Bruises - JATP Fanfic (Luke x OC)

Chapter 26

Warning to those who don't like physical abuse, it's pretty early on in the story, but it's all in italics, so once those are done (the first set of italics) it's all good. There is a second set, but that's just a regular old flashback. For those of you sensitive to it, it is brought up again, very non-descriptive, but it does have a lot of importance in these last few chapters.

"We're playing the Orpheum!" Julie yells out loud as soon as the promoter hangs up, before realizing Brielle isn't there to celebrate the win.

"Wait, Brielle isn't here. Where has she been for the last few days? I've seen her at school, but never long enough to ask her why she's not here." Julie thinks aloud, before Luke decides to poof away to find her.

"Perry, she left. And she's not at the Molina's or the Patterson's either." Luke sees Brielle's mother crying on the floor with red wine in a whiskey glass beside her.

"You treated her like a punching bag." Luke says, but it falls on deaf ears. He remembers the night before, when she came and tried to get a few of her things and Perry literally threw hundreds of punches, kicks, you name it across her body.

"What are you doing here, you little ungrateful brat?" Perry is fuming because she's been gone despite how many times he's texted her to clean the house.

"I'm just coming to pick a few things up." Brielle's voice shaking like a leaf in the wind, terrified to be in the presence of her father. Aliyah doesn't even know she went back to the house, because it was for a few things that she left behind. Oliver even had it all ready to go in a small backpack.

"Well, you can 'pick up' a few punches then." Perry, not even waiting for Brielle to brace herself, lands a punch in her stomach, another two on her ribs, and starts attacking her with every limb he has.

After a hundred blows to her arms, hands, chest, legs, and even her back, he finally lets her go, having gotten rid of the majority of his anger. "I'm not done with you yet, Gabriella."

"Bri, I'm so sorry. I had no idea." Oliver says, giving her a gentle hug and making sure she has everything. "You deserve so much better than them."

"I'll be okay."

"Someone from social services came today to tell us that we no longer have custody of her. We have to go to her office tomorrow morning." Luke poofs away, trying to figure out where the blonde haired girl could have gone, before seeing a card on the street with Sunset Curve written on the back.

"Aliyah Townsend." Luke reads the front of the card, and sees a phone number on the front. Thinking about Brielle, he poofs to where he thinks she might be, which is somewhere he's never been, and he sees her and Aliyah at the kitchen table eating dinner, which is plain old cheese pizza from a little place down the street.

"Brielle, hey." Luke says, and both girls turn towards him.

"Hey, Luke. How did you find me?" She asks, and Aliyah just watches, enraptured by the fact her baby sister has a huge crush on a guy.

"I asked around. Is this why you haven't come to Julie's house in the past few days?" Nodding, Brielle allows him to keep talking, although she has no idea they booked a gig at the Orpheum. "We're playing the Orpheum tonight. Come watch us. I have to go get ready, but I hope to see you there." Luke poofs away before Brielle can say another word, and Aliyah shrieks because that whole exchange was so cute.

"I hope to see you there. Wow, that boy really likes you." Aliyah mocks, and Brielle shoves another bite of pizza in her mouth, blushing furiously. Thinking about the Orpheum for a moment, she realizes the boys are trying to complete their unfinished business by playing there.