I look out of the small window near the dresser. It isn't much of a view, just some tall buildings with smoke blowing out of the tops.
"There isn't much to see," Sunny says. I turn to look at her, "Except for in the mornings, oh how lovely the sky looks right in the morning." I stare with a puzzled look.

"What do you mean?" I ask. She tells me that if you wake up at the right time, you can see the sky change colors. Blues, purples, pinks, and soft shades of the rainbow. She says she'll wake me up when it happens.

"How do you know when it'll happen?" I inquire.
"Because I'm... PSYCHIC!" She exclaims in a burst of giggles. Then she says she tracks it with an app.

I walk over to my bed and sit down. I could pass out right now, I think drearily. Maybe I could wake up and find this was all a dream, that my mother is still alive, that I wouldn't wake to find my lifeless grandmother lying down with blood staining her fragile body.

"So uhm, where are your things?" Sunny asks, her voice gentle.

"I didn't want to bring anything from... my old life," I say. She tells me to climb up into her top bunk, so I do. We sit across from each other, she tells me her story.

She tells me that since the day she was born, her mom had never been in her life. After her birth, her mother had disappeared from her world completely, she wanted nothing to do with Sunny. It wasn't until years later, when she was ten that she discovered who her mom really was... a druggy. Her dad worked three jobs, and was hardly ever home, but he'd try to be there for super important stuff; birthdays, Christmas, Thanksgiving, plays and whatever else, but it was hard. She was often times left at home by herself, she had to walk to and from school every day and she couldn't eat much because she couldn't cook. She solely relied on her free or reduced lunch pass and breakfast pass at school. If she was sick, she would have to shake it off, as her dad couldn't afford to take her to the doctor. One day, when she was walking home from school, she was snatched. She says two men had grabbed her and had taken her behind an abandoned building and raped her. She tells of how hard she tried to fight them off and how loud she tried to scream, nothing worked. Her innocence and her dignity had been snatched from her. A few days later, she finally told her dad what happened. "He was furious," she says. The police eventually arrested the men that did it, but that day was also the day her dad decided it'd be best to put her in here.

"He left me this note though," she says, pulling out a ragged paper from under her pillow. It read: Dear, Sunny
Daddy tried his very hardest to take care of you, things are pretty bad right now and I felt like this would be better for you. Sweetheart, never forget how much I love you and I'll miss you so very much, but don't cry... I'll be back for you again one day, and this time it'll be better, I promise. We'll have a better life when I come back for you. It may take awhile, but I will be back, love. Be good for daddy, okay? I'll see you again soon.

"I've been here since I was twelve... I'm 14 now, sometimes I wonder if he'll really come back." She starts to cry, which makes me tear up. I wait patiently for her to calm down, then she asks me what my story is.

"Well..." I say.