Broken

"You are horrible, your daughter is horrible, and so is your whole fucked up family!" I hear my father scream.

"She's your daughter, too!" My mother yells back, the sadness clear in her voice.

"I could never have made something that terrible." My father spits. Hatred drips off every word he speaks about me.

I try to put a pillow over my head to drown out the horrible screaming. But it doesn't work. I still hear the screaming until I hear the piercing sound of my mother being slapped, then it's all over. I hear her fall to the ground and him pound up the stairs. He burps loudly before he opens the bathroom door and slams it shut.

A few minutes later I hear my mom walk up the stairs and my bedroom door creak open. I pretend to be asleep, but her and I both know I'm not. She sits down next to me and smooths down my hair, and I feel one of her hot tears fall on my face. She quickly wipes it off and sniffles.

"I never meant for you to live through this, Vanessa." She cries. She only cries for a few more seconds before sniffling again and getting up off my bed. I hear her slow steps pad across the room and she stops at my bedroom door.

"I love you, Ness." She uses my nickname and then slowly closes my door.

I can't help but cry myself to sleep. I know my mother never meant for it to be this way, but when I was born my father hated me. He wanted a blonde haired, blye eyed boy. I'm a brown haired, blue eyed girl. At least I got the blue eyes part right. He believes my mother cheated due to the fact I have brown hair and both of them have blonde, but she believes I get it from my grandmother. I know my mom and she would never have cheated. He doesn't believe it, though.

---

In the morning I wake up to the horrid beeping of my alarm. I work every week day from 9-5 at the music store in the mall. I love it, mostly becasue I love music and everthing about it. When I was little I wanted to be a singer so bad. My mother used to contently listen to me sing to her as I'd put on little concerts for her. Of course, when my father was not home. He always hated my singing and used to slap me everytime I did, eventually I just stopped.

I got out of my tiny bed and quickly made it before going to the bathroom to shower. When I opened the door my father was out cold on the floor. Looks like I'm not taking a shower today.

I sigh and go back to my room. I look in the mirror and pull my hair into a ponytail leaving down my bangs then grab my small back of makeup. I applied a little mascara and some blush. I pulled out a black Ramones shirt and a pair of jeans from my drawer. I quickly put my clothes on and then put on my old black toms. I quietly walked down the stairs and headed to work.

When I arrived at work I was immediately put to work, putting away the new Drake albums. Throughout the store you hear Scentless Apprentice by Nirvana. Nirvana is one of my all time favorite bands. Their music has meaning and they have talent. I hum along to the song as I stock the shelves.

As soon as the mall doors open at 10:00 teenage girls and boys run through the store picking up this new Drake album, he must be popular. I never really paid attention to the newer artists, always wrapped up in the old bands. I'm not saying the newer music is bad, it just doesn't have that same meaning as the older music.

The people come and go all day until closing time. We must have made a lot today because all the Drake albums are gone. I closed up the shop and began my 20 minute walk home.