Mentally, I’d grown up a long time ago. With nightly visits to my room from father beloved, I had to.
His hand grazed the bottom of my breast and I could feel his chest shudder behind me. “You’re such a good girl.”
Ignore it. Ignore it. Ignore it.
Don’t fight. It’ll be worse next time. Just let him have his way with you and you can go to class tomorrow and act like a normal kid.
That was it. Think of it like it was a movie. This isn’t actually happening. He’s just an actor. So am I.
It’s fake. I had to believe it’s fake.
Because why else would a father do this tohis daughter?
The windfrom the storm outside shutters the glass on my bedroom window, waking me from my mid-day nap. The thunder could be heard far away earlier today, but I could’ve sworn it was going to miss this area.
As usual, the weather-man is incorrect.
My dad swore up and down when I was a kid that those people knew what they were talking about. Him and my mom were basically like doomsday preppers before he got into politics… before he became something else entirely.
And if a winter storm was coming, he’d always tell us to buckle up because we would be inside the rest of the blizzard with no heat and zero toilet paper.
I always wonder what happened to that man.
The one who loved my mother with every ounce of his being. The one that would’ve chased after her, instead of some fictitious political career.
Instead, Mom is off living her best life. Without me. Without him.
And maybe she is better for it.
She might’ve been dead too by now if she had stayed.
“Chloe, it’s time for your pills, honey.”
Mrs. Regina rattles two blue pills in a plastic cup.
A smile lifts at my lips. “Did I miss lunch again?”
She saunters over to my bedside cheerfully as she shakes her head, “It’s quite alright. I can go and fetch your meal as soon as we’refinished up here.”
I nod my head as I gently take the cup from her hand, lifting it so that the pills fall directly into my mouth. Luckily, I already have a plastic cup of water on my nightstand to choke them down.
They taste like straight chemical byproducts.
Which, I guess they are. But still, disgusting.
“Tongue.” She says casually.
I stick my tongue straight out into the air and then lift it up, moving it side to side to show her that no medicine remains.
She smiles brightly and walks over to my door.
“Would you like to have lunch in here or in the sitting room with everyone else?”
A small yawn leaves my mouth as I stretch.
That is the question at hand. Stay in my room by myself and watch the rain slip down the window, or go and sit in a quiet room full of other people.
I glance up to her with a small smile. “I’ll join the group.”
