"Mama, please wake up," I begged her as I shook the blankets. "Mama, please. I'm so hungry."
There was a low moan and the lump under the covers moved farther away from me. Quickly, I grabbed one of the covers and pulled before she was completely out of reach. The covers were yanked back, and my mother's face appeared underneath them. She looked old, too old, like as if the constant drinking aged her with each drop of poisonous liquid.
She glared at me, squinting even though we were in low light. "What do you want?" she snapped at me.
"Mama, I'm hungry. Please get out of bed," I begged her, but her eyes only harden.
"Fix your own damn breakfast and leave me alone," she grumbled, and turned away from me.
I quickly ran around to the other side of the bed so I could see her, and her eyes widen when she saw me again. Slowly, she reached above her to her nightstand and gripped the glass up that was lying there, and chucked it at me. She missed me by a mile, and when the glass hit the ground, it bounced instead of shattered. This only made her angrier. "Go the fuck away!" she yelled louder, and turned away again.
Carefully, I walked closer to the bed, and gently shook her shoulder. "Mama, please, don't go back to sleep," I tried again. "There hasn't been any food for days now, and I haven't been to school. A man called yesterday and said if don't show up, we'll have to go to court. And mama, there was another man that came to our door; he said he's going to turn the water, so please get-"
Suddenly her arm came up, and a hand pushed back on my face with enough force to push me backwards. I fell on my back, barely able to catch myself with my elbows. My skin burned from the friction of the carpet, but I barely felt it. All that I could focus on was my mother as she sat up in bed, her hair in a nest and her eyes crusted with eyeliner, staring down at me. "I don't care what happens to you," she said, her voice full of anger. "Just get out!"
I felt then that most children would have ran or cried, but instead I just stood up and walked out. Everything made sense now; I was on my own, and my mother didn't exist anymore.