New Beginnings Essay

New Beginnings
By: Ashley Mckinney
I remember the day like it was yesterday; the first day of the rest of my life.   It started like a normal Monday morning. I woke at 5:30 am for work to find him still awake, as usual. Since getting laid off from his job, 2 years prior, he slept all day and stayed up all night. I walked into the living room where he was posted up on the couch ready to start his usual harassment.
“You didn’t even care that I didn’t come to bed last night.” He said with an irate tone in his voice, as if he had been fuming about it all night.
“I didn’t want to bother you while you were playing your game.”   I said very kindly. I always felt like I was walking on eggshells, never knowing what would set him off.
“Yeah right, you just don’t give a shit about me anymore, do you?” By this time he was making his way to the table where I was sitting. I knew this wasn’t going to be good.   He bent down to get face to face with me.
“You have become nothing but a little bitch! You think you are something special now that you got your job in Lexington with all those stupid city bitches. You’re never going to be the same again.” He shouted.
I didn’t really have a response, so I just sat in silence and watched him stomp around the house. I never understood how or why he got so upset all the time, but after almost 3 years of dealing with it, I had gotten used to not saying anything about it and pretending everything was ok.
I finished getting ready for work, with the thought of leaving and never coming back in my head. I always had this thought on my mind, but never had the guts to do it because I had no idea what he was capable of. I never shared this with anyone, but I was scared.
I said goodbye pretending everything was fine. At this time, he had cooled off and acted like nothing had happened, acted like he hadn’t just got in my face and screamed at me and called me a bitch.
I had to travel an hour and a half to and from work every day, so I had a lot...