~2~
“…No way!!! He actually wants to meet me?”
This excited statement was followed by the typical, high pitched giggle of a fourteen year old girl. The girl was sprawled out on her bed, looking up at her boy band posters and talking to her friend, Kandace.
“Yep! He saw your picture and went on and on about how freakin’ hot you are! I told him you were single…You’re not mad, are you?” Kandace smiled behind the phone, knowing her friend wasn’t angry in the least bit.
Anni sighed. Kandace always had a way of getting her into trouble.
“No, not mad. But you owe me BIG time!!! And you get to help me find a way out of the house!”
“Anni, all you have to do is say you’re going to the library or something…you’re one of those bookish types.”
“I’m pretty sure ‘bookish’ isn’t a word. Besides, I’m home-schooled, and I have a computer. Just got the newest AOL, in fact! So libraries aren’t really that useful anymore. You’ve got to come up with something a little more feasible than that, Kandace!”
“Feasi-what now?”
“Feasible. Believable, realistic, something my asshole step-dad won’t see through!” Anni shook her head. Kandace wasn’t exactly the brightest candle on the birthday cake.
“Whatever, nerd. It’s a good thing Randall likes the geeky ones…Anyways, wear something cute. Not the normal jeans and a ponytail, okay?” Kandace had tried to help Anni in the style department, to no avail.
“I’ll see what I can do. My parents both work tomorrow. So maybe…just maybe, I can get out of this place. Who knows…I may not come back at all!” Anni snickered at the ludicrous prospect of leaving for good. There was a list of things that made it an impossibility.
“Oh, quit lying Anni. You’ve got it good there…you ain’t gonna leave.”
A derisive smirk appeared on Anni’s face. “………Yeah, life is just peachy. Anyhow, see you tomorrow?”
“Yep! Call me when you’re on your way!” Kandace grinned. Tomorrow was going to be great.
“Will do. Just, don’t expect it to be early! This girl does not wake up before 10 AM, so don’t even think about calling me!” Anni was under the firm belief that the hours between 4 and 10 just did not exist.
Kandace laughed. “Boy, you’d be screwed if you went to an actual, like, school where they made you get up every day!”
“This is why I don’t do that. Bye, Kandace.”
Anni walked into the living room to return the phone. It was the last phone call she was allowed for the day. Her step-dad had a very strict “3 calls in, 3 calls out per day” policy. He had a lot of strict policies. Most of them were pointless, anal retentive, compulsory bullshit. At least, that’s how Anni saw it. But, he was married to her mom, so she followed every stupid rule down to the letter. Mom really got lazy when he came around…it’s like she gave up on raising me and decided it was this asshole’s turn.
She set the phone in the charger base and heard a noise that was all too familiar. Clank-clank! It was a noise that most would barely notice, but it was just like nails on a chalkboard to Anni. The sound was that of an aluminum beer can tapping on a glass coffee table. Rule number 5: when you hear the tap-tap of the empty can, you open and bring to me a full one. Anni cringed, but obediently brought Brent another beer.
“Dad, the case is almost empty.”
“Okay. Did you do the dishes?”
Brent and those damn dishes. “Yes, I did.”
“Good. They’d better pass inspection this time, Anni.”
Anni remained stone faced, but she inwardly contemplated taking every dish that he deemed “unacceptable” and smashing them upside his scrawny, Irish head. Rule number 19: For every dish that I find any dirt or grease on, it’s a dollar out of your $5/week pittance. 50 cents for dirty utensils. One week, Anni owed Brent a dollar. 4 plates + 4 utensils = $6.
“They will. May I be excused, sir?” Rule number 4: you will always address me as sir. Luckily, Brent was not nearly the genius he proclaimed himself, and the sarcasm of Anni’s “sir” was totally lost on him. After, isn’t the title “Sir” given to respected elders?
“Yes. But remember, you’re still grounded. No TV. No Walkman either. And I have ways of knowing if you’re fucking up, Anni Jean. Those phone calls I’m letting you have are a privilege, not a right.”
Rule number 22: until you turn 18, everything you do is a privilege, not a right. This includes breathing, privacy, et cetera.
Anni quickly retreated to her room, thinking about all the things that made her want to just run away and never come back again. The rules, the lack of privacy…she couldn’t remember the last time she was allowed to shut her bedroom door completely. Rule number 9: your bedroom door is to remain cracked at all times, period. Anni shuddered and prayed that Brent wasn’t getting an eyeful while she undressed for bed. Something was a little…off…about him.
She thought about Kandace’s light-hearted reaction when she mentioned leaving. What does that bitch know? She’s never had to follow a rule in her life! If only she could tell someone, anyone at all, what this house was like. Maybe tomorrow would be that chance.
As Anni turned off her lamp and curled up under the covers, she thought, I bet Kandace knows a way out of this, she’s always doing whatever her heart desires. Between her and Randall, I might find a solution yet!
With a smile on her face for the first time in months, Anni fell asleep and dreamed of freedom.
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