"NO!" Nicole looked closely at the doorknob to the entrance of her house. Her heart began racing as she kept trying to jingle it open. "DADDY!" She began banging on the door to see if he was there. She walked around to open the window to the living room. She walked into the bushes attempting to push the window screen up. It was drilled shut. Nicole ran to her room window to see that it was also nailed shut. She needed to use the restroom really badly and wanted to eat. She walked around back to the garage and clicked on the keypad.
PASSWORD INCORRECT
She put in the code, and it locked out. She waited for about an hour for her dad to arrive, but it had gotten dark. It was a little past six and the sky was dimming down. She looked at her phone and saw that it was only on fifteen percent. Her stomach began to hurt as she hadn't eaten anything all day. She woke up late and skipped out on lunch as she had leftovers in the fridge. She then decided that she needed to go somewhere and walked to Joseph's. It was no more than a fifteen-minute walk and knew that she could stay with Rose until things were figured out.
She walked down the street Joesph lived on. Tears once again streamed down her cheeks as she saw Rachel's car in the driveway. Today was not her day. She was cold and tired, wanting to just shower to get a good night's rest. She stood in place at the sidewalk refusing to take another step. She knew if she had knocked on the door. It would have been really awkward as she would end up crying even more. She decided to call Antonia. The goth was currently watching the movie Twilight and was writing in her diary. She saw the incoming call, "Hey, love."
"Toni, can you come get me? Me dad changed the lock on the door and the windows are shut closed. I can't get in and I'm just too tired. I went to Joey's and Rachel's here! Now I'm just standing outside in the dark and I need to pee. I'm fricking starving and I want to pass out. I can't believe my dad did this though. I don't know what I did to deserve this! I'm just so done with this! I can't take this anymore Toni!" Nicole started frantically sobbing. She was indeed exhausted from having to always put up with many issues and it was becoming very overwhelming. "Hold on, mate? He locked you out of the house? Is he there right now? Where are you?" Antonia got out of bed, walking down the hall to her parents' room. Nicole choked on her tears trying to explain once again what happened. "Nicole. Where are you?" "I'm outside of Joseph's house. I don't want him to see me like this." The goth walked up to her mother reading a book. "Okay, I'm coming to get you. Don't worry." She raised an eyebrow looking at Antonia in a confused manner. "Nicole needs to come over." She looked at her mother hoping she would agree to get her. "Said who?" She went back to her book. "Nicole, Mum! She's stranded and she needs my help!" Antonia and her mother looked at each other with opposite expressions. "Why do you make it our problem that she doesn't have good parents? Can't she ask someone for help?" "Are you bloody kidding me?" She got up from the bed and went into the bathroom. "Go ask your father or Janice."
One of the housekeepers drove Antonia to go get Nicole. Nicole ended up texting Antonia that she was going to walk to the nearest gas station to buy food. As soon as the black car pulled to the curb, Nicole jumped in and was greeted by Antonia. She was then eating dinner in Antonia's room. Nicole already had her own space in an empty drawer in Antonia's dresser. She was consistently dealing with issues with her father, feeling unsafe to sleep in her own home and came to spend the night often with the girl. After finally having time to decompress, Nicole fell asleep in Antonia's bed. The goth walked into the hall grabbing something from their kitchen. Antonia's mother was then in the hallway. She stood in front of her with her arms crossed. "Is she okay?" She tried to hide the snacks that she was going to give Nicole behind her back. "Her Dad changed the lock on every door in the house. He's been really mean and weird to her, so she didn't want to wait for him." Her mother sighed and put her arms by her side gently rubbing her hands down her silk robe. "Oh, poor thing. She's scared of her own family." Antonia cocked her head to the side, looking to the side knowing her mom wasn't fully convinced. "Well, she barely has any family, Ma." She walked around her mother heading to her room. "And you're going to give her all that." She did not at all like that Antonia was trying to provide food for her best friend. Since the beginning of the school year, Antonia had been grabbing granola bars and other small snacks for Nicole to eat when her father wasn't buying groceries. "She literally has nothing!" "Toni… She has a parent and a house. She has other friends. She has something." The girl was getting frustrated that her mother was ignoring Nicole's needs. "You need to be sympathetic." "And you need to be careful with people like her." Antonia looked at her mother in disbelief and she simply turned the other way. Antonia walked into her room and got ready for bed. She looked at her best friend and covered her with the blanket. She then snuggled next to the girl and fell asleep in a matter of minutes.