aval. The streets were empty, maybe because it was a Sunday and most people were indoors enjoying a day of rest except for the people in her own house.

plained so much but it would have been nice to have a sturdy father figure in her life. Someone who would protect her from threats, warn boys he did not like away from her and make life just a little bit easier for her with his presence alone. Instead, her father was comfortable to slowly drink himself to oblivion while conveniently blaming her mother and Julianna for his life woes. Presently, he wasn't comfortable with just getting himself drunk alone and crashing through the house late at night to fall into bed. He started raining down abusive words, damaging words that cut through her fragile heart whenever he felt like it,ike, and even though her mother was trying, Julianna felt sometimes that she did not try enough. Why couldn't she leave him, after all, some single mothers were doing well for themselves and their children with no towering, angry, and hateful father figure rising above them like a dark cloud. Instead, her mother has still chosen to remain with him, enduring his verbal abuse and maybe physical but Julianna was not sure if her father had started hitting her mother. The image alone threatened to send fresh tears running down her cheek and Julianna raised her eyes to look around and distract herself from the disquieting thoughts. From where she sat, she could see the small town's only diner, "Buddy's Diner", her mother swears that it was a happening spot back in the days when many of her friends loved to hang out when school was out. But looking at it now with its missing neon light letter, it showed "Budd" instead of "Buddy" at night when the neon lights glowed. Julianna could not believe her mother's claims with the diner's cheap off-white Formica top tables chipped at the sides, mis