. She has enough problems, and one misjudgment pushed aside, she's got her head on straight enough. Her mother on the other hand… The people were different but the story was the same. Drunk and abusive adult figure. Fed up and angry teenager. Both voicing their attitudes. Throw in a little more physical violence and it's just like home. 'Mommy Dearest' just sounded too much like every guy mom ever brought home from the bars. Evil step-dad and every loser boyfriend. All the ones that stayed long enough wailed on her in the end. I've iced too many lips, bandaged too many cuts and spent too many nights listening to her cry herself to sleep to only be seventeen. I've been cracked by a few of her boyfriends for trying to make them back off. Evil step dad was the only one that ever came at me without me stepping in first. Fuck knows why that happened. I must have been fourteen or fifteen at the time. That asshole damn near busted my wrist, throwing me across the room. Didn't quite clear the table. Mom came home and saw my bloody lip, swollen wrist, and the wonderful hand shaped bruise on my arm. Took her almost a month to grow the balls to leave him. I'll never know the answer to that one. Sean's still pissed off, going on and on about how he should have done something more, he shouldn't have let her go. I tell him she'll probably be back soon, but he doesn't look convinced. He glances quick at Jay, who's popping open another beer. Doesn't this jackass see anything that's going on around him? Sean informs me that it's not Mrs. Nash he's worried about, it's Ellie. He's afraid she'll get to herself before he can. He explains what happened when she brought her stuff over, about the CD case complete with a few loose razors, a cheap version of an Exacto knife, Band-Aids, gauze, tape, iodine, and rubber bands. He said he thought she stopped, and she insisted she did. That it was just a comfort thing to keep the close by. Fuck, she had them with her tonight. She grabbed the case on her way out. This would be the one misjudgment I pushed aside that's keeping her head from being on straight. I hope she won't. She's defiantly needs help. Fuck. She doesn't need help, she needs a family. People who care. And if I thought it would be any better, I'd let her stay with me. But as it stands, I was staying with Amy in an attempt to avoid similarly stinking shit until she drank herself sick and had to go a rehab center forty miles away. I swear our lives revolve around alcohol. Maybe the three of us should live together. Me, Ellie, and Sean. Yeah right. Nothing would ever get done cause Jay would never leave which means a never ending supply of alcohol. Like Sean really needs that temptation again. I guess good gossip never dies. And I can kinda see where Ellie was coming from with not wanting to leave her mom alone for too long. Even though she is a bitch. I really don't want to find out one of my mom's dumb-fucker boyfriends beat the shit outta her cause I wasn't there to stop it. But still, some days you just want out and never have to go back. You just want the world to stop and let you off so you don't have to feel anything anymore. And you want life to be fair. But it never will be. And I guess I'm just in denial, because here I stand with my rock hard face trying to deny that I do care and that things really do get to me.