The entire time we were in the car, I had my eyes closed. I wanted to remember every sound of the laughter and excitement bubbling over from our trip. Laughter in our house was few and far between so I wanted this moment to last as long as possible. I knew as soon as we got home everything would be different. Everything would go back to how it was before. I was slowly counting down the days for when I could move out of my parents house and in with my two older sisters. Since I had been taking summer school, I was ahead in my classes at Robinson high school and I had recently been approved for a work-study schedule where I was able to go to school in the morning and work in the afternoon.
I had been lucky enough to get a part time job at the local public library and was saving my money to move out. Since my sisters had moved out in the last year or so, things around the house had started getting tense. My father was diving deeper into the church and becoming convinced electronics were frying our brains. I didn’t even want to think of how my life would change if he found the laptop I had hidden in my room. When I saw him waiting on the front porch when we got home, I didn’t know how much my life would take a turn for the worse.
Standing Room Only 