Vanessa's Shoulder Devil Wins

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Vanessa giggles and gives a big wink to her invisible devil. 

“So what?” she thinks. “Everyone drinks. My dad drinks. A lot of kids at school drink.” The thought makes her feel grown up, and she walks back out to the garage, pops open a tall beer, and chugs it on the spot, foam oozing out the sides and onto her clothes.

“Woo-hoo!” she thinks, slipping back into her bedroom and turning up the music. Her body is starting to feel the beat in every cell. Vanessa closes her eyes and lets the rhythm take over, melting into the sound. 

Suddenly she gets smacked in the head and panics, terrified. But no one’s there. She just walked into the open closet door. She stumbles over to the mirror to find an ugly bump starting to form on her forehead, which is throbbing. She lies down on the bed and closes her eyes.

“Ohhhhh,” Vanessa moans. Just then, she gets hit by a wave of nausea from drinking warm beer on an empty stomach. She runs to the bathroom and throws up. When she collapses back on the floor, her mom is standing at the door, glaring at her. 

“Vanessa? What’s going on? Why are you sick?”

Vanessa bursts into tears, feeling like she’s messed up her life. She wants so badly to fix it that she tells her mom about drinking the beer. 

“Dios mío!” her mother says, throwing up her hands. “And to think I left you alone here with your brother!”

Vanessa hangs her head. She wishes she were 5 years old again and could grab hold of her mom and hug her, but she knows that she brought this on herself by not being 5 years old anymore.

“I’m sorry, Mama,” she says. The worst thing about messing up your life, she thinks, is that you mess up the people who love you, too.