Amber Eyes Read Online Free

flowers, pair of li’l cuckoos.
    I sobbed, “Jennifer.”
    Of course, Jennifer couldn’t hear me. I broke down, weeping like crazy and only stopped when it was dark and the kids came in asking for dinner.

June 29
    I never told Yago Mom ran away. Nevertheless, he learned about it and didn’t show up until the next day totally drunk and freaked out. Afterwards, he kept freaking out. At the drop of a hat. I preferred to avoid him; the twins did likewise.
    Of all my mom’s stupid little boyfriends, Yago sucked the most. Don’t think the rest of them didn’t. Bernard, for example, owned a large house by the beach, but he stood permanently drunk. Cesar lived in this fancy apartment but he enjoyed cocaine. Daniel used to buy us all the clothes we wanted each time he had to apologize for beating Mom—I could go on all day long with the list. However, Yago’s making us live in that filthy, half-vacant trailer park took the cake. I totally hated the freaking place.
    I didn’t belong in that trailer park. No teenager did. It was full of white trash and drug dealers. Gave me the creeps after sunset because it was so dangerous. I still wonder why we had to move in with every guy Mom hooked up with, no matter how crappy his place or the guy himself.
    I didn’t know how long Yago would let me stay in his trailer before he would kick me out. All the time, he either leered or glowered at me, and none us spoke a single word about Mom. I found Mom’s little green notebook and had looked up my grandma’s phone and address, but I hadn’t called her yet. To contact my grandma would mean leaving Somerset and I didn’t want to. I wanted to live close to Jenny—I wondered if her folks would allow me to move in with her.
    When Yago arrived home from work two days later day, a woman from the Social Services was waiting for him outside the trailer. They talked for about an hour, or I should say they argued for about an hour. I could hear Yago shouting while I cooked dinner. As soon as she left, he came in, slammed the door and started to curse—no big surprise. “It’s damned hot outside! And that damned woman kept talking and talking. Yada, yada, yada. Damn her! I’m hungry. Alexandra. How about dinner?”
    He was so upset, his eyebrows had joined into an actual unibrow. His face looked reddish and his forehead was furrowed like a plowed field.
    “If you want dinner, be back in a few,” I barked back. If he was not in the mood, neither was I.
    “You’ve only got five,” he grumbled. Then he spanked my butt. I yelped.
    He entered the back bedroom, but he didn’t close the door. I saw him taking off his shirt, unbuckling his belt, and unfastening his trousers. I turned away and concentrate on the dinner. If he wanted me to watch him stripping, he was mistaken from A to Z. I swear if I saw his ‘thing’, I’d throw up. God, I didn’t even want to think it!
    Five minutes later, he came back boasting his naked chest: he’d only donned some old, faded blue jeans and sandals. Hadn’t anyone ever told him how gross his hairy armpits looked?
    Yago threw his humongous self on the couch—it squeaked like he was sitting on a bag full of cats—and grabbed the TV remote to start endlessly browsing the channels.
    “Hey Dad, we were watching TV!” little Louis complained. His eyebrows also joined into a unibrow.
    “Guys,” he said hugging them, “you’ve had the TV for yourselves all day long. It’s Daddy’s turn now. Here. Have ten dollars each. Alexandra will take you to buy something after dinner. Now, go and play outside. Deal?”
    At the speed of light, a wide grin drew itself on Louis’s face. He looked at his brother with mischievous eyes, obtaining the same look in return. They nodded at once, took the bills, and left the trailer. Louis stopped when he passed by me and said in his high-pitched li’l voice, “Daddy said you take us to buy candy after dinner.”
    Of course, that’s what slave-nannies are expected to