Crystal
When she leaves the apartment, It's dark and motionless. Wearing sweat pants, maroon, school issued. Underneath, she hides her white Levi's that fuse to her young adolescent body, helping her experience being eighteen. After school, rolling the sweat pants into her empty backpack, walks to the bus station, waiting for the high school to be dismissed. Sometimes, she goes to an apartment with a boy. Sometimes with a group of them. Sometimes she just goes behind the deli if they can't find a place close by. When dark, she heads home, hoping her mother is working a double shift. Knowing that if her mother is not, she will be tied to the cold steam heater with a worn leather belt, left by a man she never met. She will pray that her mother's arms will get tired. She will pray that her mother will not notice her white Levi's under her sweat pants. She will pray for the day she turns eighteen, not caring if she really sees it or not.