"To put it simply, the entire night sucked. Is that good enough for you?" Lisa stood to her feet, whipping her hair into a ponytail as she began to undress. Walking into her closet, she searched for a hanger as she listened to her mother's exasperated groaning.

    "I didn't come up here for your smart ass mouth Lisa. My God, did you behave yourself or not?"

     "I'm sure I was everything you would have wanted to be" She called from the closet.

    "No, you're far from that...."Tonya said under her breath. Her daughter's head peaked out, and for a moment she went rigid thinking that her words had been heard.

    "What?"

   "I said if you did what I would have wanted you to do, you two would have returned with bigger smiles than you had."

    "Look, mom. I've already told you, it's not going to happen that way. Whatever it is you want from me, it's not happening. Okay? You're only setting yourself up to be disappointed, I promise you." Mumbling the latter part, Lisa slipped out of her dress and into her pajama bottoms and top. With a heavy sigh, she turned off the lights in the room and crawled beneath her covers. More than anything, she craved to be with Jae Hwa in that instant. To be wrapped in his arms with the feel of his chest rising and falling against her back.

   Blinding lights interrupted her silent wish as Tonya relit the room.

       "Lisa, there are going to be plenty more nights like this. This is your first endeavor into adult life, and I want to prepare you for it as much as I can. There will be some things you never thought you would do-things you will love-and I want to make sure that you enjoy them all to the fullest." The feel of her mother's hand on her shoulder set off alarms in Lisa's head.

   Things that she would love? No. No way her mother would go that far.

    "You expect me to sleep with him." Sitting straight up, her words left as a statement rather than a question as disbelief laced her features." Surely that isn't what you-my mother-are suggesting, is it?"

   Scooting back on the bed, Tonya cleared her throat ."Honestly, Lisa. You aren't that ignorant are you? "

    "No, but you must be."

    Clenching her fist together, Tonya resisted the urge to land a slap across Lisa's face.

    "Being intimate with a man isn't bad, it's something we all must do. Hell, your father and I-"

   "Please! Do not say another word." Bracing her back against her headboard, Lisa shook her head furiously as she counted backwards from ten.

    "Stop being childish! Marcus isn't a boy, he's going to expect that from you. Oh, but don't worry. I'm going to have you schooled on everything there is to know." Standing to her feet, Tonya pulled Lisa's comforter back over her body as she forcefully laid her down on the bed. As she leaned in to kiss her forehead, Lisa jerked violently from her, nostrils flaring as she glared at the wall opposite her mother.

    "I'm going to make an appointment for you within the week to see a gynecologist. It is about that time to get you set up with one before you...start." Rolling her eyes, Lisa found the strength to not shove away the offending woman as she whispered the last word as if it was  a joke amongst friends. She watched her shadow walk away towards the door, pivoting for one last say.

   "You'll do so much good for this family, darling. Trust me."

      When the door closed, Lisa felt as if she was trapped in the strangeness of her family. She wasn't sure how long it was that she lied awake on her bed. What she could remember was the distant sound of her parents retreating to their own room. Looking to her nightstand, she could see that it was late into the night. Biting her lip, she contemplated her next actions.

    Pulling herself up slowly, she made sure to not make too much noise with her mattress springs as she carefully swung her legs over the side. She could still hear the faint sounds of her mother's insistent conversation with her father. The clink of glasses could be heard, and she could only imagine Charles drowning another drink back as he nodded his head to Tonya's constant talking.

    Lisa crept across the bedroom floor to her closet, and closed the door behind her as she turned on the faint light inside. She didn't want to flood the room with the brightness, or alert her parents that she was still in fact up.

    "I feel like I'm 13." Quickly pulling a pair of jeans over her pajama bottoms, Lisa huffed as she searched for a dark inconspicuous hoodie to don. When she found the perfect fit, she pulled her hair back into a low bun as she guarded her face with the hood of the jacket.

    Footsteps outside of the four walls of her prison made a slow and steady approach up the stairs. Fumbling with the light switch, she waited with abated breath for the sounds to go away. Kneeling slowly, hands felt around for a pair of shoes, any would do, as long as they would give her a good enough grip to slide down the side of the house and run as far away as possible.

      " I'm just going to check in on her, Charles."

    "Tonya, I told you to bring your ass on. She's fine, but I'm not..." Lisa nearly gagged at the suckling noises that accompanied her mother's low moans just outside of her door.She could remember countless nights where she hummed loudly until she had fallen asleep as a child to block out her parents' vigorous display of a deformed kind of love.

      A violent shiver of repulsion coursed throughout her body. When the light outside her door hadn't yet disappeared, and a hard knock against the wall right outside her door rumbled the picture frames she had hanging up, Lisa knew that she wouldn't have the chance to escape through the front door seeing as how the hallway was now occupied.

    Checking to make sure everything was in place, she backed herself out of her bedroom window, as she had done so many times before, and lowered herself from the ledge. Her feet dangled and scrapped softly at the side of the house looking for the right grip. Cautiously, she felt around looking for grooves to place her fingers in.

    During one of her escape attempts, her mother had caught her in a similar position when Lisa had come so close to running away from another forced luncheon. She had a trusty tree that always extended a helpful limb for support, but after she was caught, it and others like it were completely removed from the surrounding property, leaving the yard bare to all eyes.

    As she panted from the rise of her heartbeat and adrenaline, she missed the tree now more than ever before.

    As she scaled the wall, she could feel her hands tremble as they began to cramp. Estimating that the fall was more than she would take the chance with under normal circumstances, Lisa sent a prayer up before she took a leap of faith down to the ground.

    She tumbled on the freshly cut grass, and kept her grunts to herself and eyes closed as she felt down the length of her pants to make sure that her legs were still intact. A dull pain could be felt in her left ankle, but gritting her teeth she ignored the feeling.

It was a pretty careless move for someone whose legs were their most prized possession, but desperate times called for desperate measures. As soon as she gave herself an all clear, she took off running as fast as she could.