Page 51 of Rock and a Hard Place

“This is all they had left.” She tossed him a white takeout bag. “Maybe there’ll be extras from the fish fry tomorrow.”

Days after arriving at the group home, Libby got a job working at a restaurant in the mall. If she was going to be stuck living in this hellhole, she planned to avoid it as much as possible. Only a few weeks had passed since her arrival on Thanksgiving Day. It felt like months.

“Damn, this is great, but where’s my rings?” Michael stuffed a handful of fries in his mouth. He ate constantly, but was the skinniest guy she’d ever seen. The first timeshe’d laid eyes on him, she’d been terrified of his tattoos and piercings. Now she knew his image was mostly an act, probably for survival’s sake. He looked tough but was harmless. He was also the closest thing she had to a friend here.

“Sorry, no onion rings tonight. Maybe next time.” In an effort to blend in and not make enemies, Libby always brought back leftovers from the mall restaurant where she worked.

She walked down the hallway; her grip on her handbag tightened like a vise as she approached the girls’ bedroom. Silently, she opened the door to the room she shared with Sophie, a volatile psychopath, who for some reason was determined to terrorize Libby, and Kelly, a pale girl who dyed her hair a deep black, wore dark eye makeup, and rarely spoke. Sophie sat on her messy bedsheets cleaning her fingernails with a jackknife as she rocked to her iPhone. Kelly slept soundly in her depressed state.

Ignoring Sophie, Libby went straight to her side of the room and grabbed her shower stuff. Living at the home was a cross between a college dorm and juvenile hall. You kept your stuff to yourself. You didn’t share, and stealing was a common occurrence. Libby’s things disappeared on a regular basis. Within hours of her arrival on Thanksgiving Day, the phone Peter gave her disappeared. Her last tie to him had been permanently cut. She’d bet money Sophie was the klepto. Libby kept her money with her everywhereshe went now, including the bathroom.

She grabbed a long T-shirt to sleep in, a robe, and padded to the door. Aswishand thenthudrang in her ear. Libby froze. Sophie’s knife stuck in the wall just inches from her face. She held her breath, afraid to turn around.

“Hey, blondie, what’s the big hurry? Aren’t ya gonna say hi?” Sophie lounged against the headboard, a snarl on her face.

Libby ran out of the room. At least she knew the knife was in the wall and couldn’t hurt her. Sophie’s cruel laughter followed her.

Inside the bathroom, Libby locked the door and rested her head against it. Her hand gripped the doorknob until she could breathe again. She hated that girl. Her mom always said it was wrong to hate, that everyone had good in them. But her mom never met Sophie.

She closed the lid to the toilet and sat down and took a few moments to pull herself together, but it was getting harder. It took Libby every ounce of energy she possessed just to survive.

Scott, the leader of the group home, was nice enough, but he didn’t have a clue what went on. Why a pacifist wanted a job surrounded by teenage derelicts, she couldn’t imagine. His easygoing manner kept the kids a little less stressed, but he did a lousy job with behavior management. She looked around the small bathroom. In here, she was safe from hassle, in the only spot she could be alone.

Before she took her shower, she grabbed cleaning supplies from under the sink and gave the room a quick once over. Everything in her world was a mess. At least she could shower in a bathroom that didn’t have smears on the mirror and hair all over the sink. In a couple of minutes, the bathroom countertop and mirror were clean and smelled like lemons.

Libby inhaled deeply and released some of her stress. She turned on the shower and organized her stuff, pretending this was her own private place that no one would invade. After folding her work clothes, she stepped under the weak shower pressure and let warm water roll over her body. She tried to imagine she was in a magical place under a waterfall instead of this nightmarish prison.

She stood under the flow long after she was clean, wishing she could wash away the reality of her world. Her thoughts turned to Peter; she missed him so much. At least she didn’t cry each time she thought of him anymore.

Libby tried to call him from the a phone at the mall soon after she arrived. She needed to make sure Garrett wasn’t pulling a cruel joke, but Peter didn’t pick up and a recording said his voice mailbox was full. She even called his record company, but couldn’t get past the operator. Peter was now a part of her past, like every other happy part of life. No knight in shining armor for Libby.

The water turned cool. She stepped out and dressed for bed. With wet hair hanging down her back and her armsfilled, she left the security of the bathroom.

Halfway down the hall, a door opened and BJ, a teenager the size of a linebacker, stepped out and blocked her way.

Shit.

BJ looked more like thirty than seventeen. He scared the hell out of her.

“I thought I heard the shower going and hoped it was you. You’re always up late, working hard. You need to relax. In fact, why don’t you join me and I can help.” He winked.

Libby bit the inside of her cheek. There was no good way to answer BJ, and there was no way she was stepping inside his room.

“What’s the matter? You scared? You don’t need to be scared of me. I’ll be real gentle.” BJ walked toward her, put his mammoth arms against the wall, and leaned over her. He took a lock of damp hair that hung over her shoulder and sniffed. “You smell real good. I could just eat you up.” Libby’s stomach churned as she gripped her clothes and towel. She could turn around and run back to the bathroom. Or scream and hope Scott heard and would come to her rescue. But his room was on the other end of the house, and he slept to the hum of a sound machine.

Before she decided what to do, Michael sauntered down the hallway.

“Hey, guys, what’s up? You having a party and didn’t invite me?”

BJ glared at him, sending a message of cease and desist, but Michael ignored him.

“I’d love to join ya, but I need my beauty sleep. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ll be on my way.”

BJ stepped aside to let Michael pass. Michael pushed Libby ahead of him through the quick opening and toward her bedroom door before BJ realized what happened.

“Ladies first, don’t you have some big test tomorrow or something? You shouldn’t stay up so late,” Michael said with a pointed look at Libby.

Libby quickly entered her shadowed bedroom and mouthed the wordsthank youso BJ wouldn’t hear. Tomorrow, she’d bring onion rings home even if she had to pay for them herself.

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