"V" [Glimpses of Faith - Journal]
"V"
(January 29, 1998)
“What about you, V, anyone ever rough you up?” I said, standing now. “How many times did you land up in the hospital before your sweet sixteen? Anyone ever drag you across the kitchen floor by that nice long hair of yours, huh? Or burn your arm with a cigarette for forgetting to pass along a message that someone called for them? ‘Cause if not, I don’t really think you have a right to treat me like I’m some kind of poor little nut job who needs to be taken care of. I’d be doing fine by myself, if everyone would stop watching me all the time.”
“Faith,” she said, “please put that down.”
She wasn’t looking at my face anymore, but was staring at something lower down. I followed where she was looking and saw in my hand that I was holding a pen and was pointing it at her. I must have taken it off her desk without realizing it, because it wasn’t one of mine. I sat back down before tossing it on the desk…
… I don’ know what freaked me out more, the fact that V looked scared of me like I was going to stab her or something, or the fact that I didn’t even realize how worked up I was getting about my mother, the fosters, my life - how I have to be so hard so that I don’t let anything get to me, which I learned from watching my mother make one mistake after another, mostly involving men. That’s reality for me. Every day, in every way.
©Go Ask Malice.