I see an opening, and I try to dip under his arm to get away from him, but he yanks me back by my shirt with one hand. It knocks me off balance, and I stumble back into the wall next to him.
“I’m fucking talking to you. It’s disrespectful not to speak back, you little freak.”
I place my hands out to brace myself on the wall, but before I can say anything, Camilla opens the front door.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
She stormsdown the hall and shoves Miles in the chest, making the bong slip from his hand, hitting the floor and shattering.
Miles’ face twists, his smugness replaced with anger now. “Are you kidding me? You owe me a new bong, you stupid bitch—”
Camilla quickly cuts him off. “I don’t owe youanything! You shouldn’t be getting high around little girls, or putting your damn hands on them, asshole!”
He laughs bitterly. “That’s rich coming from the pill-snorting princess herself. Like you’re not high around her all the time. I was just trying to get your little sister to take a hit and loosen up a bit, get her to stop being so fucking quiet and weird all the time.”
She’s snorting the pills now?
I knew she had been taking pills for a while, and I’m not stupid. I know they’re some kind of drug.
When I first saw her taking them last year, I asked her what they were, and she told me it was just medication she had to take. She never went to the doctor, though, so I didn’t know where she could have gotten them from. I asked her if it was the kind of medicine our dad used to take, and she told me no. But I know that was a lie now.
What Ididn’t knowwas that she started snorting them.
I remember seeing my mom do that when I was little. I don’t remember much from before the crash, but I remember small flashes of random memories sometimes. I remember she got really hyper and talked a lot right after she would snort the powder, but then quickly crashed and got really mean. She would even hit me when I didn’t answer her quickly enough after she would ask me a question that didn’t even make sense. I hated it when she got mean like that. I only have vague memories from when I was younger, and most aren’t good ones. None are, actually.
Camilla pushes Miles harder now. He’s only fifteen, and she’s seventeen, but he already towers above her, so he easily overpowers her when he grabs her arms and presses her into the wall behind them.
She kicks him in the groin, and he quickly moves back, doubling over and cursing under his breath. He stands back up and rushes for her again, but she already has a broken piece of glass from the bong in her hand as she lunges for him, trying to get him to leave her alone. She nicks him with it, and he clutches his arm.
“Are you crazy? What the hell is wrong with you? You’re a psycho just like your sister!” Miles steps closer to Camilla, rage curling in his fists. “If you don’t want to replace what you broke, I’llmakeyou pay for it. If not in cash…maybe I’ll just have totakesomething else.”
He trails his eyes down her body, smirking before looking back at her face. The look he gives her creeps me out.
The front door opens again.
“What the hell is going on?”
Our current foster mom, Aretha, walks in with Alexis right behind her.
Miles backs up, putting his hands in the air. “Camilla was smoking in your house. I tried to stop her, and she went nuts, breaking her bong and then trying to cut me with it!” He points to the arm that’s barely bleeding.
“Bull!” Camilla shouts. “He was—”
“Shut up! All of you!” Aretha barks. “Lydia, take Alexis to your room. Now! Miles, get out of my face and stop always instigating with these girls.” She turns to Camilla now. “Clean this up. And if I catch you doing drugs in my house again, I’ll call your caseworker so fast, I swear you’ll be out of here the same day. You want to be separated from your sister? Keep it up.”
“I didn’t do anything!” Camilla snaps.
“I don’t want to hearit! You’re lucky I don’t smack the stupid out of you, girl.”
I grab Alexis’s hand and lead her down the hall, turning on the TV for her when we’re in our room to drown out any of the yelling.
Camilla comes in a little while later and flops down on the bed with us.
“I’m sorry,” I tell her quietly.
She looks over at me, and her face softens. “You have nothing to apologize for, Lyd. Miles is an asshole. I hate him…and it’s never okay for him to put his hands on you.”
She turns, looking up at the ceiling.
