UNBROKEN

TWENTY FOURTH INSTALMENT

The next morning after everyone had left the house Jay and I got up. Jay wanted to go out and I reminded him I had to speak with Alice. Jay glared at me and raised his voice "Why do you care about Alice anyway, she is scum and deserves what's coming to her". From the look in his eyes I knew not to say a word or he would lose it. He walked away and I walked over the the phone.

I dialed Alice's number. "Hello" a firm woman's voice answered the phone. "Hi Mrs X, it's Emily is Alice able to talk?". "No Emily she's at school, is everything ok?" She asked. "Yep everything is fine" I lied. I couldn't really tell her as I didn't know what to say and god only knows what Jay or his father would have done what I wanted to do. She was my friend and his father was prepared to have her killed. "Can you please tell her I'll call her later" we said goodbye and I got off the phone when I turned around Jay was standing right behind me. He had paid the whole conversation.

"You have till this afternoon to sort this out Emily or Dad won't hold off anymore". I freaked out. I needed to go to school and see her and talk to her straight away. "Can you please drive me to the school" I asked sheepishly. He agreed. We got in the car and rove the 10 minutes to our school. Ask we got to the front of the School I asked Jay to park away from where everyone was hanging out. I didn't want everyone to see him.

I got out of the car and walked towards out hang out. As I got closer I saw everyone chatting and laughing and I that was going through my mind was how am I going to get her to leave Jay's sister only. I knew I would come up with something. As I got closer Nigel recognized me and come running over, Kylie and Trisha followed. They all hugged me. Nigel stood back and looked at me and he was the first to notice my lip. "What the fuck happened to your lip Emily?" I told the same lie I had told Jay's dad but he didn't buy it like Jay's dad did. They all knew I was lying and each one kept asking me questions I didn't want to answer. I told them to drop it I was fine and that I really needed to speak with Alice.

Nigel walked off to find Alice they both returned not long after. Alice reached out and hugged me so tight. She asked the same question Nigel had in exactly the same way. I asked everyone if I could talk to Alice in private. They all looked confused as we never spoke in private, we shared everything but this time I was hiding a dangerous secret that I couldn't afford to slip up on and because we were all so close had they asked me a direct question I would not be able to hide it from them. This was killing me. They were like family and I really did want to tell someone, I wanted to protect her and I wanted out of that house with those people. They scared me and I had only been there a day but being sat down and having that conversation was horrible.

Everyone walked away and as they did I could here the asking each other why I would want to only speak with Alice. Ok so the time had come for me to tell a big lie and convince my friend to leave someone that she really didn't like. Alice interrupted my thoughts "Emily, did Jay do that to you? Honestly, you can tell me anything you know that don't you?". My lip was the last thing on my mind. "Alice I need to ask you if you could do me a favor" she looked at me and agreed. "Can you please leave Jay's sister alone?" I asked. She looked at me and said " that whole family is fucked up Emily, why are you with him anyway and she is a bitch" she was getting frustrated. She must have know this family better than me. I don't know how they hadn't been in town that long but she really didn't like them and she had to have a reason but I didn't want to ask "Please Alice for me, I'm pregnant and I don't want my friend and my boyfriends sister arguing, I just can't handle it" she looked at me and said "ok for you I will but if she is a smartass I will not hesitate" she had agreed thank god. "You know she is scared of you so she won't be I promise". She said " I don't know what's behind this Emily but I will take your word for it and leave well enough alone". We hugged and she looked at everyone and they came back over. Everyone looked concerned and they asked what was going on, Alice stepped up and said "nothing it's all good, Emily just wanted a chat" she had saved me from answering. Everyone wanted to catch up one afternoon. I wrote jays number down and as I had written down the last digit a horn was blasting behind me, it was Jay he was obviously sick of waiting. I hugged everyone goodbye and walked back to the car. I just wanted to turn around and run back and just breakdown but I couldn't do it. I had a commitment now and I had to stick with it.

I got in the car and told Jay what had been said. He said "lucky for her she better stick to it".

We drove down town and as we pulled up just outside a shop Alice's brother caming running over to the car. He was about 6 foot tall and he was known as a tough guy in town. We had always got on but this time he came straight up to the window and started yelling "Emily what the fuck are you doing with this dickhead ? you are so much better than him" Jay was furious... He leant down and opened his boot. He got out of the car and ran to the boot of the car and next thing I know he is swinging a baseball bat at Alice's brother. He connected a few times Jay was screaming at him I don't remember the exact words but I could see if he had a chance he would have killed Alice's brother. Alice's brother back away and said you had better watch yourself Jay and leave my sister alone or next time I won't back down. Jay kept ranting and I just sat in the car shaking.

Jay threw the bat in the boot and got back in the car and sped off. I could see he had lost it. I was to scared to ask him to slow down. As he was driving he was banging the steering wheel and ranting about how he was going to sort him out. I didn't know what to say or do. Do I answer? Do I stay silent? I decided to do the later, all of a sudden the car swerved to the other side of the road and as I looked up I could see Dan walking on a footpath. Jay was going to run him over. I looked at Jay and instinctively grabbed the steering wheel and pushed it away. We just missed him. Dan was yelling at Jay calling all sorts of names. Jay slammed on the breaks and rushed out of the car he had opened the boot again grabbed the bat and tan towards Dan. Dan had just gotten in his car. Jay started smashing the windows and bashing the bonnet. I was crying so much I was a mess. What was going on. I had never had this in my home town. I used to feel safe now my life was chaos. I yelled out to Jay to come back to the car. When he had done enough damage he walked back to the car slammed the boot and got in the car. He was laughing... I was a mess and he was laughing! I hated Dan for what he did but I would have been happier just to never see him again but violence this I couldn't understand.

Jay decided to go and get Steven and we would go to our local pub. I was underage but if I didn't drink it was ok and I had no intention of drinking. We got Steven and headed off Jay told Steven about our day. Steven said "you should just leave it Jay, let it all settle" Jay was having none of it. When we got to the pub we went straight to the poker machines. Jay didn't drink he just smoked pot so before we entered the had smoked a little pot.

We went to this pub daily. Not really the place I wanted to be but we did and I didn't really speak up.

I hadn't seen my mum for weeks and I asked Jay of he could take me to see my mum. He wasn't real happy about it but he agreed to take me to the shop. By this time my lip had healed. When I walked in mum looked at me and said "Emily!" And came rushing over to hug me. She had a million questions about how I was and what I have been doing. I just held her so tight. I didn't want to let her go I felt safe at this moment and as I held mum she realized I was not going to let go. She moved me away from her and asked me calmly "what's wrong sweetheart?" I couldn't tell her. What would happen to her if I said something. I just looked at her and said " nothing mum I just really miss you..."