Arian's POV
Mom is going back today. Khalid isn't staying either. I guess it's one of the perks of being me. You know, having all the baggage I come with isn't the simplest of things.
I want to attend Wilson High here.
I want to stay with my friends here.
Sometimes I get jealous of my bestie and wonder how one person could have such luck.
I mean, doesn't anyone else see it? She's pretty, intelligent, and brilliant, and the guys love her and don't even know how to ask her.
Men, they fucking bet over her.
It's that serious.
She's still my bestie though. I really should get to know her better. But that's the problem.
"Yo sis, take care. Don't let nobody ride on you and don't take no fucking shit from nobody," Khalid said.
Damn, he cusses a lot.
"Can you fucking stop cussing?"
"I could say the same for you, you know"
"Yeah, whatever. You are way worse"
"Trust me when I say you are getting there"
"Cut it out, you two" mom interrupted.
"Fun killer", I muttered.
"Did you say something, young lady?", mom asked.
"No!"
"Yeah, thought so".
Messing with my mom is the absolute worst thing to do in the history of worst things. She once tumbled all her clothes out of the closet and made me refold them. She has a lot of clothes. And trust me, when I say a lot, I mean A LOT.
"We're off, Arian. You sure you don't wanna come, ", mom asked me.
"Yeah, it's gonna be fun. All your friends back in Lagos miss you,", Khalid added
"No, it's fine. I'm okay,"
"All by yourself? Is that even possible?"
"Mom! We have been through this,"
"Like five times, just today", he added again.
Seriously, is he okay?
"Hey, K, whose side are you on?", Mom asked, equally confused.
"I've learned that picking a side between you two isn't the smartest thing to do"
Yeah, he's kinda right. Most times, when we settle the argument, we face him and blame home somehow.
Well, it's what he gets. He only wants me to come back so he can stop me from getting a boyfriend.
"Okay, we should get going. Take care, Arian,"
"Thanks, Mom. Drive safe"
"Oh, and before I leave, grandma would be here to pick you up"
"WHAT!!!"
And she drove off. She fucking drove off. I'm so tired of this. Does she even trust me? Of course not. Typical.
Sooo typical.
I walk back into the house and head to my room. I live here all alone.
Well, until now.
Blair's POV
I got home after a hectic day of school only to find a heap of clothes waiting for me. Dad had left a lot of chores for Elle and me. I had to wash his clothes; trust me it's a lot.
Back to where I was; before I was oh-so-rudely interrupted by myself, which is kinda weird, I also had to mop the entire house, and Elle had to wash the plates and wash dad's wife's clothes. I had to wash dad's friend's car; weird.
Well, dad needs a favor from our neighbor. I'm just caught up in the middle... so dad is trying to get on his good side. Lastly, Elle and I had to go down the next two streets to fill the two 300 liters drums in the house.
Which is weird because we don't need it.
There's running water in the house, so WTF?!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I feel someone shaking me and then I hear murmurs. Soon everything becomes clearer. Elle was trying to wake me up.
"Get up, you!", she basically barks into my ears.
"I'm up, I'm up," I replied grumpily.
"You are in grave trouble, Miss. You are dead meat,", I could feel the fear in her voice. But there was also something else. I just couldn't lay my fingers on it...
"What's up," I asked as calmly as possible.
" Mom came by. It wasn't pretty. She saw dad's wife and she lost it, "
" She left a few hours ago. Since then..." Silence. That's all I heard next.
" Elle... " She cut me off.
"Just go downstairs,"
That's it! It's pain. What the fuck happened.
I found my slippers in the dark and made my way down the stairs. We weren't allowed to use the light for unimportant stuff, like eating and looking for a lost item.
Crazy, right? Well, welcome to my life.
I got down and I felt myself puck in my mouth. I could imagine what happened here. The same thing that happens whenever mom comes visiting.
The television was broken; again, the cushion was in utter disarray. Is that blood or pepper? Why is there wire scattered around?
Dad's wife comes out of the kitchen and she didn't look happy. She's holding a wire...
Elle's POV
"Ahhh... Please... Jesus..." was all I heard from Blair over and over again. It's not as bad as mine. She hits like a bitch.
It's official. We have awoken a lion...or a bitch.
I think bitch works better.
I clean up my wounds and used a bandage to wrap them up. I have no idea how this got here, and I honestly don't care.
I tuned to the noise coming from downstairs.
"You are such a useless child. I see why your mom left you. You can't do anything right... ",
" AHHH... "
" Oh, shut it! You couldn't even prepare dinner, you lazy bag of moving disappointed. You are so useless..."
" I'm not a disappointment," Blair said weakly.
Oh no! wrong move.
" Ahhh..."
" As from now on you ar
e to sleep on the bare floor in the living room, " dad's wife screeched.
"GET OUT OF MY SIGHT. CLEAN THE LIVING ROOM AND PREPARE DINNER"