A Loaded Gun

Chapter 7

Brooke POV

TW: SELF-HARM

Of the four men in the house, I had to bump into the one who hates me. I trembled as I stared into Daniel's angry eyes. He raised his hand, and I flinched back, squeezing my eyes shut. He was the most likely to hit me first. 

My anxiety was getting higher. After a few seconds, I saw him looking at me, confused, as he ran his hand through his hair. I sent him a small fake smile and tried to step around him, but he blocked my path.

"Why did you flinch just then?"

"I uhh don't like sudden movements. You just surprised me." Hopefully he bought that and won't talk to Marcus about it. He narrowed his eyes at me and dropped it. 

Now my anxiety was at an all-time max. I was having trouble breathing. I gasped out an "excuse me" and bolted for the stairs. I somehow made it to my room and sunk down against the closed door, panting for breath. 

I brought my knees up to my chest, trying to avoid the inevitable. I haven't had one in 3 days; I think that's a new record. I curled up in a ball, attempting to breath through the anxiety attack. It wouldn't stop. I didn't know what to do to stop it. 

My fingers inched towards my arm and I rolled up my sleeve. I tried to fight it, I just couldn't stop my nails from digging into my arm and scratching. I scratched and scratched until my skin went raw and blood began to show up in little beads of red. 

Eventually I calmed down with this method, ending up with 5 raw patches of skin. With no bandaids, I'd just have to hope my sleeve doesn't roll up.

A knock on the door made me jump up, and I stiffened my back while folding my arms in front of me.

Lucas poked his head in and noticed me standing formally in the middle of the room, staring straight ahead. He gave a puzzled frown and said, "Hey, come downstairs. We're gonna take you shopping."

"O-ok. I'm coming." I cursed my stupid stutter and made sure to walk behind him. Just because Marcus didn't want me to, doesn't mean Lucas is the same. 

I stumbled in my attempts to stay back and to the left of him, as he glanced at me with the same puzzled look. "What are you doing?"

Crap, he didn't want me to do that. "Um, I just wasn't sure where to go so I was letting you go in front." Lie. I had a great memory, but obviously he was the same as Marcus so I couldn't tell him the real reason. He shrugged and continued walking, appearing to drop the subject.

We got to the open living room and found Daniel standing with his arms folded.

"Took you long enough," he grumbled. "Come on, let's go."

The garage was huge. It could hold seven cars, which was just a ridiculous amount. I stared at the 6 cars in the garage, the red one I had already seen front and center. 

The rest of the cars were equally as nice. I may not know much about cars, but they looked really cool. Lucas and I climbed into a matte black car that had the Audi symbol on it, while Daniel sat in the front seat. 

I stared out the window during the 15 minute drive to the mall, gaping at the expensive houses we passed. Lucas glanced at me periodically, smiling softly. 

I'm not sure what he was thinking, but his staring was kind of freaking me out. Maybe he was thinking of ways to break me? Benny always smiled when he was hurting me.

Lucas helped me out of the car and placed his hand on my shoulder, causing me to flinch violently again. 

His gentle smile turned into a sharp frown. "You ok?" Yeah, besides the fact that's where Benny left a bruise two nights ago. Daniel spoke up, "She doesn't like sudden movements, apparently."

"Oh, I'm sorry." Lucas quickly apologized. I gave him a quick nod, trying to hide the grimace attempting to show on my face. 

We walked into the open mall and I tried to hide my awe at the old architecture. I wasn't expecting that in a mall.

"Where do you want to go first? Gucci, Hermes, Armani?" What the hell were those words?

A/N y'all idk any luxury brands. I'm 90% sure Armani is just for men but I'm too lazy to look it up

"Um, is there a Walmart around here? Or a Goodwill?"

I barely hid my jump as Daniel exploded, "What the hell are you talking about? Do you think we're poor? Don't be ungrateful!"

"Daniel! She's probably just not used to all this," Lucas scolded. "I'm sorry hon, why don't we just look around and you tell me what store looks interesting."

I nodded quickly; anything to avoid another outburst. As we wandered through the outdoor corridors, I tried to find stores that didn't look expensive, but there didn't seem to be any. 

Finally I pointed at Aeropostale because I had seen my classmates wearing hoodies from there and they looked comfy. "You want to go in there?" Daniel sounded disgusted. "Daniel, shut up. Let's go, Brooke." Lucas guided me to the store.

I looked around the store but couldn't find anything under $10. Benny didn't like when I spent money, so I turned to Lucas and said, "It's too expensive. Can we please go to Walmart?" 

Lucas laughed, "You think this is expensive? Honey, the shirt I'm wearing right now was $200." 

My eyes went large; I didn't think there would be a single article of clothing that would be more than $75. "Pick out whatever you want. We've got it covered."

A hesitant smile came over my face as I began thinking that they're not so bad. My mind soon changed when I pulled a pair of shorts off the rack and held them up, immediately hearing Daniel yell yet again. "YOU CAN'T WEAR THAT!" 

I lowered my eyes and checked the price tag. $30. He's right, that's too expensive. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have picked something so pricey."

Lucas was quick to reassure me. "No honey, we just don't want you wearing something so short. You can't trust boys." 

But Benny liked it when I wore short things. He said it made me prettier. I always felt weird, though.  Still, it's not my fault boys are awful, and these shorts looked really comfy.

"Why should I be punished because boys can't keep it in their pants?" Crap crap crap I knew I would snap. It was only a matter of time before a sarcastic comment slipped out. My eyes widened and I slapped a hand over my mouth. 

Tears began blurring my vision and I started hyperventilating. "I'm so sorry I'm so so sorry," I just kept repeating. "Please, I'm so sorry."

A/N Y'all I'm so bored.  I have exams in two days and I have nothing to do in class except review, which I am incapable of doing.  I literally cannot study.  Anywhoobs, here's an update because I have nothing better to do.