Fragments (ON HIATUS)

Chapter 5

Aunt Diane talked to me about calling the Maywood police so that when he got home, he'd be immediately arrested. "Isn't this kind of a Double Jeopardy? He was already convicted of abusing me and the charges dropped because the judge called me an over dramatic teenager in grief." I asked and she thought for a moment.
"If we play our cards right then no. With all the drug trafficking and other things he's done, the charges and fines will be unbelievable." She told me, eager to help.
"This is really it? No more black eyes, no more scars, no more verbal assault?" I questioned, uncertain.
"No more." She assured me, side hugging me. I shut my eyes and sighed. She said we'd invite him over for dinner and she's call the police and ask them to wait outside for him. My anxiety built up and I began to shake my head at the thought of being within 109 feet of him. "No, no, sweetie. It'll be fine. I promise he's not going to hurt you." She swore and I nodded. This was truly happening, God don't screw this up for me!
Riley invited me out to the front yard to hang out with her friends. I sat with them, sprawled across the grass, allowing our bug bites to only multiply. "Ow! Fucking ant got me." Drew slapped his arm and whined.
"Oh don't be a baby." I scoffed and everyone laughed. It grew silent as we laid in the sun. I sighed as I felt pretty damn peaceful for a change, I didn't feel like cutting or scratching or like I needed to hug Keith and cry. It was nice to feel like this. I glanced at my phone which was still without a single message from Keith. I sighed and put my phone back into my pocket. I couldn't help but feel a bit neglected, we have been talking everyday and now I'm getting shit. After I said my dad was here, you'd think he'd care a bit... I'm just paranoid, I'm sure he's busy. Too busy for me. That insecure part of me said in the back of my head.
      Everyone soon decided it would be a good idea to show me around town, since I haven't really been out. They were already heading to the sidewalk by the time I got up from the grass. I caught up as quick as I could. We started walking through the small neighborhood of houses that looked exactly alike and to the boulevard. "I'm so used to apartment and business building, this is really weird. Kind of boring."
"Well it's your fault for visiting Iowa from LA." Luka scoffed
"Maywood."
"Same thing." He dismissed and I sighed. We passed a candy store that had kids' noses pressed up against the glass, a few singles in their little hands. We passed a book store, AKA my new home. It was small but had plenty of books. We were all joking and laughing as they dragged me from place to place. "It's nice not hearing traffic all day." I laughed.
       We walked through the town almost completely. We got to an intersection in the road. 'Welc me t  BlasTo ' read a sign across the road. Some letters had fallen off but I assumed it read Welcome to Blaston. They suddenly started backing away from the intersection, Amber grabbed my arm. I hissed in pain and snatched it back, she quickly apologized but said we needed to leave. Apparently, like Maywood, you have your "good" side of town and your "bad" side of town. "It can't be any worse than home." I insisted a bit ignorantly.
"All of Blaston is overrun with gangs and pimps, as well as prostitutes. I would just steer clear." Drew advised, looking over his shoulder. A few shots rang and all of them flinched except for me. "I think that's our cue to go back." I said and we started jogging back.
We paused by Drew's house on the way back so he could get his stupid phone charger. We followed him and I found it was one of those two family houses with one family one the bottom level and the other on the top level. "Hi there, kids, how ar- oh, I don't think I've met you yet." We were greeted as a woman then turned to me.
"Oh, I-I'm Alice." I managed, trying to force my shyness down.
"Nice to meet you, I think Riley mentioned you before." She pointed out and I nodded, knowing my words would fail me like always. I try to avoid sounding like an idiot if possible. I followed the guys down a hall. We passed a room that had a girl and boy arguing over an Xbox controller. "Hey, TweedleDumb and TweedleTwit. Cut it out." Drew shouted into their room and they dropped the remote to come complain in the hallway. Drew grabbed his charger from his room, it looked like the room of a fuckboy to be honest. Nothing tasteful at all, you could see his PlayBoy stash under his bed, pathetic. Bri commented on what a pig he was. He simply laughed.
We were sitting again in the grass of Aunt Diane's house, talking. I found myself half awake by the time we ran out of things to talk about. We began playing fucking Truth or Dare. "Al, truth or dare?" Amber asked me and I thought.
"Truth." I answered and Kayla coughed, calling me a pansy in between them. I rolled my eyes and gave her a light shove. "Ok, um... Are you still a virgin?" She asked and my cheeks burned.
"Dude!" I exclaimed and she laughed.
"I knew it! You little slut!" She teased, poking me in the arm. I felt slightly hurt but pushed it down.
"Shut up, Riley."
"Answer the question, bro." Amber nudged.
"Fine, no. God, you guys are immature." They started laughing a bit and I scoffed.
"Riley, truth or dare?" I asked, glaring at her and Amber.
"Truth, cause I'm lame." She answered, making a funny face.
"Have you ever liked anyone in this group?" I asked with a smirk and she blinked at me.
"Duh-well, uh. Course not, I mean why would I?" She stammered as her cheeks turned light pink. She twirled her dirty blonde hair around her finger embarrassed. "Luke, Truth or Dare?" Her embarrassment soon turned to silent and subtly anger towards me.
"I'm no pansy, dare."
"I dare you to kiss Alice." Suddenly I got pissed and he became apprehensive.
"Yep, I'm done. I'll be back when you can stop acting like a bitchy 5th grader." I got up and started walking back to the house. Riley asked for me to wait and come back and I turned on my heel to venture back across the cut grass. I reluctantly walked back and she was elbowed sharply by Kayla, Riley muttered a small apology. "Who wants to just get some ice cream from inside?" She asked after a while and we all nodded. Everyone started getting up, a familiar rumbling sound grew and though no one else was fazed by it, I felt the need to look. A motorcycle parked with a few other following the with a pickup truck that's seen better days.
Oh my fucking God, NO WAY! "Hey Red." Next thing I knew I was nearly tackling my favorite blonde idiot, I didn't even notice he wasn't the only one there. "Get a room." Jace laughed and I was in too good a mood to fathom a good comeback.
"What the fuck are you guys doing here?" I asked as I broke off the kiss I was in.
"What? A guy can't visit his girlfriend spontaneous for no reason at all?" Keith said, hiding behind a smirk like usual.
"No but I don't feel like arguing." I replied and I remembered that there was still 7 people directly behind me, confused. I quickly introduced them and the Luke and Drew looked like they could wet themselves any second. We all went inside, as we did, Aunt Diane came over to greet us back inside. Her jaw was on the floor to put it lightly. She immediately started repeating the word "no" and got louder with each word. "Don't tell me they're all staying here." She said with worry. The girls were too busy drooling over the new boy candy in sight to focus. "Don't worry, Diane. We booked a hotel last night, the only person who might stay every now and then is me." Keith told her as politely as possible.
"So, what's a pretty girl like you doing single?" Vance slid in between Amber and Brianna. Brianna looked like she was going to melt. "Oh brother." I shook my head.
"Let me live my life, Clery." He snapped at me and I laughed. He turned to Brianna and introduced himself flirtatiously, she giggled and did the same. Excuse me while I go gag. "What life?" I snorted and he shot me a glare. Keith gave me a high five in reward to the burn. "Wow, Vance. You got burned by a high schooler. A 21 year old guy like you... Gotta sting, brother." Jace patted Vance's back sympathetically. Aunt Diane looked simply appalled by the boys. A feeling that I imagine would soon pass after a few days with them around. Everyone had cleared out a bit, I was sitting in the Kitchen with Keith. He says they were staying for the week, leaving Erik and Hess in charge to defend their territory, the worst idea in history.
        "You really think leaving Hess and Erik alone together is a good idea? They're both idiots." I laughed.
"I never said it was good idea, it was just the plan. Jace says that Iowa is the only state he hasn't hooked up with a chick. Ty is escaping the cops again after Sabrina accused him of stealing from her house. Jackson was bored and didn't want to deal with the Dumb and Dumber twins. Dean, well, can't be trusted not to go after Chloe. Yadda, yadda, yadda, we're all here. Most all of us." He went on and I shook my head, laughing. He told me not to worry about "those two" and that he was 70% sure they wouldn't fuck up the town. He kissed me quickly before we left the kitchen to join the rest of the guys. We used Lauren's Netflix account and began watching Season 5 of The Walking Dead.
Jace was ranting about where the black characters were. "Dude, there are like 4 right now. Chill. I mean, you have Michonne, Gabriel, Morgan, I think Sasha counts, and that other Alexandria dude." Ty nudged. Jace mumbled something and we went on to the next season after finishing the final episode. The guys had to leave soon after getting to the mid-season finale of Season 6. "You're leaving in the middle of a herd? Lame!" I pouted as Keith kissed me goodbye. They wanted to bring all of their things to their rooms, Keith was just helping and then they'd be back.

A knock at the door got me up from the couch, expecting the boys again. I let out a startled scream and jumped back, I had forgotten within hours of planning this whole intervention thing. Pale skin and red eyes greeted me with a sickening yellow grimace that little kids run screaming from, except this monster isn't in my closet, he's in this house in front of me. He walked in and roughly pat my head, as if I were the dog that no one liked in the family.
His hand left the top of my head with a shove which knocked me a few feet, allowing him to walk further into the house. "How's my favorite little whore?" He asked me and I didn't answer.
"Oh well, you were never one to actually stand up for yourself. Pathetic, really. I mean, I shouldn't expect much from such a whiny slut but it is what it is. Anyway, where is your aunt? I'd like to get this night over with." He asked and I bit my venomous tongue before pointing to the kitchen. This is the night everything ends, one way or another...