Read Online Spilled Milk: Based on a true story by K.L Randis - Free Book Online Page A

lowered his voice. “You’re
feeling better now though, right?”
    I couldn’t
process what he was saying. I knew I wasn’t crazy, I wasn’t. How can he stand
there in front of me and pretend like nothing happened? Like he is having a completely
ordinary conversation with his daughter? This can’t be normal. I squeezed my
legs together for confirmation that the other night had happened. That I was
dragged from my room in my sleep, and it wasn’t a dream like I wanted it to be.
    Pain shot up
through my thighs and stomach. My lips parted to scream at him. To tell him that
he couldn’t do this. I caught sight of my siblings sitting in the living room.
The idea of me resisting and my siblings being his next target was unbearable.
I was their only protection, the only one who knew what he was capable of. My
shoulders slumped, and I stared at the ground. I didn’t have a choice. To care
for them, I couldn’t say a word.
    I lifted my
head and watched his gaze run over my face. He was waiting for confirmation
that the secret we had was still protected, still safe.
    “Right,” I said.
I tried to hide the defeat from my voice. “Whatever you say, Dad.”
     

Chapter Eight
    Freshman year
of high school is when I got my first job working as a telemarketer.
Technically I didn’t have my working papers yet, so I forged the year I was
born on the application after seeing the hire sign in their window. The hiring
manager scanned me several times when I handed it in, and he asked me if I had
ever been in sales. I told him I could sell him the Brooklyn Bridge if he
taught me how. I was hired on the spot.
     “Brooke, where
ya goin’?” Judd pushed one of his friends aside and jogged over to me. “You
wanna come over? School’s over soon, I want to get the pool opened.”
    “I can’t, I
work till nine.” I pushed my honors English book into my locker and pulled out
my three ring binder.
    “You always
work. And you always study.” He picked up a heavy science book, made a face and
put it back in my locker.
    “Yea, maybe you
should try it sometime.” Cristin appeared and opened the locker next to me.
“Then you wouldn’t have to cheat off my tests all the time.”
    “Ahh come on
Cristin, you know I’m not looking at your answers. You’re just so, so
beautiful, I can’t help staring at you in class.”
    Cristin rolled
her eyes and I covered my mouth to stifle the laugher.
    “Besides, if I
wanted to really impress the parentals, I would sign up for all honors classes
like Miss Perfect over here and copy off her answers.” He nodded at me.
    The blow to his
arm probably didn’t hurt like I wanted it to. “You wish you could keep
up with me in those classes,” I said.
    “Yea okay,
later uglies.” Judd turned on his heel and fled after Mack who was mocking him
from across the hall.
    “You going to
work?” Cristin threw her book bag over her shoulder.
    “Yep. If I get
top rep of the week again it’ll be a nice paycheck.”
    “Good,” Cristin
eyed me, “Then we can go shopping before you disappear into those clothes. What
are you, a size one?”
    “Double zero,”
I corrected. I pulled my bag over my shoulder and gripped the books that
wouldn’t fit in my bag close to my chest. “Gotta go though, see ya tomorrow.”
    I navigated
through the chatter filled hallways toward the front of the building. Two girls
in cheerleader uniforms stood on chairs to tape bright pink flyers to the
announcement board. They walked away and I paused a moment to read it:
    ~*~ Tryouts ! ~*~
    Fall Football Season Cheerleaders
    Saturday, June 5 th , 11:00
am
    In the ‘Big Gym’
    “Don’t even
bother.” I was interrupted by a girl from my English honors class standing
right next to me. “They always pick the same girls. Unless you’re in with their
little cliques, you don’t stand a chance. It’s stupid anyway.”
    I nodded. The
truth was I didn’t belong to any clubs or sports. The little time I did have
not occupied