Chapter 3

Beeze's POV•

"Beeze! The toilets need to unclog!" My aunt screams, right when I was cashing and a group of girls nearby start laughing.

Sighing, I only nod.

Nancy takes my spot and I grab the tools from my Aunty's hands.

"Beeze!"

Crap!

I turn to force a smile and sure enough little Thomas stands in front of me.

"Thomas! Hi!" His smile drops and so does Wes's as they notice my tools.

"What's that?"

"It's a . . . fairy... .hunting tool." I lie.

"Fairies? You hunt fairies?! So cool!" He yells and Wes raises an eyebrow.

"Listen I'm really busy right now but I'll come out soon okay?"

"Okay." He says, his smile faltering a bit before he wanders off to find a seat leaving me with Wes.

"I don't think 'fairies' live in the toilet." He mocks, crossing his arms and I sigh.

"Me neither but it never hurts to look right?"

"Why do you let her treat you like this?" Wes asks curiously, his lips downwards, his eyebrows furrowed.

"She's my aunt."

"And?"

I avert my eyes.

"She's all I have," I mutter and he seems to understand.

"Oh... .I'm-"

"Beeze! The toilet isn't going to unclog itself!" My aunt yells and I jump.

"I have to go." I quickly spin on my heel and walk into the bathroom and let me tell you, the smell was nothing pleasant.

"Goodness! Did they poop a dead person?" I groan, holding my nose. I felt a little light-headed as I suddenly turn around to grip the lips of the bathroom sink.

I guess lack of food and the horrid smell woke up my stomach because the next thing you know I'm throwing up in the sink and blacking out in the bathroom.

#

"She's dehydrated, starved and exhausted. What have you been doing to the poor girl?"

"Nothing she doesn't deserve." My aunt mutters bitterly, I can practically feel the droplets of her angry spit layering my face.

Waking up, I'm sore all over, my eyelids heavy.

"Ah, Ms. Simmons. How are you?" My throat felt dry as I opened my mouth, but my aunt beat me to it.

"She's obviously fine. Now leave." My aunt says as she pushes him out the door.

"How could you do that to me!" She yells at me and I flinch. My head was aching, my eyes were hazy and I wasn't thinking straight.

"Huh?" I slur.

"Don't you 'huh' me! You made me look bad. Making it seem like I never fed you. Fainting on the bathroom floor, it was all a show wasn't it?" Her eyes widen, as her voice lessens to a growl.

"But-"

"No buts! You resume work tomorrow. 5:00am, don't forget to clean the restaurant in the morning."

I nearly cry as a sharp pain stabs my stomach.

It's over as soon as it came and I lay back down.

"Ah!" I yell as another one strikes and this time it lasts longer. Tears fall as it does this over and over and over again.

Curdling with pain I fall to the wooden floor. My tears were falling faster by the minute.

I tried to call out but the only sounds I could make were ones of pain.

I lay on the floor groaning and flinching with tears and mucus running down my face. My hair sticks to my face as I lay on the floor sweating.

Then, it stops.

I begin to hiccup as I lift myself and slowly walk to the bathroom. I looked terrible. I was pale and barely hanging on. I began heaving, as my stomach tried to get something out, instead of food which I didn't have in there, acid began falling.

I gasped and gripped the sink.

What is happening to me?

#

Morning comes to quick as my aunt screams at me to get downstairs.

I pick myself up off of the bathroom floor and just slip into the tub. Warm water began to flow and almost fell asleep. A few minutes later I was dressed and mopping.

I decided that to survive the day I had to at least taste something, but as usual, my aunt hid all the good stuff and left the stale food out. So breakfast was a combination of two rock hard loaves, three-day-old nuggets, and a glass of tap water.

Beggars can't be choosers, right?

The bell rung and I spun around to find Thomas.

"Bee-!. . . ze." He raised his eyebrow and walk towards me, his dad was searching for something in the car.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing darling, I'm just a little tired."

"Well . . . Uh, you still look pretty." He offers me a smile and a pretty white flower. "Doesn't it look like my hair?"

I giggle and he grins.

"It does indeed. Thank you sweet one." I place it in my hair and he raises his hand saying up. I lifted him and it felt like I was about to fall but I held him.

"Beeze?" He calls softly while looking at me.

"Mmm?"

"Do you sleep?"

"Everyone sleeps."

"You need more sleep." He mutters.

"Yes, she does." Placing Thomas down, I sigh.

"Hi, Wes."

"Why do you look like that?"

"Just tired." I lie.

"You should sleep more."

"I will." I lie again.

He stares at me and I avert my eyes.

"Alright, c'mon Thomas I have an early meeting."

"I don't care." Thomas shrugs and I never realized until then that he was hugging my leg.

I giggle and he grinned up and me.

"If you go with daddy. . . I'll eat lunch with you today." What am I doing? He gasps.

"Deal." He grins at me and I wink.

"Take a nap Beeze or should I say Aurora."

Thomas gasps.

"Daddy! You promised you wouldn't tell her!"

"Oops," Wes mutters grinning and he winks at me before leaving. Thomas looks to be arguing with him as he sits in his father's arms doing wild gestures.

I shake my head at the two, but as soon as I turn around I find my aunt looking at me. She doesn't say a word, only raises an eyebrow before leaving.

I have to be careful, what happened before can't happen again.