Yay, a short story! No, you aren't rusty. This one's one of my favorites, really.

I love the subject of abuse, y'know. I thought the mother could've used a bit more development, maybe give a flashback of the confrontation with her? I like this as it is; I just think it could be expanded. The second paragraph gives good insight to the character, but it kind of falls out of the scene... like, you can't really visualize the scene anymore because there's so much internal monologue. "Talking head syndrome", as Tinfoil Knight calls it. :P.

I love the ending. Write moer like this.

-REB

(moer. Haha.)

That was depressing, and full of emotion. I liked it.