I crept down half of the stairs, where the wall met with the stairs that led down to the living room and peeked around the corner to see my drunk dad, awake, and with his back to me. The living room was a mess, with beer bottles and cans all over the carpeted floor, from his previous drinking sessions, with most of them being empty. There was the foul odor of stale beer all over the entire first floor. I carefully took one step down the stairs.

"Good morning, Dad." I said, quietly. He turned around, with a scowl on a face that once held a friendly smile, glaring daggers from his emerald-green eyes, eyes that once shone with happiness, but now all they held were anger.

"There you are...." He said, between slurs and hiccups.

"Come down here." He said, as if he weren't drunk off of his ass. I made my way downstairs fully, not wanting to anger him, because I knew what would happen if I did.

"Clean this up. I don't care if you have school or shit like that. Clean it up or I won't make anything for you to eat." He said, gesturing his tan arm around the living room.

"Y-Yes Dad." I said meekly. I mentally scolded myself for stuttering. He was probably one of the few people I was afraid of. I sighed and clear up four of the empty beer bottles on the carpet, carefully making my way to the kitchen to put them in the recycling. As I walked, he watched my every movement. I knew he was going to hit me when I made even the slightest mistake. I carefully managed to put the beer bottles in the recycling, before walking back to get more. I did this for at least sixteen more bottles, clearing up most of the bottles that littered the beautiful red carpet, which always reminded me of a ruby. I made my way with the last four bottles, putting all but one in the recycling. I was about to put it in the recycling when he got up and grabbed the bottle from my hands. He then smashed it against the wall, shattering it and making various shards of brown glass fly everywhere. I yelped as the shards hit me. My eyes instinctively closed, as some shards nearly went into my eyes. Before they closed, I saw out of the corner of my eye that he had stepped out of the way, almost as if he knew the glass should've hit him, instead of me. I heard thudding footsteps run down the stairs and into the living room. They passed from the living room and carefully entered the kitchen.

"Oh my God.... Elaine, are you ok?!" I heard my moms soft, soothing voice enter the room. I slowly opened my eyes, thankful that none of the shards had impaired my vision.

"She's fine, Mary. She was just cleaning the living room and the bottle she was holding slipped out of her hands and it broke." He said.

"I don't believe you for one second, Harold." I saw my mom shaking her head in disappointment, as well as disapproval. I walked, as well as someone who has shards of glass lodged in most of their body, over to my mom. My instincts caused me to wince and cringe at the pain that was shooting up through my body.

"Come on, honey, let's get you cleaned up." My mom said, turning into a worried momma bear when she saw my injuries. We walked through the living room, and up the stairs. We turned right at the top of the stairs, walking towards the bathroom that was across the hall from my room. She opened the white door for me, letting me go into the bathroom first. The walls were a pale blue color, and the floor was a sandy color. It had always reminded me of the beach, before my dad was a drunken bastard and a piece of shit, my mom was more carefree, and I was a young, carefree, naive little girl with not a care in the world. The sink, which was slowly turning from a pearly white to a dull gray, was on the left wall, with rusty, old, silver pipes installed underneath, which creaked and groaned every once in a while. Above the sink was a mirror that held a medicine cabinet behind it. I headed over to the toilet and sat down on the lid, which was in pretty good condition. My mom walked over to the medicine cabinet, opening it, and grabbing out tweezers, some peroxide, and bandaids. She walked over and kneeled down next to me, grabbing the trash can that was beside the toilet.

"I'm going to start to get rid of some shards that are stuck in your face. After that, I'm going to need to put some of the hydrogen peroxide on it, to clean it out, then I'm going to put a band aid on the wound, ok?" My mom said, calmly and as if I was five again.

"Mom, I can do this on my own." I said.

"Elaine, you can't get the ones on your face on your own. I know I can trust you with the rest, though." She said, doing her thing where she both agreed and argued against what I just said. I sighed.

"Fine. But after that, you need to get ready to go to the hospital for your job, Mom." I said.

"I'll try to bring you up something to eat. We both know that your sorry excuse for a father isn't making anything for anyone but himself." She said, smiling before becoming focused on getting glass shards out of my face. She had the silver tweezers in her thin hands, which carefully were put near one of the four brown shards on my face She got the tweezers on the shard and carefully pulled it out. There wasn't much pain when the shard was being removed.

"I got it out. Now for the peroxide." She said, as she calmly put the shard in the trash. She held up the bottle of peroxide and carefully put a little bit on the cut on my left cheek from where the shard was removed. I winced at the sting of the peroxide. She put a small bandaid on the cut.

"I just need to do that three more times, ok sweetie?" My mom asked.

"Ok mom, but then, go get ready." I said, ready for her to stop babying me. She smiled, and quickly repeated the process with my forehead, right cheek, and my nose.

"Ok, now go, you need to get ready or you're going to be late for your job at the hospital, mom." I said, making a shooing motion with my right hand as my left hand grabbed the tweezers. I quickly got a few of the bigger shards in my arms and legs. I was thankful that there wasn't any glass in my chest, because I didn't want to have to deal with any of that shit before school. I sighed as I wondered what to tell my friends, Iris, Sean, and Mark.... More importantly, my boyfriend, Ethan. I kept pulling out the glass and carefully putting peroxide and bandaids on the wounds. I got the last shard out, putting it in the trash and putting peroxide and a bandaid on it. I carefully counted the wounds, seeing that I had at least nine on my legs, three on my left arm, and four on my right arm. So, nineteen in total, fifteen on my body, and four on my face. Fuck you, you lazy ass fucking excuse for a father. I wish I could run away, and I would if it weren't for the fact that my mom would be left behind and she wouldn't know where the fuck I went. I sighed and got up, walking out of the creaky, old, wooden door. I walked over to my room to get my mismatched pair of Converse. My left shoe was a pretty galaxy of blue, purple, some pink, and black, with small white stars. My right shoe was an ocean of multiple shades of blue, white, and a bit of gray for shading, with a few little dabs of bright or dull colors here and there to represent fish. I slipped them on, sitting down on my bed, and pulling out my phone from my backpack, turning it on and seeing that I had four messages, one from Mark, one from Iris, one from Ethan, and one from Sean, who was Iris's brother. I smiled, deciding to open the message that Sean sent me. It read:

S: Hey Elaine! I was wondering... do you, Mark, Ethan, and Iris want to come to one of my band gigs? The gig's this Friday, and I could probably give you all a ride there and back home. I was just curious...

I smiled, because this sounded like exactly the type of thing he'd say in real life too. I checked the time, which was 5:30. I had at least two hours before I had to leave for school. I like to wake up early, just in case... HE does anything really bad to me. I typed my answer to Sean.

E: Sure, I'll ask my mom about going out on Friday. Where's the gig?

I sent it and checked to see what Iris had texted me.

I: You've probably already seen what Sean sent you, so I'm not gonna repeat what he sent. Are you going to the gig or no? I'm not forcing you to go, and neither is Sean, but it's be nice if you came.

I sighed and typed out my answer.

E: I'm going, so no worries. I'll see you at school, ok?

I sent my response and she immediately responded.

I: I'll meet you and Mark halfway. Ethan's probably already there, so he'll meet us at the school. See you then!

I was about to look at Ethan's text when I heard a knock on my door. I looked up from my phone.

"It's open." I said, and the door creaked open, but it wasn't who I was expecting to see at my door. My mom came in first with someone behind her. A boy.