Scowling in irritation, Chrissy marched up to the staggering bathrobe-clad figure and grabbed ahold of her arm.

“Mom! You’re drunk! What are you doing here? You’re supposed to be at home?” Chrissy’s anger mounted and she felt the urge to slap her mother, right on her worthless face.

Her mom beat her to it. Chrissy’s head snapped back and tears blurred her vision.

“How dare you talk to me that way? I birthed you! ” She grabbed Chrissy’s collar and pulled her close. Her breath reeked of beer. “You ruined my body! Ruined! Is this what I get? Is this?”

Chrissy flinched. She hoped nobody would walk in on them. Backing slowly toward the wall, she held up her palms.

“Look mom, why don’t you just go home? I promise I’ll come home and do the dishes and whatever you want. Okay?”

Lurching and laughing manically, her mom threw up her hands. “Oh look at that! She promises to do housework!” She tried to slap Chrissy again, but she was so drunk that she missed. “You don’t come home and do your chores. I had to do all the work! Think I’m a servant? Huh? Huh?”

Right then, what Chrissy was hoping would never happen in a million years happened.

Behind her, a back door flew open, and Briana was standing in the doorway, wide-eyed. Strangely, she was holding a bag of plastic bottles.

After hesitating slightly, Briana reached out and gripped Chrissy’s hand, pulled her inside and slammed the door shut.

“Are you okay?” She asked tentatively.

Briana had just gone out back to throw away some empty Sprite bottles. The drama teacher, Ms. Sheppard allowed them to snack on vending machine food while they worked.

She did not expect to see Chrissy Evans, the most popular girl in their grade, being beaten up by her mom. Briana pinched herself, just to check if she was hallucinating. Nope, she hadn’t imagined it.