RE: Trailer Trash 47 pt 4 (Patreon)

7 Months Ago

   After Ashlee had herself a ‘clumsy accident’ in the first week of bouncing on their big new trampoline together with Erica and Brittany, their parents had instated the rule that only two girls were allowed up on the trampoline at once. For safety, of course. Ashlee’s protests had fallen on deaf ears, while both Brittany and Erica chided her for being childish and reminded their stupid little sister that it was her fault that they now needed a rule—as if Ashlee hadn’t been pushed and shoved around.

   The new rule that only two girls were allowed up there at once also just so happened to be the perfect number to exclude Ashlee.

   Brittany and Erica would jump up there whenever they wanted to after school, and they would bounce when they were bored and simply didn’t want to let Ashlee have any fun, and they would also just hang out up here, sprawled out across the black mesh so they could deprive their little sister from jumping. This rule, like almost every other one that appeared, in Ashlee’s eyes, was intended for her older sisters to abuse.

   They were both older than Ashlee, bigger than Ashlee, ‘more mature,’ and this meant that they were in charge and Ashlee had to listen to whatever they said. In the uncommon instances where her parents made a token attempt at being fair, they let the three sisters all vote. Unsurprisingly, Brittany and Erica always voted together in their own interests, and there being two of them and only one Ashlee, democratic process did nothing but exacerbate the disparity between them.

   When the Taylor family went grocery shopping, the cart would fill up with Erica’s preferences and things Brittany had picked out, while anything Ashlee wanted was vetoed as unnecessary, unhealthy, or frivolous. The remote control for the TV was a scepter of living room power that was either held by an elder sister or passed between the two elder sisters—never to be given to Ashlee, who would just ‘rot her brains watching stupid kiddie shows.’ Perhaps worst of all, since the three girls shared a bathroom, the two older sisters had priority in the mornings for using the sink, the toilet, and the shower.

   This rule began because Brittany and Erica had women’s issues that needed additional consideration, but of course nothing changed after Ashlee got her own first period at twelve. Even if it was just Erica spending extra time on her makeup, she would scream ‘get OUT of here you malformed little GARGOYLE,’ Ashlee would get pushed out, the door slammed, and then Ashlee would have to go ask permission to use the other bathroom in their parent’s room—which wasn’t always immediately available, either.

   Of course my sisters are the worst, Ashlee would tell herself. It’s a little town with not that many kids, and they’re both pretty and popular and have BOOBS. The world is their oyster. Whatever that even means. Maybe if I WASN’T malformed—if I didn’t have a lazy eye—maybe all three of us sisters would be exactly the same.

   On some days that idea repulsed her, and then on others it was simply too attractive to let go of.

   Making friends with anyone in her own grade hadn’t been easy with the lazy eye that unnerved and pushed everyone away. So, when Ashlee finally made a friend that year, a chubby girl from the nearby trailer park, she was overjoyed. Their friendship was bound in the tightest bonds there could ever be—shared misery. No one else at Laurel understood in the slightest what it was like to be the other. Tabitha Moore wasn’t particularly bright and probably wouldn’t have been able to articulate it, but she didn’t even have to. She understood. Ashlee knew the girl understood, on a deeply ingrained, instinctive level. Sometimes Ashlee didn’t even have to complain at all, it was like she could just sit next to Tabby at recess and share a glance and they’d both just know.

   Early on in their eighth grade year, they even managed to get permission to walk to each other’s houses. Visiting Tabby wasn’t great—she lived in a trailer and seemed dirt poor, plus her mom was scary and mean. Having Tabby over here, however, was fantastic. Now Ashlee could have someone over to conspire with, now there were two of them to match up to the two older sisters and that meant Ashlee actually got a turn with the television remote, having a guest over gave them real trampoline privileges, it was a rare exception where Erica and Brittney weren’t always guaranteed to get their way.

   Deep down, I just knew THAT couldn’t last.

   Ashlee felt her heart lurch as she watched Erica shove Tabby towards the trampoline edge, and then she saw the fat shape of her friend tumble through the air like an oblong boulder, limbs flailing out akimbo. She’d known this was going to happen as soon as she heard Erica snicker. Her sisters always thought it was fun to push them around.

   When she circled around the trampoline jumper, Ashlee’s friend was already in blubbering tears. Tabby had landed on her side and back across the worn concrete slab of the backyard porch stoop, but was clutching at her head as she tried to work her portly body up into a sitting position and then up on one knee. After rushing forward in a panic to help her friend, Ashlee realized she had arrived but had no idea what to do or how to help.

   “Are—are you okay?!” Ashlee asked, holding out her hands. “Tabby? Are you okay?”

   Tabby answered with a wail of pain.

   “Christ, Erica,” Brittney let out a wry laugh.

   “What?” Erica scoffed. “She’s faking it, I barely even touched her.”

   Tabby tried to peer through the tears and disbelief but failed as the uncontrollable sobs and gasping breaths took over. Ashlee felt a surge of vindication at this—because maybe now someone would finally believe her when she went on about how bad she had it, but she buried it beneath a furious scowl towards her older sister. She needed to remember that this wasn’t a competition right now, that her friend really, really was hurt. Really bad.

   “You pushed her!” Ashlee accused in a scream.

   “I jush—I jush—” Tabby slurred out between her cries.

   “Hey. Hey. Will you shut the hell up, already?” Erica’s hard voice cut through.

   “You’re the one that pushed her!” Ashlee yelled. “She hurt her head. She fell really bad, okay?”

   “Oh, shut up,” Erica sneered, hopping off of the trampoline and looming close. “She’s just being a sniveling little baby.”

   “She hit the porch!” Ashlee yelled in accusation, thrusting her arms out to encompass the distance between the twelve foot trampoline jumper in the center of their yard and the foundation slab of their back porch. “There’s no way she could even get over that far unless she got PUSHED!”

   “She only fell so hard ‘cause she’s so fucking fat,” Erica shoved Ashlee out of the way. “We already tried to tell her—she’s too heavy to be playing around on a trampoline. It’s not safe for girls like her.”

   “Every time she jumped, the one end of the trampoline was coming up off the ground, she’s such a lard ass!” Brittney called over from where she had climbed up and was now performing leisurely, carefree bounces on the trampoline. “She was either gonna hurt herself, or she was gonna break the friggin’ trampoline! It was gonna be one or the other.”

   “She was not!” Ashlee screamed back.

   “Yeah, well, this trampoline cost two hundred dollars, you little shitstain,” Erica retorted. “When it breaks ‘cuz she was too fat, who’s gonna pay for it, huh? Her?”

   “You’re gonna get in trouble,” Ashlee threatened. “You pushed her.”

   “I barely even touched her, don’t even fucking start,” Erica snarled, raising a fist and feinting a stomp towards her little sister. “Jesus Christ.”

   “Stop!” Ashlee shrieked, flinching back and putting both hands up in front of her face. “Stop it! You’re gonna get in trouble!”

   “You’re not gonna say shit,” Erica warned. “Tabby? You’re not going to say shit.”

   “Tabby—they’re always like this, and now you really know,” Ashlee blurted out. “Now you’ll believe me. You have to. You have to tell on them!”

   “I—I alrea—I buh-lieved you!” Tabby bawled, covering her face. “I aw-ways buh-lieved you! I awready DID!”

   “I mean like, really believed me, though,” Ashlee insisted. “They’ve pushed me off the trampoline a bunch before. Just the same as you. This is how it always is for me. Sometimes it’s way worse, even.”

   Clutching at her head, Tabby sobbed and scurried away for the tall wooden fence door that separated the Taylor family’s back yard from it’s front yard. The pain was so overwhelming that apparently Tabby wasn’t even going to say goodbye or ask anyone for permission to leave—she just wanted to go. Part of that didn’t bode well for Ashlee, because she understood all too much of what must be going through her friend’s thick head. Tabby just wanted to escape home, she wanted someone to feel sorry or actually care about her, she wanted as far away from Ashlee and her stupid fights with her stupid sisters as possible.

   “Tell them she pushed you!” Ashlee called out. “Tell your parents—then Erica’ll get in big trouble!”

   Then finally they’ll HAVE to do something.

   “Shut up, shitstain,” Erica growled. “She fell anyways, and she’d better not try to be a little snitch.”

   “She fell!” Brittany yelled from where she was still jumping. “I saw the whole thing. Erica didn’t even touch her. Clumsy fatass, she fell all on her own.”

   “Liar! Tabby just tell them, tell them they pushed you,” Ashlee called again as Tabitha disappeared from sight. “They can’t do anything to you, they’re not even allowed to touch you, so Erica’s already in trouble! You’re not related to them, they can’t do anything!”

   “Yeah? Well I can beat the shit out of you,” Erica pushed into Ashlee.

   Ashlee’s hands went up on instinct to protect herself, but that just meant her own forearms crashed into her chest and chin as the much larger Erica shoved her to the lawn. She was pinned to the ground and had the breath pushed out of her almost before she could register what was going on, and then Erica’s fists were hammering down across her shoulder, her back, and then trailing down her side towards her kidneys with the all too familiar meaty impacts.

   She saw a daze of stars at the pain and choked on dirt as she tried to draw in air. Her older sister pushed off of her with a heave to chase through the wooden door after Tabby, but Ashlee could only contort awkwardly against the scraggly grass in an attempt to pull her limbs in against herself so she could curl up into a ball. It hurt—it hurt so much—and every time she got a beating like this, it felt like something vital was being sapped out of her forever. Ashlee felt raw, the fresh battering atop the old bruises made her tissues feel like they were being made into mush, it made her feel like she was being chewed up and spat out by this entire stupid, cruel, and impossibly unfair world.

   Screaming, furious threats were audible from the distant front yard as Erica swore to take it out of Ashlee’s hide if Tabitha snitched on her for pushing. It felt like a joke to Ashlee—because Erica had already reneged and done exactly that, ensured that Ashlee paid the price before even putting that price on the table as a threat. Surely Tabby would realize that. How could she not realize? Almost insensate with pain, Ashlee could only wish with all of her vehemence that Tabby would just tell on them anyways. She knew Tabby was a little slow, but surely she wasn’t stupid. She’d gotten hurt herself, after all. She would tell on them.

   At least that way, Erica and Brittney would finally get in trouble.

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/// Going to do one more section (back to the story present) for Ashlee POV as she has a heart to heart with this Tabitha imposter whose birthday she was invited to. Then, that'll be it for Ch 47 and I'll feel comfortable posting it to RR.