• “Hey, Samual, what’s up with the bruises?” my friend Josh asks me

    “Oh, these?” I say gesturing towards my throat, “It’s nothing, don’t worry about it.” I can’t tell him the truth; I can’t possibly tell him my mom had tried to kill me, that she hates me.

    Life hasn’t always been this way for me. My mom has only recently started hitting me, the only reason I have bruises is because I let her hit me, I don’t fight back because I don’t want to hurt her. She started hitting me about two weeks ago, after dad left. She says she can’t stand to look at me because I look like him. She’s told me she hates me.

    “Hey, wanna come hangout at my place after class today?” Josh asks as we walk out the door to go to our next class, “Ryan, Silvia, Jessica, James, and you would be the only ones there. We’re just gonna hang out for a bit, eat, maybe go somewhere later.”

    “Sure, sounds like fun.” I reply, it might actually help my mom to have me out of the house for a while, “So we just going over after school let’s out?”

    “Yeah”

    School lets out and Josh and I start heading towards his house.

    “You gotta go by your place to get anything?” He asks me.

    “Nah, I don’t need anything, let’s just get to your house before everyone else does” I tell him, not wanting him to come by my house and see my mom.

    A little later we get to his house. He goes in the kitchen to find some food while I wait for other people to come. James, Ryan, and Jessica all come together and head strait for the kitchen where Josh is. Last to come is Silvia.

    Silvia and I have been like brother and sister ever since I can remember, we’ve always been there for each other, no matter what, and we tell each other everything. But I can’t tell her about my mom, about my pain, about being hurt. I just can’t let her know. She would worry too much about me, I don’t like seeing her worried, or scared. I like to see her smile, just being happy. I don’t want to bother her.

    “Sam!” she yells as she comes in the door and jumps on me hugging me around my rib area where the really bad bruises are. Basically I have bruises everywhere, they’re just covered up.

    “Ow!” I shout and jump back a bit holding onto my side where the bruise is.

    “Hey, what happened?” Josh says poking his head out from the kitchen, “You okay? You yelled pretty loud.”

    “Yeah I’m fine. She just startled me a bit.” I tell him.

    “You know you don’t say ‘ow’ when you’re startled, right?”

    “When she jumped on me she made me step weird.”

    “Oh, I see then.” And he goes back into the kitchen.

    “If I hurt your ankle then why are you holding your side?” Silvia asks me.

    “Truth is I have a bruise there.” If I don’t give her a very good reason she will never leave me alone.

    “Let me see it.”

    “No.”

    “Why not?”

    “Because I said no.”

    “Can you at least explain it then?”

    “No, sorry. I can’t.”

    “Why can’t you?”

    This time all I can do is turn away. But Silvia being Silvia, she jumps on my back, knocks me down, and lifts my shirt to see the bruise. My whole right side is covered in bruises. Especially around my ribs, that’s where mom hits the most.

    “Ok, you can’t have this bad of a bruise and not explain it to me! Or even tell me!” She says quietly but angrily so only I can hear as she puts my shirt back down.

    “Hey! Guys what are you doing? That’s not something you’re supposed to be doing in the living room!” Ryan yells at us from the kitchen then goes back in.

    “Get a room you two!” Jessica jokes from over the counter as she passes by.

    “Come on,” Silvia says, “we’re going outside for a bit.”

    As soon as we walk through the door way Silvia shuts the door and turns to face me, “Explain them. Now.”

    “I can’t really…”

    “I don’t care what you can or can’t do; you’re going to explain those bruises to me right now.”

    “I’m sorry; I’m just having some home problems that’s all.”

    “Your mom hit you?”

    “…”

    “She did, didn’t she?” she says lightening her tone a little.

    “Yeah.” I say quietly, almost too where I couldn’t even hear myself.

    “I’m so sorry,” She pauses for a moment, “Come on. Let’s go talk to her.”

    “No”

    “Why not?”

    “Because I don’t want her to end up hurting you or you seeing me hurt.”

    “I’m more worried about you right now; I think we should go talk to her.”

    “I don’t want you hurt.”

    She responds with, “That only gives me more reason to talk to her. So you won’t be hurting so it won’t hurt me. And I promise she won’t hurt us, just believe me,” she takes my hand and leads me away. Toward my house.

    A few moments later we arrive in front of my house. All the lights are off, and there is no sounds coming from the house.

    “Let’s go in.” Silvia says.

    “I don’t want you to go in there”

    “I’m going in with you.”

    “It’s not a good idea, she’s asleep anyway. All the lights are off”

    “No they’re not.” She was pointing at the front room where a light had just been turned on.

    “If anything happens I want you out of there immediately, understand?”

    She steps to face me, “It’ll be fine,” she puts her arms around me, “I won’t let anything happen,” she looks up at my face, “I promise,” and she kisses me.

    I have imagined what it would be like if Silvia and I were to ever kiss. They were all somewhere romantic and I was the one leading into it. I never thought it would be like this, In front of my house about to face my mom, scared out of my mind.

    “Fine, let’s go. But anything does happen you get out of there immediately.”

    “Nothing will happen, I promised.”

    “Still anything happens you get out of there, okay?”

    “Alright.”

    We walk up to the door, I open it. The living room is a mess, the couch is flipped over, there’s papers all over the place, stuff thrown everywhere, complete chaos, and my mom staring at me and Silvia from across the room.

    “You…” My mom says as the points towards Silvia, then screams “You’re the reason he hasn’t been home! You’re why he’s not coming home anymore! You’re taking him away from me! Give him back!”

    “Mom! Stop yelling at her! She’s not why I didn’t come home!” I yell back at her, then lower my voice as she turns her gaze on me “I didn’t come home ‘cause I thought me being around made you upset so I went to Josh’s house.”

    “And she was there?” She asks as she looks back over at Silvia.

    “Yes, but I was going over to Josh’s anyway.”

    “Why didn’t you tell me first?”

    “He was afraid to-” Silvia starts but my mother cuts her off.

    My mother began screaming at her, “Shut up! You know nothing about him; you have no right to even be near my boy you worthless piece of trash! You should die!” Suddenly my mom lunges at her.

    My mom has Silvia up against the wall by her throat. I do the only thing I can think of to save Silvia; I jump on my mom’s back. She let’s go of Silvia and as she falls to the ground so do my mother and I.

    My mom manages to flip me over so she’s pinning me down and starts hitting me. She hits my shoulders, my chest, my face, anywhere she can possibly can. And I just let her. My vision starts to go blurry, and it’s getting really dark really fast.

    “Stop it! Stop it! Stop it!” I can hear Silvia screaming. She sounds so far away. “Stop it! Stop it now!” She’s crying.

    I hear a crashing noise. Maybe glass? Not sure. Then I hear something fall. Something kinda big. I can feel the weight from my mother on me slide off. I can’t feel her hitting me anymore. I feel almost numb.

    “I’m sorry…. I’m sorry…” I hear Silvia cry. I can feel her tears falling on my face. “I’m sorry… I’m so sorry”

    Softly I manage to say “Silvia. Don’t cry… I love…y-” Suddenly everything goes black. I can’t hear Silvia crying anymore, I don’t feel her tears, I don’t hurt, I can’t see, I don’t’ hear anything. Absolutely nothing. So, I guess this is what death is like.