Seize The Day

It was happening again. His voice was booming through the house. My mom’s screams go louder and louder with each strike. I couldn’t help neither could my twin sister Scarlette. If we did it would be us getting beat. Not what my mom wanted. We couldn’t do that to her. I heard one final crash of glass hit the floor then the door slammed. When I was sure it was over I ran to Scarlette’s room. She was curled up in the corner shaking. I ran to her and pulled her into a hug. I hated seeing her like this.

“Scar, I’m going to go see if mom’s okay.” I said. She nodded. “I will be right back.” I promised. She nodded. It killed me seeing her cry like that. Even though I should be used to it by now. Our dad, Troy, has been abusive for most of our lives. It gets worse when he’s drunk. Which it a lot of the time.
I snuck down the stairs making sure not to make a stair creak. I saw there was a broken vase on the floor and a hole in the wall with blood splatter. My heart raced. I then raced down the stairs and saw a body on the floor.
“Mom!” I whispered. I ran to the body and checked for a pulse. She had one. I could tell she was just knocked out cold. The blood splatters came from her nose. That was the only injury I could see beside the bumps and bruises. I hoisted her up in to a chair. I ran to the kitchen and got a wet towel. I started dabbing her face. She finally came around after I was done cleaning her up.

“Kassi? Oh my gracious…” my mom said starting to struggle.

“Mom, calm down please.” I said putting a reassuring hand on her shoulder. “He’s gone.” I added.

“I need sleep… are you and Scar okay?” she asked. I nodded.

“Oh okay… well get to bed you have school tomorrow.” Typical mom. Never wanting to talk about what happened. Truth is it bugged the shit out of me. Maybe if she would talk about it we could get out of this hell hole. But I complied anyways. My dad wouldn’t be back tonight. Knowing him he’s at the bar or fucking some whore. I kissed my mom’s head and headed upstairs to Scarlette’s room.

“You okay?” I asked.

“Yeah… Is mom though?” she said looking up.

“Yea. Same as always.” I smiled weakly. It hurt her just as much as it hurt me.

“She wants us to go to bed. School is tomorrow. You know how she is.” I added. She nodded and got up. I gave her a hug and went to my room.

You may wonder why we don’t go to the police. Truth is, if we did we knew he’d eventually come get us. we’ll never be able to get away no matter what. What could we do? We are only 17 years of age. So for now we try our best not to get killed and we protected each other.

“Night” I said releasing her.

“Night.”

I awoke with the sun beaming on my face. Last night’s events were there still. I got up and took my shower and got ready. I try not to take too long. School is our haven. The earlier we leave the longer we’re out of harms way.

“Kassi are you ready?” Scarlette yelled.

“Yea!” I yelled back fixing my hair one last time. I grabbed my bag and ran down stairs.
We were at school in no time. It was only our second week into school so we knew all of our classes.

“I’ll see you at lunch Kassi!” Scarlette said waving bye to me. I waved back ant turned to go to my art class.

“Good morning class, we have a new student. His name is James.” The art teacher announced.
I averted my eyes from my painting and looked at the new kid. He was very tall, had piercing blue eyes, jet black hair and a goofy smile. The class murmured their ‘hellos’ and continued painting.

“There’s a seat next to Kassi.” He said pointing at me. The new kid skipped to me gaining eyes from the class. I smiled. He was interesting.

“HI! My names Jimmy!” he said.

“My names Kassi.” I said sticking my hand out.

“Oh no.. no hand shaking. I’m a hugger!” he exclaimed enveloping me into a hug. I was taken aback but non-the-less enjoyed the hug.

“Sorry I’m just really friendly.” He apologized.

“Ha no problem.” I said turning back to my painting. He looked over my shoulder.

“What exactly does it mean?” he asked observing it.

I gave a nervous laugh.

“Oh it’s nothing really, just a painting.” I said.

“Oh. Well its cool!” he said approvingly.

“So, Jimmy. What brought you to this place?” I asked.

“Me and my buddies were sick of all the bull shit at our old school so, we decided to all switch to a new one. This happened to be the closest one.” He said proudly.

“Friends? How many are there?” I asked intrigued by this.

“Four others. Matt, Brian, Zacky and Johnny. My best friends ever!” he told me.

“Oh. Well that’s cool that you guys came here. This school isn’t too interesting.” I said.

“Oh? And whys that?” he asked leaning o the table.

“Well, everyone here is too worried about their looks and who’s dating who and who talked shit. Ya know? I think there’s more to life than bull shit drama.” I said.

“You know what?” he asked.

“What?” I looked over at him.

“This my friend, may be a new beginning to a great friendship.” He stated.

That made me smile. But my only question was.

Could i trust him?