chapter five

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After I had had my second shower, the boys decided to go over to Emily's. We pulled up there and the boys called out their arrival before walking in.

Once we had walked in the boys immediately began eating Emily's food and Sam came in to discuss their shifts. They were being odd though, kept cutting each other off at certain words and looking at me suspiciously. I decided to brush it off as I wasn't really up to quizzing  them and they had been so nice, I had to respect their privacy.

After that little chat Sam began to ask about our sleepover and the adorable picture I got of Jared and paul.
We could not stop laughing as Jared and Paul whined at us to stop embarrassing them, how we were bullying them and it was mean. This only made it worse but they made the dumb decision of telling sam they threw me in the river as payback and he whacked them on the upside of the head and promised them extra shifts for a week. This made me cackle even more as they had screwed themself over soooo bad, trying to big themselves up.

As the evening went on we ate, watched a film and the conversation turned to me. It began with school, as it was starting the next day and I didn't know how to feel. What I really wished was that Jared and Paul would be there with me but they went to school on the rest. Despite this, they promised to pick me up and hang out after so I told myself it would be ok.

Then the conversation turned to home. My home.
"Liss we were wondering if you would like to talk to us at all about what goes on at home" Sam questioned me, a look of pity in his eye, that was the most infuriating part, all the pity.
"Fine, i will talk a bit about it but i have ground rules," they all nodded. " No pity, no judgement, no telling people unless you have talked to me first and no change in how you act around me," they all nodded once again and I started to speak.

" My father's a drunk. An alcoholic, work obsessed mess. He will work all day, exhaust himself then drink away the evening in his office or the pub. Either way he comes back tired and angry. Some days he will just yell or pass out on the sofa and other days he doesn't. I'm not going to get into it because I simply don't want to but you've seen what a couple of the bruises look like so I'm going to leave it there. It's not good but there it is. Now you know." my voice cracked and i shrunk in on myself, scared of how i had essentially just told my darkest secret to what should have been strangers. I knew I told it bluntly but it was all I could muster at this point.

Nobody said anything for about five minutes until Jared pulled me closer to him and I curled into his side. Paul scooted over to my other side and held me next to Jared and Sam and Emily joined as I sobbed quietly. None of them had to say anything. I knew they were there for me and would be if I asked for help, that was enough.

I knew I had to be home tonight or I would make it worse for myself tomorrow, so I stood up and thanked everyone once again, for everything. They all hugged me tight and when they said they were there for me I believed them. I knew one day they may ask about it again but for now it felt secure, they knew enough and we were all ok so we left it. The boys drove me home and I hugged them goodbye before tip-toeing into my house, praying for all to be asleep.

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