Julia's Daughters

48 days, 4 hours

I’m sitting on the lid of the toilet, bouncing my ball, when I hear my mom call me. Her voice is so out of place that it startles me; like hearing a bear in my calculus class. I stand up. “Mom?” I say coming off the toilet, which is stupid because obviously she’s not in the bathroom. No one’s here but me. I wouldn’t let Dodge in. He’s being a complete asswipe. He hit me because I told him I wasn’t going with him to go get his stupid money some junkie owes him. Then I ran in the bathroom and locked the door. That was when I called Mom. I caught a ride here with a girl I know, but she left with some guy hours ago. It was probably stupid to call Mom. She’ll blow this all out of proportion. I just didn’t know who else to call. I got scared when Dodge wouldn’t stop pounding on the bathroom door. If he got in, I knew he’d pound on me with those fists.

“Haley!” I hear my mom holler.

I didn’t figure she could get here this quick. She drives like an old lady.

I start to pace in the confines of the little bathroom as I push the ball into my pocket. This is bad. Mom in Dodge’s house. Really bad. I stop and unlock the bathroom door. “Mom?”

First I see her at the end of the hallway, then I see Dodge, sitting on the floor next to the bathroom door. He jumps up as I hurry toward my mother. “Mom, what are you doing?” I ask. I’m mortified. Obviously I don’t want her in here. She’s liable to call the cops or something. I can’t believe she’d come inside.

“Are you okay?” she asks me. Her face changes and she reaches out to try to touch my face. “Oh my God. Haley, what happened?”

I pull back because I don’t want her touching me. The side of my face hurts. Dodge’s ring caught on my cheekbone and it bled a little. But it’s not a big deal. He didn’t mean to hurt me.

Dodge grabs my arm from behind me. “You called your mom, you little c—”

“Let’s go,” I tell my mom, giving her a push. Not a hard one, just enough to make her understand she can’t be here. As I try to follow her, Dodge tries to stop me.

“Let her go!” my mother hollers. I think she’s hollering because “Get Bread” is blasting from the speakers in the living room. It’s Trick-Trick. I like Trick-Trick. Sort of. Caitlin hated rap music. She liked hippie stuff like Ben Harper. We used to talk about going to the music festival Bonnaroo. We were going to camp out and wear homemade tie-dye shirts and stuff.

I spin around and shove Dodge. He’s a big guy, a lot bigger than me, but he’s not expecting me to fight back, I guess. He lets go of me, but he’s pissed. Really pissed.

I turn back to Mom and say, “Let’s go,” in her ear as I push her into the living room. She’s wearing a T-shirt and sweatpants. Her hair’s all messed up. She looks so bad she almost looks like one of Dodge’s junkies who come to his door.

Everybody in the living room is looking at us. My friends. Well, they’re sort of my friends. Not really. They looked pissed now too. We’re almost out the door when this dude I don’t know grabs my arm. His fingers sink into me until it hurts.

“You goin’ somewhere?” he asks me. “Hey, Dodge! She goin’ somewhere?”

My mom’s almost out the door, but she turns around. “You better take your hands off her,” she tells the dude, like she’s going to do something about it if he doesn’t let go of me.

I can’t believe this is my mom. I’ve never seen her act like this before. Pretty badass.

I jerk my arm from the guy’s and start for the door again.

“Want me to stop her?” he asks Dodge.

“Nah. Let her go,” Dodge says. “Bitch,” he calls after me.

I flip him the bird with one hand while I push my mom out the door with the other. Dodge’s pit bull is mad barking in his kennel in the back. “Come on. Hurry,” I say under my breath. I wouldn’t put it past Dodge to sic his dog on us. I’ve seen him do it before to deadbeats who owe him money and people he just doesn’t like.

“What are you doing here in the middle of the night?” my mom asks. Now she’s started to sound like herself again. Criticizing me. “I told you you were grounded.”

“Let’s get in the car,” I tell her.

“Haley, do I have to tell you how dangerous a place like this is? These people? How did you get here? Did that man pick you up from our house?” She throws a look over her shoulder that’s straight out of one of Caitlin’s made-for-TV movies. The face moms always make when they’re disappointed in their children’s “choices.” “How old is that man? He’s got to be thirty. Please tell me that’s not your boyfriend.”

I hurry to the passenger side of Dad’s truck. I have no idea why she brought the truck. Some people follow us out. I hear Dodge yelling inside and breaking shit. I don’t care. I’m so done with him. But the dude from the house is coming our way and he scares me. “Get in the effing, car, Mom!”

She gives me another one of her looks, but she unlocks the door with the remote thingy. I jump inside.

I lock all the doors with the button on my door. I realize that my heart’s pounding. I don’t like how it feels. I don’t like being scared like this. But the weird thing is, it doesn’t feel much worse than I normally feel. I’m always scared since Caitlin left me. “Let’s go, let’s go.” I sit back and yank my hoodie up. I left my leather jacket inside somewhere, which pisses me off because one of Dodge’s crack hoes will get it, but I’m sure not going back for it.

Mom starts the engine, but she’s taking too long. She’s messing with her seat belt. The joker who tried to stop me from leaving is almost to the truck.

“Today, Mom,” I say, slumping down in the seat.

The guy hits the tailgate with his fist or something.

Mom throws the truck into gear, hits the gas, and surprises me again. She pulls away so fast that she burns rubber.