Excerpt: Graffiti

Rae walked past the grey kitchen and glanced over the bench to see what her mother was doing. She was standing at the sink, her hands emerged in soapy water. Her hips were swaying to a song only she could hear and she was humming ever so softly along to the tune.
“Bye mum,” Rae said loudly to grab her mother’s attention.
Her mother turned around to face her but still left her hands in the water. Her slightly chubby face contained a small smile, her light brown hair was pulled up into a loose bun and her blue eyes were warm.
“Bye honey,” she smiled. Rae smiled back and turned away from her mother, continuing to walk towards the door.
She felt a smile creep onto her face. She had gotten away with it. There would be nothing controlling her life today but her and-
“Honey...? Have you taken your medication?”
Rae stopped in her tracks and her pleasure immediately evaporated. Her mother’s voice seemed to echo around the room and Rae’s eyebrows pulled themselves into a crease.
“You haven’t, have you?” her mother sighed.
Rae slowly turned around to face her mother. She was staring at her daughter- sadness filling her previously happy eyes.
Not saying anything, Rae watched as mother groaned in frustration and marched over to the cupboard, pulling out a small, golden container. She unscrewed the lid and tipped two white pills out into her hand. She held them out to Rae expectantly.
“Mum, I’m not taking those,” she said quietly, eyeing the pills.
“Honey,” her mum said softly, her eyes pleading, “please.”
Rae scanned her mother’s blue eyes and shook her head defiantly. She wouldn’t spend her days being controlled by pills that did nothing but make her feel worse. Her mother sighed and looked away from Rae’s eyes.
“Why can’t you just do this for me?” she whispered.
Rae’s eyes narrowed.
“Because. This is my life, not yours. I’m not gonna spend my last bloody weeks being drugged up on some pieces of crap that probably haven’t even been tested for poison,” she blurted out.
Without warning, Rae’s mother slammed her free hand down on the kitchen bench.
“Why do you think like that!?” she screamed.
Rae flinched at her mother’s yelling and looked away, tears forming in her eyes.
“Because I’m not stupid. I know what’s real and what’s not. This, what’s happening to me, is real. And it’s about time you started realizing that,” Rae mumbled.
She stepped forward and snatched the pills out of her mother’s hand, avoiding her eyes. As she turned and walked towards the door, she dry swallowed the first pill and then the second. As she opened the front door and slipped out, she heard her mother sobbing from the kitchen. Rae ignored it as best she could, slamming the door behind her and walking across the concrete driveway, anger coursing through her every step.