Between the Right and the Real

Between the Right and the Real part 2

“Emily.” I grinned back at her.

“What happened to your face?”

“My brother likes to use me as an outlet for his anger.”

She and Duke gasped in horror. “Dude, not fucking cool! Where do you live? I’m going to beat the fuck out of him and see how he likes it.”

“Took care of that already.” Andy was wrapping a wet cloth around his hand.

“Are you okay?” I asked quietly, taking his injured hand in mine and unwrapping it to find a bruise spread across his knuckles.

“I’m fine Emily.” He wrapped the cloth around his hand again.

“But—”

“Word of advice jailbait, when a guy says he’s fine, he’s fine. Don’t push it.” Duke ruffled my hair.

“Don’t call me jailbait!”

“Sure thing jailbait!”

“Duke stop it! She has a name.” I looked over to Natalie and smiled, grateful that she was defending me.

“Yeah, and her name is jailbait.” He grinned at Natalie as well. I sighed, giving up hope.

“Hey, I’m going to go make that call.” Andy whispered in my ear before slipping out of the apartment unnoticed by Natalie and Duke who were now playfully arguing.

I stared at the door longingly, hoping Andy wouldn’t be long.

“Hey jailbait, want us to help you take your things to Andy’s room?” Duke waved his hand in front of my face to grab my attention.

“Yeah, that’d be great.” I smiled at him and picked up the pizza box again. “I’ll carry this.”

Natalie laughed. “Good call.” She looked around for a moment. “Where’d Andy go anyway?”

“He had to make a call.” I replied discreetly. “Said he’d be back in a few minutes.”

“Okay!” she picked up my backpack by the door and carried it down a small hallway. I followed her into Andy’s room and sat on the bed. Duke brought in the other two bags.

“What the hell do you have in this bag?” he set it down next to a desk covered with folders and paper.

“Books.”

“No way a teenager reads. What’s really in there?”

“Books,” I repeated.

“Okay, don’t tell me. But when the police come and they find a dead body—”

“The police aren’t going to find a dead body.” Natalie sighed and dragged him out of the room. “Sorry about him.”

I decided to stay in the room and wait for Andy to come back. While I ate I mauled over the day’s events. I made a new… I wasn’t completely sure what Hanley was to me. He wasn’t an enemy, but he wasn’t a friend. My judge molested me, and my court ordered tutor took me away from my abusive big brother and I was staying with him tonight. He was calling the proper authorities and action was going to be taken from there. I ate slowly and didn’t notice the door open or Andy sitting next to me.

“The police are arresting your brother as we speak, and your father has been notified of what's happening. You’ll stay here for a few days until CPS either finishes their investigation or they deem it’s safe for you to live at home again.”

“Aren’t they going to question me or something?” I asked him.

“Yes. I’m not sure when though, so for now you’ll still go to school and act like you normally do. The only difference is that I’ll take you to and pick you up from school. We can still go to the library for your tutoring if you want. It’ll keep more normality in your life.”