“How can you give your sister sympathy like that? She killed your mum!” Dad bellows, and Adrian backs up until he’s pressing the wall. He probably regrets trying to comfort me. I don't blame him.
“I wasn’t! She’s crying, dad, that’s mean…” Adrian seems hesitant to speak. He doesn’t want dad to know he’s usually the one who makes me feel better when I’m upset.
“Really? It looked a lot like sympathy. She killed your mother! Killed her, do you hear me?!”
He raises his fist, and I realise, with a start, that he’s going to hit Adrian. No. I rush over, jumping up and grabbing dad’s elbow. It takes effort, because I’m bloody short, but once I’ve latched onto his elbow I don’t let go.
“What the--”
Dad turns around detaching me from his elbow. He turns back to Adrian, and I grab onto his elbow again. This time, he brings it up and back. It hits me bang in the eye. The impact makes me fly back, landing onto the floor. There’s a sick thud as my head hits the cold ground. Then everything goes black.
I woke up with a start, my body jolting. I sat up, trying to calm my heart rate down. I winced at the memories of last night. I got up and brushed my teeth, trying to calm my nerves. I remember that day clearly. After both I and he got beaten, he was never nice to me again. Ever. I picked up my phone, shaking the thoughts out of my head. I saw I had a text from Dan.
Had to go to work, sorry sweetheart. Have a rest, I called in sick for you. ps he sucks. x
I threw my phone onto my bed, opting to text him back when his shift was over. I got back in bed, squeezing my eyes shut. I wouldn't be able to sleep, I knew that. Maybe if I tried hard enough... I hadn’t closed my eyes for a minute when there was a knock on the door. I stiffened slightly, choosing to ignore it. It didn’t stop. If anything, it got louder. I groaned, praying it wasn’t Autumn. We’d been having a rough patch.
I opened it to see Harry standing by my door. He looked shit. The bags under his eyes were especially prominent, and his hair was as messy as it had ever been. As soon as I laid eyes on him, I closed my door. Or, tried to close it. He stuck his foot out, preventing me from closing the door.
“Can’t get rid of me that easily, sweetheart.” His voice was raspier, almost sleep deprived.
I squeezed my eyes shut. “Take. Your. Foot. Away.”
“No.”
“I don’t want to talk to you.”
“Well, too bad, I want to talk to you.”
I allowed the door to open, and Harry looked at me, an amused glimmer in his eyes. It was gone quicker than he allowed it to be seen.
“Why do you want to talk to me? Go talk to Gemma.”
“Jesus Christ, B, Gemma is my sister.”
Oh. Oh my. I felt extremely embarrassed. If the ground opened up right now, I would happily allow it to swallow me. Now, I really wanted to close the door. I had bitched about Harry and Gemma to Dan for an hour yesterday. Fuck. Kill me now.
“Brenna?” Harry asked cautiously, and I stepped away from the door.
He stepped in, closing the door behind him. “You look red.”
“I feel stupid.”
“I tried to tell you yesterday, and so did Leo, but you wouldn’t listen.”
I winced at the memory of me yelling at Harry yesterday.
“I…” I shook my head, my hair flying everywhere. He reached out to brush a piece of hair out of my face, and I cowered away. It wasn’t intentional, but the nightmare I’d just had was still fresh in my mind. I knew Harry wasn’t my dad, but I couldn’t help but cower away. Harry drew his hand back quickly, resting it by his side. He didn’t flinch; he kept his eyes on me, his face unreadable.
YOU ARE READING
Broken
Fanfiction"When something is broken, you can't fix it. But you can make it better. All it needs is love, care and attention." Broken. That's what Brenna was. With no family, and no money, it was a good thing she was smart. She had a scholarship for college a...
