A beautiful storm *COMPLETE*

Plans

After dinner, I washed the dishes, putting them away after they dried. I cleaned the kitchen, wiping all of the surfaces down. I went a started a load of laundry, decided to do my homework while waiting for it to finish. I walked past the bathroom, noticing the door locked. I shook my head. She’s shooting up again. I don’t think that she manages going a single night without her fix anymore. I continue to my room. I can’t worry about her constantly. One, it’s not my job, but two, I have to focus on graduating if I want to get out of here. I plop onto my bed, pulling out my assignments for the evening. I quickly finish writing a biography for literature, solving two worksheets for calculus, and study in my history text book for tomorrow’s test. I place all of my work back into my backpack and get ready for bed. I walk across the hall into the now empty bathroom. I shower quickly, brush my teeth, and throw on some pajamas. Before I head back to bed, I quickly deposit the laundry from the washer into the dryer. As I’m climbing into bed, my mother appears in my doorway. Her eyes are glassy and I know she’s riding her high. She walks over and sits at the end of my bed. “Madeline, you know you could keep some of the s**t that happens at school to yourself. Or at least wait until Peter leaves. You know he thinks I should be all his.” I look at my mother, wishing that she was joking, but no. I see nothing but seriousness in her eyes. “Sure mom. I will keep the bullying to myself. If you don’t want to hear about my days, you should probably stop asking about them.” She flinched at my words. “You can tell me about your day while leaving out some of those details. Especially in front of Peter.” I rolled my eyes. “He’s just another guy you’ll throw away eventually. I wouldn’t worry what he thinks.” She huffed “I don’t understand why you think so lowly of me. Peter is important to me. You should start acting like he’s important to you, too. He’d like that.” she smiled. I genuinely hope that her high is causing her to be delusional. Peter is a creep and I have no doubt that she will get rid of him soon enough. I just nodded as she got up, stumbling out of my room and down the hall to her own. I wanted to scream at her for being so pathetic. Asking me to leave out getting bullied because of her because her current toy doesn’t want to hear about it. I scoffed thinking about her request.

The next few days went by quietly. F**k boy didn’t show up at all and my mom had become increasingly agitated with each passing day. She was smoking through cigarettes faster than she could buy them. She’d been avoiding me. I knew she was p**sed that I’d said something about Mr. Thompson in front of Peter, but she was the one who asked. I shrugged my shoulders. I had bigger things to worry about. I’m two weeks away from turning eighteen, and only four weeks from graduation. It was time to form a plan. I had 1900 dollars saved up. It took me three years, a lot of dingy clothes, and not eating to get here, but I prayed it would be worth it in the end. It was enough to get me a motel for three months, as well as food and necessities. That gave me time to find a job to support myself and get on my feet. Now, where could I go? I checked the local greyhound bus schedule. I wanted to get as far away from here as possible, but I knew that further I went, the more money it would take. I figured approximately 150 miles in any direction would put enough distance between me and my mother. 150 miles ensured that she wouldn’t try to find me. I found a bus that would take me to Tallahassee, Florida. Sounded perfect to me. Get through my birthday, graduate high school, get the f**k out of here.