How To Play the Player (COMPLETED)

Adrenaline High

"Get out!" I growled. "If you can't keep your mouth shut and your hands to yourself for five minutes, get the hell out of this house!"

My father whirled away from my mother and turned to me. Straightening, I closed the distance between us as my father spoke. "Excuse me? This is my house!"

"This is not your house! This is Grandpa Gene's house." I spat back in his face. "You're hardly ever here. And when you are, you're hurting Mom. This isn't just about you two anymore, or me, it's about that beautiful life growing inside of her."

I could feel the anger radiating off my dad intensifying by the second. My mother must have felt it too, because she started forward. "David, just go! Leave her alone!"

"I get it, Dad. You hate me for killing your precious Raya. You hate Mom for allowing herself to love me. You're afraid that I'll get the new baby killed too. But you've never been a father, not really. You've never been a husband. You've just been a selfish piece of shit that abuses women."

In hindsight, provoking the father that has a history of abuse probably wasn't the best idea. But the thought he would ever hurt me purposefully never crossed my mind; not until the back of his hand slammed into my nose with such a brute force that it began bleeding instantly. My mom screamed and rushed for me, but I had already grasped the door knob with a bloody hand and taken off down the driveway. The last two weeks spent running around the field did me good, I was a good couple blocks away before my legs gave out and I collapsed against the cold concrete, a pool of blood staining the ground beside me. I dug my phone from my pocket, touching my other hand to my nose with a whimper. I thought about calling Bryan, but knew that would be dangerous, he'd without any doubt be in handcuffs by the end of the night.

"Hey, Reese." Liam's voice was a hushed whisper. "I'm sorry—"

"Liam." I gasped. "I need you to come pick me up. I'm a couple blocks form my house."

There must have been a sense of urgency in my voice because I heard the sound of his keys within seconds. "Are you okay? Reese, what's going on?"

I hung up and sent him my location before slipping my backpack off and setting it on the sidewalk, then pulled my sweatshirt over my head and balled it up, touching it too my nose. I tried to hold back my tears as every time they'd sting my eyes a sharp pain would shoot through my nose. In what seemed like seconds, the familiar rumbling of Liam's truck sounded through the quiet neighborhood. He didn't even bother to shut the car off once he'd pulled up and put it in park, he hopped out and crossed the street to me in a few graceful strides.

"What the fuck?" he touched his hand to my wrist and pried the sweatshirt from my nose. "Did Jay do this?"

I shook my head. "I'm sorry for calling you. I. . . Bryan wouldn't have hesitated to get himself thrown in prison if I called him."

"And you think I won't do the same?"

I knew that it wouldn't take him long to piece everything together, and honestly the fear of him doing exactly that had been in the back of my head, but I'd have to pray he wouldn't. "No, Liam. I was hoping I could spend the night at your house or something, get ice on it, then figure out what the hell I'm going to tell Brianna and Bry."

There was no hesitation in his answer this time. "Yeah, of course."

**

Once I'd gotten some ice on my nose and forced down some water, I obliged and followed Liam to his room. I had to stifle a laugh at the sight of the Spiderman comforter that had replaced his football throw. A few Marvel posters had since been tacked on to the wall too; the room definitely looked as if it belonged to a teenage boy. "Now I know why you never bring girls up here to have sex. Could get their spidey sense tingling with all the superhero posters watching and doing it under Mr. Parker himself."