Anthony was a fifteen-year-old boy who lived in a run-down neighborhood in New York. He lived with his parents, his twelve-year-old sister, Trixie, his eighteen-year-old brother, Luke, and their dog, Benny.
They had always lived a very stressful life, especially his parents, who had lost all their money because his dad had a gambling addiction at the time. He lost a lot of money and their house in a drunken night bet and had therefore been homeless for an entire year. This had happened not long before Luke was born, when their mother, Mary, was 35 years old, and their father, John, was 30. Mary had a better job than John; she had had a better overall education, her family was well-off, and she fell in love with John based on his looks, even though he had little to offer. Luckily, she worked as a secretary while he worked as a store cashier. After a year of intense work and living on the streets, they managed to afford a 100-square-metter apartment with three bedrooms, a bathroom, and a kitchen. They bought a larger apartment precisely because they knew they wanted to have a big family in the future. So, a year later, in 1997, Luke was born, and everything seemed perfect: John found a more stable job compared to the one he had had until then, Mary continued working as a secretary, and Luke started kindergarten. In 2000, they decided they wanted another child, and on November 6th of that same year, Anthony was born. Mary fell into postpartum depression, and from that day on, their apartment became a horrible place. It was very smelly, and there was a big mess all over the place. John had always been a selfish man and didn't care about how the people around him felt; in fact, he never tried to help his wife, so she could get better mentally. Instead, he criticized her and told her that she should be happy to have given birth to another healthy child, which only made the situation worse.
Years passed, and the situation in their family wasn't very promising. They never talked normally to each other, but instead, they were bickering constantly. It was the year 2015, Anthony had just finished his ninth year of school, and Luke had just moved in with a friend. He has decided not to go to university and wanted to be a failure on purpose to make his parents, especially his father, feel bad, since over the years his father had always treated him terribly. He was always yelling at him, and there were also times when he would hit him. In the meantime, their sister Trixie had also been born.
Two months before the end of school, Trixie had turned twelve, and for her birthday, her parents hadn't bought her absolutely anything, as happened every year. She has always been sad about not getting anything while her friends were getting a bunch of gifts, but there was nothing she could do about it. However, her brother Anthony had decided to save up some money and buy her a puppy she really wanted, to make her feel loved. It was a black Shih Tzu with white spots named Benny.
Two years before Trixie's twelfth birthday, Mary quit her job as a secretary because of her poor mental health, as she couldn't cope with work and social interactions anymore, and so now they had even more financial problems. She was doing terribly, her husband kept treating her worse and worse, and since her mental health was declining day by day, she did nothing about it. Instead, she let herself be beaten and yelled at because she thought she deserved it. Trixie had moved all her things into Anthony's room and decided to sleep in Luke's old bed because she could never sleep well at night. Her bedroom was the closest to their parents' room, where they yelled at each other every night, especially their father, who made everything worse by drinking heavily every evening while watching soccer matches. Their apartment, which they earned by working day and night, was very dirty. There was mold on the walls, everything was covered in dust, beer cans were scattered all over the house, while their parents' bedroom was filled with food everywhere, tissues, medicine boxes, razor blades, bandages, and an enormous amount of dirt. Basically, the only part of the apartment that was actually clean was Anthony and Trixie's room, which Anthony cleaned every Tuesday since he got out of school earlier that day. He was exhausted. Not only did he have to get good grades at school to avoid making his parents angry, but he also had to tolerate his alcoholic, toxic father and his depressed mother every single day, and act like a parent to his younger sister so she wouldn't suffer too much.
Unfortunately, his grades were getting worse. He started skipping classes and had no friends. His teachers worried about his behavior and attitude toward school, had called his father several times, but he didn't care at all, because he knew once Anthony got home, he would yell at him, and that would "solve everything". Anthony had spent almost all the savings he had accumulated over the years, and he didn't know what to do. If he asked his father for 20 dollars, the only thing he would receive would be a slap, so it was better not to ask at all.
Another six months have passed. Anthony turned sixteen. Mary no longer got out of bed. Every morning, while their father watched TV, Anthony and Trixie went into her room to check on her, but she always just said that everything was fine and that she was only tired. Anthony, of course, knew that what his mother was saying wasn't true. They no longer had any money. In their mailbox, there were more than twenty unpaid bills, which their father didn't even care about. For months now, Anthony and Trixie had been eating only canned tuna and chicken from the school cafeteria. Their room had basically turned into a storage closet, filled with food and water, but they preferred it that way rather than having to run into their father in the kitchen every time they wanted to eat.
Anthony decided to give up on school, even though he knew he would fail the year, and started looking for a job. One day, he lingered a while longer after class and talked about everything that was happening at home with one of his favorite teachers, his physics teacher, a fifty-year-old woman named Nelly, who, unlike the other teachers, always tried to make him feel accepted at school. She was very disturbed by his story. They were talking for two whole hours, including the break. He also told her about Luke, and he realized he hadn't seen him in a long time; it was as if Luke didn't even want to see him. But at that moment, Anthony had neither the desire nor the time to talk to him. After school, he went straight to downtown, to a coffee shop called Little Collins, where Mrs Nelly's seventeen-year-old son worked, whom she had just told him about. He arrived at the coffee shop and told the owner that he needed money and that he would like to work at his coffee shop because it seemed like an organized, clean, and calm place, unlike their apartment. The owner told him he needed workers and offered him a salary of 750 dollars a month to work at the main counter. Anthony immediately accepted and signed the employment contract. He decided not to tell his parents anything about the job because he didn't want to create more conflict with his father. When he got home, he told Trixie the big news. She was extremely happy. She didn't like the idea that she would be alone at home more often. Anthony promised her that once he had saved enough money, he would get them out of that situation.
Mary still seemed to be getting worse. She ate less and less, both because of the eating disorder she had developed in the meantime and because they had no money. In fact, John was still working, but he spent almost all the little money he earned on alcohol and pizza, of which he left only the crusts for Mary.
As a kid, John had always been yelled at by both his parents: his dad would always act badly towards his mother, hitting her and giving her orders, so those bad memories from his past were only making things even worse.
Five months have passed since Anthony started working, and his negligent parents haven't even noticed that the school stopped contacting them at some point. In total, Anthony earned 4,000 dollars - tips included. He hid his money under his bed, in a small safe his father had bought him for his seventh birthday - one of the rare gifts he had ever received from his father. One day, he woke up with an idea in his mind. He was tired of living that way. Hearing his father leave through the front door, he ran into his mother's room with a proposal that was about to change her life. He asked her to borrow 10,000 dollars from her parents, which he promised to repay as soon as possible. That money would be used to rent an apartment in Brooklyn and would be enough for the next three months, with 1,000 dollars still left for food. He added that in the meantime, he would keep working at Little Collins and look for another job, and that with his first paycheck, he would pay for his mother's therapist. Mary sat down on her bed and thought about it for a few minutes. Trixies, who was standing by the bedroom door, suddenly asked, "And Dad isn't coming with us, right?" Anthony replied, "Of course not," and then opened the bedroom window to let in some fresh air. Suddenly, Mary stood up and said, "Get ready. We're leaving this place." Anthony and Trixie ran to their room and packed all their things into a few cardboard boxes. They had to hurry before John came back from work. Mary called a taxi van that would arrive in ten minutes. They carried all their stuff to the front door, and Trixie picked up Benny. Finally, Mary took a sheet of paper and wrote a letter to John, telling him that she was leaving him and that they were gone - forever. She ended the letter with the words "Don't bother finding us." The taxi arrived, they got into the van, and were heading to drop by Mary's parents to get the money. In the meantime, Anthony found the perfect apartment online: it had two bedrooms, one single and one double. Mary got back into the taxi, and they drove to their new home. It was beautiful and clean. It was truly "the day that changed everything."
A month and a half passed. In their new home, no one was constantly yelling anymore. Mary started seeing a therapist with the money her son had given her and felt much better about herself. Anthony found a second job at a gas station to repay his mother. Mary returned to work as a secretary since her mental health has improved, and they no longer have financial problems. Slowly, they were repaying debts to her parents. Trixie was blissfully happy. She often drew and enjoyed studying. Luke visited them frequently. He had decided that he actually wanted to enroll in university and moved into an apartment near Mary, Anthony, and Trixie with his friend. Benny, on the other hand, was overjoyed because he could finally receive lots of treats he had never gotten before.
They finally became a happy family.