Jenna walked through the door of her house and her mood immediately changed. “Mom, where are you?” her voice wailed through the tiny structure. The building was small and broken down. It had two bedrooms with two bathrooms, and much nicer than most of the houses in the area. The outside was falling apart, just like the inside. The lawn was over grown, and all of the bushes were dead. It was safe to say that the home didn’t have much curb appeal. If that wasn’t enough, the roof was caving in, and the floor was peeling up. Not to mention the not so nice smell of smoke that filled the air like a poison.

When it rained, which it did a lot, the rain would find a way to make it into every crevice of the home. They had to put out buckets to catch the water, and then find a way to keep the roof from falling in. There was duck tape holding a lot of things together, lots of duck tape. If one more thing went wrong she was sure that the structure would just fall in on itself, and Jenna was just hoping that she wasn’t inside when it decided to do so.
“Jenna, don’t raise your voice at me.” Her mother’s yell came from her bedroom, which wasn’t much of a bedroom since she never slept there. The room was more of a I’m-behind-my-door-so-it-doesn’t-matter-what-I’m-doing-in-here kind of room. She looked horrible. The abuse had withered her away, and turned her thin frizzy hair grey. Her mom used to be gorgeous before she was born, but after her dad ran off, she just let herself go.
“Don’t even start mom, put down whatever it is that your doing in there and come help me fix dinner.” Jenna stormed into her room, and threw herself onto her bed. Adrenaline was pumping through her veins, like it always did when she was home. You never knew what kind of things you’d be put through in that house. It was hard not to lock herself in her bedroom and never come out. These past few years Jenna had stopped relying on her mom to take care of her, since the drugs were keeping her occupied. The mom who was currently standing in her doorway, eyes clouded over and bloodshot.
“Don’t you yell at me you s****. I’m your mom, I tell you what to do.” Her voice was jagged and angry. She came up to Jenna and raised her hand. That look of anger came into her eyes, and Jenna didn’t dare move. That look meant pain.
Jenna sat inside her shower and cried as the water washed away the blood. The bruises proved everything, and she had no idea how she was going to hide them tomorrow, she was running out of long sleeve shirts, and face masks weren’t allowed in school. It took an hour for her to pull herself together enough to face her mom, and the kitchen. It was dirty, and dishes were piled to the ceiling. She wiped two plates off that were decent and pulled leftover pizza out of the fridge. They sat at the small table in silence, chewing on the stale bread and almost moldy cheese. As soon as she was done Jenna ran to her room.