Page 13 of Lick

“I’m sorry, Ty, but I can’t stay here anymore. I can’t keep…” Her words fall as she shakes her head.

“Hey.” I reach out and grab her hand. “You can’t what?”

“Don’t fucking coddle her,” my mother says, stumbling from her room. Her hair is greasier than normal, and she hasn’t changed her clothes in almost a week.

I can’t stand her. I fucking hate her, and the only reason I put up with her shit is because of Betsy. I’m not leaving her here alone, and I’ve got no place for us right now. But once I’m in at the MC, I’m taking my sister away from this place and hopefully get her a life that she deserves.

“What the fuck are you fighting about now?”

“She ain’t pulling her weight around here,” she says as my blood runs cold.

My back tenses up as I turn to face my mother. I bring myself to my full height. “What the fuck does that mean?” I know what it means, but I need to hear it come from my mother’s mouth.

“She thinks she can live here and eat my motherfucking food and watch my motherfucking TV and sleep in my motherfucking bed and not have to pay for anything?”

The urge to wrap my fingers around her neck and squeeze the life from her pathetic body is great. “Betsy, you need to go to your room.” I stalk towards my mother, making her step back.

“I want to go, Ty.” Betsy’s voice is small.

“Get in your room, Betsy. Now!” I roar. She grumbles about me not being the boss of her, but takes her bag and walks back down the hall.

Once she’s gone, I continue to stalk the piece of shit that gave me life. “Tell me you’re yelling because your thirteen-year-old daughter doesn’t want to get a job at the local burger joint.” I take another step, lifting my finger to her face. “Please tell me that you’re yelling because your child doesn’t want to do her chores.” Taking another step, I crowd her space causing her to continue to walk back until she’s up against the wall of the living room.

“I need my stuff,” she tells me point blank.

I slam my fist into the sheetrock right above her head making her jump. “You’re a piece of shit,” I seethe.

Fire rips across my cheek as her hand connects with my skin. “I’m your mother. Don’t you even think to speak to me that way!” Her breath smells like rotten food, and I can feel the taste of bile rise in the back of my throat.

“You haven’t been our mother for years.” My voice is low, my words slow so I know she can hear me. “You are shit.” I push my finger into her boney chest. “You look like shit,” poke “You talk like shit,” poke “and you smell like shit.” Poke.

Her eyes start to fill with unshed tears as she takes in my words.

I smirk. “One day soon, I hope you’ll end up alone and pissing yourself, wondering where your life has gone. The shit you stick in your arm is going to eat away at more than your teeth and your body, and I hope the day it happens I get to see it. I hope you’ll get one second of clarity and reach out to me for help so I can finally tell you to fuck off.” I pound my fist into the wall again leaving her shaking and hopefully pissing herself.

When I reach my sister’s door, I knock. I hope to God Betsy hasn’t been through what I’ve been through. I know I need to get us out of here and never come back and that’s gonna have to happen sooner rather than later. I’m going to go to Devin Sr. and see if we can stay with him. I’m sure my mom won’t even realize Betsy’s gone.

I knock again. “Bets, open up.”

When I’m met with silence again, I turn the handle and push through the door, feeling the breeze of air across my face. The window is wide open, curtains blowing around with no sister in sight. Drawers are pulled open, clothes pulled from their hangers, and the picture of us I gave her for her birthday that usually sits on her nightstand is gone.

My sister’s gone.

Cut twists the cap open on the bottle and hands me a beer. We’re in the middle of an open field not far from the compound. This is where he took me to teach me how to ride. Little did I know that riding on fucking dirt was nowhere near the same thing as riding on the fucking street. I’ve got the scars from the road rash to prove it.

“You know that how your sister turned out has nothing to do with you, right?”

Logically, yeah, I think. “That’s debatable,” I tell him instead.

“How do you figure? You were just a kid, Lick. Nowhere near ready to care for your kid sister. The system is the thing that failed you. Too many families and kids go unnoticed when they need help.”

“I was gonna ask your parents if they would take her in.”

Cut stops mid-drink. “No shit?”

“Yeah. She was thirteen when she took off. I never had the chance to ask, but I needed to get her away from that bitch and that life. I thought if I stayed close, worked and saved some money, that when I turned eighteen I could get us a place and she would be able to grow up. When I came home and I heard that shit the bitch was spewing I knew I couldn’t wait. I was going to take her to your house that night and hope your parents would help, but I never got the fucking chance.” Bringing the bottle to my lips, I welcome the coldness down my throat.

“I’m sorry, man.”