Saving Rain

by Kelsey Kingsley

I reentered the living room. I ignored Levi and stared my mother down, who was now, once again, sitting on the couch. That was the only thing that had changed about this place. The fucking couch. I guessed she only gave a shit about the things she needed the most—drugs and a place to crash after the high. “You’re never seeing me again,” I warned her, keeping my voice even. Unmoved as my heart ached incredibly. “The second I walk through that door, I am gone, and you will never see me again for the rest of your miserable fucking life. Do you understand that?” She said nothing. “You won’t know where I go. You won’t have any way to contact me. This is it. Tell me you understand that, tell me you’re good with it, and I’m gone forever.” That was when she looked right into my hardened glare, her pupils missing from her eyes, and she said, “I should’ve aborted you.” Levi laughed, grinning like she’d just told the funniest joke he had ever heard. “Man, our lives would’ve been easier. Think of everyone who’d still be alive. Imagine that.” I could kill him. I wanted to, and you know what? Maybe I should. I could be thrown back into Wayward. I would have a place to live, eat, sleep … But it was what he wanted. He wanted the reaction, and I wasn’t going to give it to him. Because he might’ve chosen this piece-of-shit life for himself, but I was going to be better. I was better. So, without another word, without looking back, I walked through the door and slammed it behind me.