The Truth About Happily Ever After

Chapter Two

Chapter Two

The car is silent. The only noise I hear is the beating of my heart and our breathing. Turning on the radio, I receive a harsh glare from my father, and I immediately switch it off. Breathing hurts, my bruises and cuts aching. I stay as motionless as I can, but even still, the pain moves throughout my entire body. Somehow, probably due to the pain, I slip into a light sleep.

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I shoot awake , wincing from the pain. The horn blares again, and I calm down slightly when I see my brother and sister sleeping curled together in the back seat. The car swerves, causing me to gasp and grip the console in between the front seats. This brings me pain, which isn't surprising when I lift my shirt slightly to see dark colors and sore flesh spread across my exposed ribcage. I'm not sure if I hurt more or less than I did right after it happened. I mull over it as the sky turns darker and the freeway becomes barren. Except for us, everybody gets off and goes home to their families, they go home to the love and safety of normal families. A pang goes through me when I realize that until I turn eighteen, Eliza and Brandon won't get that. I don't care about what I get anymore; I gave up hope a long time ago.

Even as the sun rises and the tall lights flicker off, we remain driving. The kids fall back asleep, but my father and I stay awake in an awkward silence, waiting for new scenery or the right exit. Finally, I realize the exits are getting closer to our destination. Dread and excitement swirl inside me. The excitement is for being in a new place, making a new start, again. The dread is for obvious reasons, and for how the kids will react to moving. Last time, it wasn't the best, but anything is better than the first time. They threw temper tantrums, and I had to jump in front of our mom before she got to them. Then they refused to leave the house. They didn't seem to mind when we left though, so it should be okay. But what if they don't like their new schools? Or what if they get picked on and they don't tell me? Or what if they forget a rule and come home before me? Or what if-  I cut my thoughts off before I make myself completely sick with worry.

We pull off and drive through a blur of streets until we reach a moderately okay neighborhood. The houses aren't large or beautiful, but they aren't shacks or rundown either. We pull into the driveway for a dark green one story house. The yard has obviously not been trimmed for a while, but other than that, it was relatively upkept. There are flowers along the small pebbled walkway leading to the wood door. A medium sized tree stands off to the side of the house, branches extending above the roof. My father climbs out and collects the few things in the trunk before climbing the four stairs and entering the house.

I see the moving truck, and know that my mother is inside, so I take my time waking Eliza and then Brandon. They shake the sleep away, and look around confused, before realisation dawns and they smile a bit. I can see the sadness for leaving their friends behind, but I can see that they will be fine. I know how strong they are.

"Are you ready to go inside?" I ask them softly, tucking Eliza's long hair behind her ear.

I am met with nods, and they match their pace to my slow trudge. As I walk, I have to hold my ribs in place, trying to keep the movement of them to a minimum. When we enter the house, a blue living room meets my eyes, which has a doorway to the sunny yellow kitchen, with bright white appliances and orange-ish countertops. The living room has our black leather furniture, as well as the dark wood shelving put up. All the boxes piled around the room have labels telling where they need to be. Our parents have a few open boxes on the table in the kitchen, unloading utensils and plates, opening drawers and banging cupboards.

I guide Eliza and Brandon down the blue hallway, and open the first door. A dark green bathroom meets our eyes, with an adjoining red bedroom, which is pretty big. Three doors are left, one of which leads back into the red bedroom. The room across the hall from the red one has a slightly bigger blue room. The final door leads to the master bedroom, which we don't enter.

"Which would you two have, bathroom or more space?" I ask the twins.

They think for a second before looking at each other. "More space," they say in unison. I laugh at them and nod, leading back to the front room. We begin to grab the boxes labeled with our names, and load them into the correct room, not bothering with unpacking yet. Eventually our parents yell at us to take boxes to their room as well, so we do that too. All three of us walk into the blue room now belonging to the twins and begin unpacking. We find their furniture and shelving first. For their dresser and bed we have to go out into the van and push, shove, and force it all the way into their room. And mine. And our parents'. And we basically just have to unpack all the heavy stuff.

When five comes around, we are starving from organizing large furniture, so we ask to go on a walk. The twins give me puppy dog eyes when we hear an ice cream truck, and I laugh before giving in. We chase it down, and end up near a small park with a few families loitering around. I look with envy upon their smiling faces. Love is clear on the parents' faces when they look at their children, and longing fills me. Even though I have Eliza and Brandon, I don't have any parent like figures. I'm not sure whether or not they think of me as a parent-like figure, or if they look up to me, but I have no one to look up to.

They race towards the truck, laughing to each other as they race. Brandon is in the lead, but when he looks back at Eliza with a smile on his face to taunt her, he falls. The impact of crashing into someone causes him to rebuff and land on his back. From where I stand I can see him try to get air into his lungs. Eliza's smile vanishes as she speeds towards him, kneeling next to him. My smile fall as well, and I ignore the pain as I run to the three of them. After seeing that Brandon is fine, I turn to glare at the brunette still standing there. He has bright blue eyes filled with regret, and although he is significantly larger than me, I stand up from my squat and face him.

"You need to watch where you're walking. This is a park! Kids are running around, and if you're not careful, you will really hurt someone! You knocked Brandon down, and he could have hit his head, or landed wrong and fractured something! Get your head out of your ass, it's not a hat! " My screaming fazes him slightly, the glare on my face burning into him. Once I hear the snickers from behind me I turn bright red and look down at my brother and sister. Smiling sheepishly at them, I notice them looking around us. Following their glances, I become more red. Every single person in the immediate area is watching us. I see kids turn to their parents and ask what ass means, and I cringe away from their embarrassed glares.

"Kitty-cat, let's go. We don't really need ice-cream, and I'm fine. We can get it some other time. We can go out for a quick late lunch and get back home before Mom and Dad get upset." Brandon, always the pacifist, tries to persuade me. I look around and agree. Collecting the kids, I walk them away, and promise to buy them ice cream tomorrow, but not without sending a final sour look at the boy behind us. He looks to be about my age, and is fairly attractive. The thought alone causes me to blush faintly, and I shake the thought right back out. He sends me a weird look, looking amused at what I said and my blushing. I turn and listen to the twins argue about who would have won the race if it hadn't been interrupted.

We hadn't walked far before a hand grabbed my elbow, pulling me to an abrupt stop. I swirl around in a flash of panic, not caring if that would look weird. It's the boy from before, and once I realise I smack his hand away and prepare to storm away. He grabs slightly higher, directly on a bruise from earlier. Pain causes me to cry out, which makes Brandon and Eliza stop walking and march back towards us. Brandon tries to stand in front of me protectively, but I push him back and take my position; blocking anything that might reach them. As soon as the boy had heard my pain, he dropped my arm, and stepped back with his hands up.

"Sorry, I just wanted to say sorry again, because I didn't say it before and then you started to yell at me, and I didn't want you to think I'm an ass, even though I think it might be too late for that, but that's besides the point, I just wanted to say sorry, and then I hurt you too, and I'm really sorry. Can I buy you all lunch? As an apology? I know a great place a few minutes from here." His long rant stopped, leaving me the dazed one. He was smiling sheepishly, with a hint of an apology as well.

I shook my head and started to leave again, but then I thought of Brandon and Eliza. I look at them, a question in my eyes. What do you guys want to do? I hint with my eyes. They do a weird little twin telepathy and then nod at me. I make a face before sighing and turning back to the boy. We don't even know him, runs through my mind, so I stick out my hand. "My name is Cat. This is Elizabeth and Brandon. You're buying."

He takes my hand, amusement dancing along his features and says, "Nice to meet you. My name is Jacob."