Chapter 7
Amanda picked up an air bed after work and thought she would get a better night's rest, but she only thought about what Liv had said about telling her the truth and had nightmares about her last night in Georgia. The nightmares started last week and they were getting worse. She overslept and when she woke up it was already 6:30. "Shit I'm late!" Kim was in the bathroom and Amanda asked if she could please get in there because she was late. Kim started arguing and Amanda argued back. Amanda's mom heard the noise and jumped out of bed. She pushed Amanda so hard that Amanda fell backwards hitting her back on the hardwood floor. "What the hell is with all the yelling. I warned you Amanda." Amanda got up, holding her back "You warned me! So I'm the one trying to get to work to give you fucking money but you would rather take that little bitches side. Fine, get money from her when you need it." Before Amanda knew what was happening she felt a hand hit her in the face. She was stunned and then she felt something cut her arm and saw blood on her shirt. She looked up to her mom with a knife. "Are fucking insane you just cut me." Her mom grabbed her and punched her in the stomach and threw her in the hall. She took the cash Amanda had in her backpack, stuffed it in her pocket, and threw her other stuff out in the hall. "Get lost and don't come back. We don't need or want you here.
Amanda sat in the hall picking up her things. Well this was a great start to the week. Not only had she missed her entire shift at work, there was no way she could show up at school after what happened yesterday. "Why is this happening to me?" Thank goodness she was sleeping in basically real clothes anyway, because she didn't have much. She decided to go to the coffee shop. She caught a glimpse of herself and she looked bad. She went to the back alley to enter the coffee shop hoping her manager would help her. "Amanda oh my goodness, I was cursing your name for leaving me this morning, but I can see you are in trouble. What happened?" Amanda just said "can I use the bathroom first and get cleaned up?" The manager was terrified, "Sure, but your bleeding, maybe I should call for help." Amanda looked down at her arm, "It's okay let me clean it up, it's not a big deal." Her manager gave her a first aid kit and Amanda went to the bathroom. She yelled for him to hand her the backpack with her clothes. The manager saw a card in the side of her bag. He wasn't trying to be nosy, but when he saw the card he knew what he needed to do. He had to get her some help. He passed her the bag and said he would wait for her whenever she was done. While Amanda surveyed the damage all over her body, he made a phone call. "Benson!" The manager held the phone and talked quietly, "Hi, I'm the manager at the coffee shop you come to. I'm guessing Amanda is your friend. I think you should come down, she's in bad shape." Olivia held the phone and nodded at Fin to get on his feet. "Captain we have a call we'll be back." They headed out the door. Fin waited until they were in the car, but he could tell by her body language that it wasn't good. "Liv what's wrong?" Liv looked at him with a sad look "Head to coffee shop, it's Amanda."
