Comfortable Madness First PDF 4-13-18

“I understand,” Tayla said. “Not going to happen.”
Coy sneered. His mother’s face looked like a stewed
tomato.
“Young lady,” Mrs. Henderson said.
“Not talking to you,” Tayla snapped.
“I’m talking to you,” Mrs. Henderson snapped back.
The two of them stared at each other. Mrs. Henderson was
all lines and angles and righteousness. Tayla was simply defiance
and rage.
“Are you going to call the cops?” Tayla asked.
“I don’t think we need to do that,” Mr. Skarey said.
“Didn’t think so.”
Tayla dragged me through the door into the school. Eyes
and grins floated out of the walls. The colors here were orange and
yellow, floating and waving like banners.
“Did you have to do that?” I asked.
I would’ve been just as happy at home.
“Seven more months,” Tayla said. “Seven more months
and we’re out of here. They’re not taking that away from us.”
Tayla’s need for a fight, her need to be right, was one of
my least favorite things.
Fighting’s easy when you have nothing to lose. Tayla
didn’t understand how dangerous things were. She didn’t
understand that she was the only thing keeping me here. She didn’t
understand that mouthy women seldom lived long in a world of
angry men.