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potato salad: part one
tw. Fourteen years old - Brooklyn, New York 1600 hrs The young girl sits alone, far from everyone that is celebrating in the streets. Upon the stoop she has sat all morning, her arms wrapped tightly around her bruised and scraped knees, tear-filled doe-eyes; one swollen shut and darkened a purplish-red hue. Her back was turned to the commotion that she didn’t want anything to do with. Streaming tears leave trails through the dirt upon her cheeks. Her nose begins to drip, she wipes it upon her long sleeve. Fabric that hides more scars and bruisings, black and blue, colorful - painful creations. “Veronica, what’s wrong? What has happened?” he asks with urgency and a certain concern in his voice. Crouching down, the young man placed his hand upon her back. With a flinch she turned her head to look up at him, ashamed of what he was to see. “Tyler, don’t do anything.” the beaten girl insisted. It would be pointless, nothing would come of it but further abuse and torment. “I will kill him V, just say the words.” he returned with a look of disgust distorted all over his face. Motion blur - she couldn’t see very well out of just one eye. It darted all around from left to right, up and down, trying to force the blur away. She felt nauseous, vomit able to come up from her stomach and coat the steps at any moment. Head trauma, her head bounced off a wall a few good times; perhaps a small concussion. “No...” she muttered the word, her head then hung in embarrassment. Anger... the rage in him caused his chest to puff out as he stood up. Violence and trouble on his mind. His sight fixed forward, just as his cousin Pookie came sprinting up to his side. “What’s up cuz? Why we over here instead of at the BBQ?” he grinned while holding a Tupperware of potato salad, stuffing his mouth with a plastic fork in hand. “The f***, why so glum?” he went on and Tyler motioned to Veronica that continued to hug herself closely. “Oh sh*t.” he noticed and instantly kneeled down before her. “Let me see?” he whispered, passing his food container to Tyler. “No Edward, just leave it alone.” she whispered and he turned his attention back to his cousin. Standing up and pulling him aside, a few feet away from Veronica. “We have to do something this time.” spoken with all seriousness. “I know, but she doesn’t want us to.” Tyler shrugged his shoulders, knowing they really shouldn’t get in the middle of her family and home life. However, she would do anything for them, they were best friends. “Come to the cookout V?” requested Pookie and him and Tyler both stepped up, offering a hand to help her up. “No way.” she said without any hesitation, there was no way she was going to go party and eat, allowing everyone to gawk at her and ask her what happened. She didn’t want to deal with any of it. With a sigh, Tyler backed off and pulled his cousin along. “Leave her be, we got something to do anyway.” he then sat the container of potato salad and fork down next to Veronica and he and Edward turned to walk away. “Wait... what do you have to do?” she yelled as they got further away; ignoring her question. Suspicious.  Veronica wearing a frown glanced down at the Tupperware, licking her chapped lips as her mouth began to salivate. Picking it up, she scooped a big bite of potato salad into her mouth. Hadn’t eaten in days - suffering from hunger pains.
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