Jay POV
"Father, I'm sorry." I cried out in despair.
"I told you." He said, pointing at me drunkenly. "That you had to be at work on time, or there would be consequences. And you disobeyed me!"
"Father, I didn't realize the time." I begged. "Please, forgive me. It'll never happen again!" He crossed the room, and hit me across the head, making me fall to the ground.
I woke up in a cold sweat, panicking. I looked around my room at the Poplar house. Yesterday, they had contacted my Aunt Jessica. I would be going to live with her. The realization swept over me, and I gripped the bear my mother had given me before she died.
After my mother died, my father became a drunk, and left me to handle the store. As it time went on, he got worse, and started hitting me occasionally. Then, it grew worse. Soon, I was up late into night, doing my homework, because I had to work the shop until ten o'clock. I would get broken bones, and unusual bruises, and people started noticing. One day, my friend's mom got me alone, and asked about them, and pressured me until it all came out. My memory is blurred around that time because I tried my best to block it out, but I remember trials, and my father being found guilty, and me coming here until they could contact my closest relative, which happened to be Aunt Jessica over on the Quileute Reservation. I lived on the Makah Reservation. I had a small suitcase, and a small box with my belongings. That was it. I was here at the Poplar house until Aunt Jessica got everything ready for me. I would never see my father again. So there really was a God out there.
For the rest of the night, I sat and stared at the ceiling, clutching the deep red bear, with a heart shaped nose. Teddy. He meant everything to me, because it was the only thing I had of my mother.