We order food. Watch Netflix for the first time because we can afford it now. We stay up late and wake up early to the delivery drivers knocking on the door. It takes four guys over an hour to bring everything inside, and every time they bring a new piece of furniture, Chrissy gets even more excited. But once they leave, I am truly overwhelmed by the number of things we are about to put together. So, I call in backup and bribe Abe with beer and pizza to come over and help.
He said he’d do it for free, but of course I don’t take back what I said.
The four of us spend the day putting things together and with all of us giving it our entire focus, we get it all done.
Chrissy moves her furniture around four times before it feels right.
Cammy moves hers one time, knowing exactly where she wants everything.
I told Abe to put my stuff wherever he thinks works because I don’t care and I don’t have much to begin with. I didn’t need much. All I care about is having my own space, and my sisters having theirs.
Cammy and Chrissy both opted for a queen-sized bed while I got a king. It’s the one thing I spoiled myself with. Other than that, I only have one dresser in my room but I have the bigger closet. My sisters got the other rooms because they’re bigger, so they got an extra dresser and full, matching bedroom sets.
Tomorrow morning, Cammy and I are going food shopping to stock up the fridge and pantry. Chrissy is so excited about wearing her new clothes to school and showing off her new cell phone. I want to buy them everything all the time just to see them smile. I’ve never seen them smile like this before. It makes me want to cry, if I’m honest. I’m so glad that they’re happy. And I know it shouldn’t be about material things, but when you’ve never had them… they’re exciting.
But like everything in my life, it isn’t long-lived.
Chapter Twenty-One
Cassius
I pick Chrissy up from school on Tuesday. We grab ice cream, as we have been doing because she’s obsessed, and then she asks me to stop at the trailer so she can go through her clothes again because she can’t find her favorite T-shirt.
Everything is going great. We’re on time. She’s digging through her clothes and finding more things she wants to take. I do the same while we wait.
“Aha!” she says, turning to me with a grin as she holds up the T-shirt. It was one of mine. Something I’d found at a thrift store. A Green Day band shirt that I thought would make me cool because it looked like I’d gone to the concert… as if I could ever afford tickets then.
She gathers her clothes into her arms and we leave the room. The front door opens before we reach it.
“Where the fuck do you think you’re going?” the witch barks. Her pupils are little pin pricks—she’s high as hell.
“I’m going with Cassius,” Chrissy says in a small voice.
“The fuck you are!” she shouts, stepping closer.
I step forward, moving between the two of them, because if she hits Chrissy, I will kill her.
“And what the fuck do you think you’re going to do?” she huffs at me. “You don’t live here no more, I thought.”
“Who said that?” I bark out.
She laughs, her cigarette breath making me gag.
“Oh please, boy, I ain’t stupid. I see what you've been doing here.”
“I want to go with Cass,” Chrissy adds, this time louder.
She’s never been the arguing type. She goes with what’s said, not wanting to cause problems or make the fighting worse.
“I don’t give a shit what you want. You’re twelve, you—”
“I’m fourteen,” Chrissy snaps.
“As if I don’t know how old my kid is. Shut the fuck up,” she spits.
“Hey!”
She looks at me, laughing. “Get out of my house, or I’ll call the cops.”