#sprained arm and shared house at 3 am - bitch you thought

[10moonymhrivertam]

Boy self-care is not my strongest suit on the best of days but boy it sucks a lot worse when I’m avoiding it due to a sprained arm instead of just my brain worms. And honestly the part I want to flip tables over is being so bad at side braids on myself. But I wouldn’t be able to get comfy/sleep with a braid on the back of my head which I’m like. 25+% better at. But it would be even worse to just leave it loose so I guess bad braids is better than no braids 🙃

[mermaidblue20]

Scarlet Night

Hey, so I also like to write original stories as well as fanfiction and I wanna share the first chapter of one I have been working on for quite a while. Hope you enjoy!

Chapter One

Summer break began a week ago and I’m already going crazy. Thank god I am leaving this weekend because I don’t think I’d be able to stand a whole summer with my mother. I love her, but she is seriously batshit crazy.

“Angelica! Can you come here for a minute?!” I hear her call from downstairs. Speak of the devil.

“Alright, be down in a bit!” I called down to her. I swear she has a sixth sense for when I’m avoiding her. I throw the covers off of me and go sit at my vanity. I decide to throw my hair up into a ponytail before heading down, it’s quick, easy, and makes my hair look fiery. I’ve been dying my hair a bright, scarlet red for the past two years because I was tired of people comparing me to my mother. We had the same hair, same eyes, same face, same everything; so I dyed my hair. She was so pissed but it was worth it. I was so tired of hearing comments about how much I look like her and how I’m her spitting image. It’s not that my mom isn’t beautiful, I just hate being compared to her. My mom is not a kind individual, in fact she is a raging bitch 90% of the time. People automatically start to judge me and who I am because of her. Most of the people at my school hate me because of her, that’s why I stopped telling her about any school events I had.

“What’s taking so long, Angie? Get down here!” she yelled, snapping me out of my thoughts.

“Coming!” Geez, I wonder who pissed her off today. I hope it’s not anything I did, I really don’t wanna get on her bad side before I leave. I’ve done my chores and I even did work that wasn’t on the list. I guess it’s time to face the music though. I ran down the stairs and into the kitchen where she was leaning against the counter. 

“I was wondering if you got lost or something, I mean god damn. Anyway, I’ve got a couple of questions for you Angelica.” She crossed her arms and raised her eyebrow. “First off, what kind of plans do you have for the summer?”

Shit, she knows. I know that she knows, and she’s just messing with me. No, I am not gonna let her ruin this for me, I have a great summer planned and she can’t stop me. I am almost out of here, I can do this. Besides, there’s a .01% that she doesn’t know and that she’s genuinely curious about my plans so I’ll just play it cool.

“Well, Lexi’s mom invited me to go with them to Mississippi for the summer. They leave Friday and I was hoping I could go with them,” I told her. Which wasn’t a complete lie. When I was over there earlier her mom did invite me to go with them, but they don’t leave for another week and I wasn’t even considering it. I love Lexi but a whole summer with her dysfunctional family? No thanks, I can barely deal with my dysfunctional mom for a week.

“Oh, that’s nice of her! Now for my next question, what are you really doing this summer?” 

“What do you mean?” I asked, trying my best to look innocent. I know it’s not working but there’s no turning back now.

“Okay, have it your way. Follow me!” she commanded. She turned to walk towards the front room and when I didn’t move she grabbed my arm and yanked me after her. I flinched but I had no choice but to go with her. When we got into the front room she pushed me into a chair and walked over to where the phone was. Before I could ask what was going on she pressed play on the voicemail. Audrey’s voice filled the room:

“Hey Angie, it’s Audrey. I’ve tried texting and calling your cell but you haven’t gotten back to me and your voicemail box is still full. You really need to clear that out girl! Anyway, I’m calling to let you know that everything is ready for when you get here on Friday; however, I’m not gonna be there when you arrive. My mom is cleaning out my old room to turn it into a guest bedroom and she needs my help. I’m gonna be gone til Sunday afternoon, but I can leave the key somewhere for you to get into the house. I’ll probably just  tape it to the underside of one of the chairs on the front porch. I wanted to call you about it because I’m leaving for my mom’s tomorrow morning and I don’t have any signal down there. If you get this before then, call or text me to let me know you got it. I can’t wait to see you again, it’s been too long. Love you, sis. Bye!”

Well, it’s official. I’m dead. I’ve avoided looking at my mom throughout the message, but for some idiotic reason I decide to glance over at her. Bad decision. Her eyes are widened and her pupils are dilated so that only a small ring of hazel is peeking out around the dark black. Her nostrils are flared and I can see every shaky breath in her tense shoulders, almost as if she’s trying to refrain herself from swinging at me. The only other time I’ve seen her this angry is when Audrey introduced herself to us at my dad’s funeral three years ago.  

“What the hell Angelica?!” She blew up, “Why are you still in contact with her? Why are you going over to her house?! I told you to stay away from her. She is only trying to tear this family apart, why else would she be telling this horrible lie? I cannot believe you would do something like this, betraying me and your father. You are not allowed to  contact her again, do you understand me?”

I am so tired of hearing this stupid bullshit, I can’t take it anymore. So I do the one thing I never thought I would have the guts to do. I fight back. 

“You need to shut up and not talk about my sister that way. She is not lying. Why on Earth would she lie about being Dad’s daughter?! You need to get over yourself and accept that she is family and that I want her in my life. We both knew that there was something Dad was hiding from us, why else would he be going on weekend long business trips every month. He was a goddamn plumber, what kind of plumber has that many business trips. He hid her from us all these years, but now I am fixing his mistakes. I am going to her house this summer. I am going to get to know her. My sister is going to be a part of this family. Get. Over. It.” 

My mom stood there, her mouth stretched into a thin line and shoulders shaking slightly. I could tell I didn’t have much longer before things got really bad, so I ran. I got out of that room and upstairs as fast as I could. As soon as I got to my room I slammed the door and locked it. Thank god I still had that lock because almost as soon as I turned it, she was banging on the other side trying to get in. 

I needed to get out of here, I can’t stay here for another 3 days. I packed up the rest of my belongings and slipped my converse on. I only have 2 suitcases so getting them out of the window without her noticing should be easy enough, especially since she’s still screaming and banging on my door. I opened my window and tossed them haphazardly onto the lawn. There’s nothing fragile in them so whatever. Next comes the hard part, getting myself out of the window. Last time I attempted this, I slid down the roof and landed on my ankle funny. I wound up spraining it and had crutches for a week and a half. I can’t risk hurting myself this time, I gotta make a quick getaway. 

Very carefully I straddle the window sill and make sure that my foot has a good enough grip to not slip. I turn so that both of my feet are on the roof and then slide my butt onto it as well, the easiest way to do this is to treat it like a slide. A slide that just so happens to have a 8 foot drop off at the end. Just as I’m starting to slide slowly down the roof I heard my mom stop banging on the door. I know she must’ve given up and started heading downstairs, which normally would’ve been a relief but my bags were sitting on the front lawn in plain view of the living room window. I don’t have time to take this slowly anymore, I had to get there before she saw them and caught me. I needed to hurry.

I quickly scoot my way down the roof trying to be careful yet fast. When I hit the edge I dug my hands and feet in so that I could stop before I fell onto my face. I turn around to grab onto the edge and drop myself to the ground. As I’m dangling I heard the front door slam open.

“ANGELICA WHAT-“ 

I dropped as soon as I heard my name, picked up my bags and ran for it.

“IF YOU DON’T GET YOUR ASS BACK HERE, YOU’RE GONNA REGRET IT. ANGELICA!” I can hear her calling after me down the street. “FINE. DON’T COME BACK THEN! ENJOY LIVING IN THAT LYING BITCH’S HOME.”

I continue to run until I can no longer see the house. I am so glad to be out of that suffocating environment, but at the same time I feel a pang in  my chest. My own mother just kicked me out of our- HER house. I never thought this would happen to me. I can feel the tears welling up in my eyes and I know that if I don’t distract myself with something that they are going to come flooding out. Straightening my back, I resolved not to let her get to me. I called Lexi to see if I can stay with her until Friday, God I am so lucky to have her in my life.