This is a story about the boy who my universe revolves around.
The part about my universe revolving around him is completely coincidental- I didn't choose that, and he didn't actually intend to have this effect on me. It just happened when he start...
WARNING: MENTIONS OF CHILD ABUSE AND PHYSICAL VIOLENCE
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"Exander! What are you doing here?" I hiss at him. "You shouldn't be at school today."
"I'm behind enough, Thaniel," he states, like he doesn't have a giant purple bruise over half his face. "What reason do I have to stay at home?"
"You're hurt. He hit you."
"He's not here. Even if he wanted to find me here, I doubt he'd be able to successfully leave the house, much less locate this building."
That's kinda true. "You should be resting. Icing your..." cheek, eye, jaw... "face," I finally finish.
He rolls his eyes at me. "Thaniel, I'm okay. I'm taking medication and I'm living with my mother now. She doubts it'll be difficult to have our father give up custody of me, and even if he does resist, it seems extremely unlikely that he'd be able to win in a court case when he physically assaulted me. Also, if you provide a statement regarding our father's abusive tendencies, she'll take custody of you as well."
I shake my head, both because I can't leave (which I told Victoria over the phone yesterday evening, apparently after she told Exander about that) and because he shouldn't even be at school right now. "Exander, please. You have a valid excuse not to be here today."
"I'm not going home, Thaniel."
It's interesting to me how he's never really called our dad's house 'home' before, but it's easy for him to use the word to describe his mom's place within his first twenty-four hours of living with her. I'm happy that he has somewhere he feels comfortable, now. He's never had a connection with our dad. Neither of us have. The only reason he chose to live with our dad when his mom got a divorce was for me. Because I wanted to stay with my dad, because leaving him feels like leaving my mom, even though she's been dead for years. So when I refused to leave my dad and live with Victoria when she initially left him (even though she was nicer and more like a parent to me than my dad has ever been), Exander decided to stay as well. We've always been really close. And yeah, maybe that's one reason I feel personally responsible for everything our dad does to him. Also, he's my little brother. I care about him a lot.
Seeing our dad hit him was my worst nightmare.
The most Exander's ever known about our dad's terrible parenting skills was the neglect aspect. I've taken a few beatings before, usually to protect Exander. They've never gotten too bad. I've never needed medical attention. It's never been more than a bruise or so.
But this was the one time I couldn't protect him. From the truth about our dad, or from the hit.
It hurt so much more than taking the hit myself.
He snaps in front of my face. "Thaniel."
"Sorry."
"No, I'm sorry. For going to live with my mom now."
