The Golden Flower

There she laid, sprawled out on the floor, limp.  Her naked body rose and fell with her harsh in hailing of breath as she sobbed silently into her arms.  She heard the door slam shut as she laid in silence.  Slowly she pushed herself up into a sitting position and looked around.  Her clothes lay scattered around the living room floor.   1

She glanced at the clock, 20 past 8, plenty of time before her mom came home.  She pushed herself to her feet slowly and walked to her stretched shirt that lay beside her torn panties, ripped straight from her flesh.  She walked to the couch and picked her bra up off it, the clasp had been snapped in half, unusable now.  She wandered to the pantry and bent in front of it's sliding closet door.  Slowly she put her hand on it and pushed it open, pulling a bag from the back filled with more ripped and shredded clothes, then added the new additions.2

"Thank God my favorite skirt is OK." 3

She sighed to herself as she picked it up from the corner of the room where it lay in a heap and she folded it delicately and placed it back in her drawer in her room, only 20 steps away.  4

She walked to the bathroom and closed the door.  Turned the bathwater on and ran it until it was steaming from the heat.  She slid her naked bruised body in and closed her eye, letting her hair float around her face.5

"Erin?"6

Came a voice.7

"Erin where are you?"8

The voice got louder.  9

"Answer me damn it, where are you?"10

The bathroom door was flung open as Erin opened her eyes and quickly covered her bruised self.  Pulling the curtain to shield her bruises she glared at her intruder.11

"Mother get out! I'm naked!"12

She exclaimed.13

"You didn't answer me! Damn it when i call I want you to answer, you got it?!"14

Her mother shrieked.15

"Fine just get out!"16

Erin's grasp on the curtain began to make her knuckles turn white.  Her mother sighed and left, slamming the door on the way out.17

She shivered as she lay in the now cold water and glanced at her watch sitting on the bathroom sink.  10 past 10. Fuck, mom's home.18

Erin stood up from the waters and wrapped a towel around herself then wandered into her bright pink bedroom.  By the looks of the room, you wouldn't ever be able to tell the life she led.  She sat down on her green comforter and pulled it over her toweled body, then laid down, resting her wet head on her pillow.  She stared at the ceiling, watching two moths dance across it until her eyes were too heavy to keep open any longer and she fell into a deep sleep. 19

There she was.  Standing in a beautiful garden with bushes and blooming trees lighting the scene.  Birds were chirping and her hand was being held by a man dressed in a black tux.  He whispered he loved her then turned, pulling her to face him and kissed her deeply, his lushes lips caressing hers then he knelt to the ground, looking up into her eyes.20

"Erin my love"21

Came a deep, loving voice,22

"Will you..."23

"Yes..."24

She replied in anticipation, knowing the question, wanting him to spit it out.25

"Will you get out of bed you dumb ass bitch!"26

yelled a higher pitched voice, not like the deep, sensual one from a moment ago.  27

The picture was fading, her dream was turning now away, and back to reality as she opened her eyes to her mother craning over her, yelling at her to get her lazy ass out of bed. 28

"I'm up."29

Erin stated flatly.30

"I'm going to work, then I have been invited to a party, I won't be home until well past midnight, don't bother staying up."31

Her mother hissed haughtily.32

"Fine.  I don't care.  Can i go back to sleep now?"33

"get your fat ass up bitch! Your just a lazy slut."34

And with that, she slapped Erin smack across her cheek.  She turned on her heel and walked out the door.  Erin laid in bed and waited for the front door to shut before she burst into tears.  35

"Damn it."36

She cried.37

"damn it damn it damn it!" 38

She hit her hand hard on her wall, and retracted it quickly before the pain could swell into it.  She got up, the towel still wrapped around her and the pillow still damp from the night before and she walked to a table she had across from her bed and knelt down to it.  She reached at the underside and pulled a small note card that was taped to the bottom of it.  She read the names on it.  Tim...Frank...Matt...John...Zach...None of these names interested her.  She glanced at the bottom at the last number, Joseph, then went and dialed the number on the phone.39

"Hey it's Erin, my mom's gone, I was wondering if you wanted to come over and... you know... hang out."40