How Do You Do?

29: Drea's Past

Transylvania- Mcfly

By the time we finally pull up to my house, Drea regains consciousness and is fighting with Tom.
"You are in no condition to be walking on your own, Angel!" He argues, and she rolls her eyes.
"I can handle myself thank you very much, and for the last time, I'm not your Angel!" Tom has to fight pretty hard to hide his smirk, but his lips do twitch upwards slightly. She gets so worked up she actually storms out of the car, catching Tom off guard. He growls out a few curses before quickly storming out after her and sweeping her off her feet to keep her from further injuries.
So you can imagine everyone's faces when Tom walks in with a severely injured Drea, who's talking more than she usually does, and not all that politely might I add. When Tom's eyes land on his sister, however, well, lets just say I wasn't as scared when I was raped. Kidding, Kidding! Trying to make light of my situation, trying to get over it.
He all but throws Drea onto my couch before stalking menacingly towards his sister, who avoids looking at him.
  "I thought I told you to stay here," he grits out, and Scarlet gives him innocent eyes.
   "You thought wrong?" He slams his hand next to her head and she flinches, but her eyes soften when he drops his head onto her shoulder.
   "I can't lose you too," his voice says, muffled, and she wraps her arms around her brother's waist.
"You won't. And you can't keep living with that fear on your back, T," she says, and he sighs. He pulls away and walks back over to Drea. She glares fiercely and has a defensive stance, almost like a wounded animal. Tom ignores this, lifting her off the couch and plopping her on his lap once he sits down.
"Hey--" she protests, and tries to pull her head from his grip as he inspects her head wound. He lays his palm on her collar bone and pushes her slightly way from him while he turns her head to inspect the bruises on her jaw and next. We all watch silently, but I climb behind her and gasp at the sight of the gashes in her back. No wonder she looks so pallid, that man got her good!
At my reaction, Tom immediately stands and forces Drea to lay on her stomach while he lifts up her shirt enough to see how back they actually are. His jaw clenched while I hold the bile down. They're deep and fleshy.
"He wears a studded belt, I'm not surprised if they look even worse than it feels." Drea stands, and starts to take a few steps, but starts to sway. Right at that moment, the door bursts open, two pissed guys walking in. One is the boy from earlier, and the other is Robyn. However, when they see Drea on her feet, both rush to her to get her to sit down. The little boy from earlier is left sniffling at my doorstep, looking frightened.
I step towards him and smile gently, while he cowers away from me. I motion him forward, and lead him cautiously to the stairs, and call up to my siblings. Three of them come down slowly, and I block Drea from sight. I'd sent a text to Rylie, who is currently out at the store buying medical supplies, telling him to watch the kids, and to send them upstairs when we were on our way back.
     I introduce the young guy to the kids, who immediately grin at the chance of a new friend. As I've said, they've always felt like Zeppelin, Everette, and the three of them were all that they needed, but sometimes that could get lonely, especially if they got into a bad fight.
   The boy smiles and excitedly follows them upstairs to play, and I smile. Turning back around, I see both Robyn and he other boy fighting. "She's my sister! And I say she should go!" Robyn shouts, shoving the other kid.
    He chuckles darkly. "She's my sister to, and considering I see her more than you, I'd back off and listen." Robyn takes a threatening step forward.
   "Warren, I swear to god--" I quickly squeeze in between to two males' chests, and use what little strength I have to shove them apart. They don't break eye contact.
   "That's enough," I snap, giving them both warning looks. "If either of you really care for Drea, you're gonna do what's in her best interest. However, circumstances right now are complicated, and I think we need to have her explain before any big decision making."
   "She's going to f*cking bleed out by the time we do anything!" Robyn shouts, gripping his ember locks. He spins around in Drea, who's been listening silently. "Why didn't you say that this was happening again, goddamnit!" She glared at him.
   "Because dad would've only helped me and left my brothers to rot!"
   "You were getting hurt!"
   "I'm not going to let them get hurt again!" I cut them off.
   "Care to explain?" I sigh, rubbing my temples from the stress of the night. It's quiet for a second, but Drea nods, and we all take our seats.
   "When we were little, Me and Robyn's parents got a divorce. My rich father decided to take Robyn and turn him into a big shot while I got dumped with my mother," she starts, and Robyn protests.
   "That's not what happened--"
   "Shut it," she snaps, and starts back up. "My mother wasn't mentally stable. She was high on drugs all of the time and never left her bottle of alcohol. She met Jack at that point." My heart aches, all of this sounding familiar.
   "Well I then found out that dear ol' dad left her because he found out that she'd been cheating on him, and had another kid that she didn't tell him about. Warren is a year younger than me," she fills in, and it starts to start coming together. "She brought me to live with Jack and Warren, and the house was always filled with drugs and alcohol. He'd always had these creepy men over, but Warren was quick to protect me from them, even before he knew me, or so I thought. Apparently he grew up hearing all about his siblings. Mom always would rub in that his father was the loser and that mine was the rich one, however she'd always stay with Jack, she'd never leave." Drea's voice starts to crack, and Warren takes her hand, earning a smile from her.
   "He'd hit us, and hit Mom, even while she was pregnant with Liam. Jack tried many times to kill him while she was still pregnant with him. But we were so protective over her, we'd get so mad when he'd hit her. But she was in love, and would hit us for making him mad. This went on for about five years. And then, two years ago, one of my teachers at school couldn't ignore the bruises on my face anymore. Jack wouldn't let me use makeup to cover them, so it was his fault that he got caught. She called child protection, and they took us away and separated us." Drea's voice wobbles, and tears form.
   "I was sent to live with My brother and father while Jack served a year in jail and Mom was in rehab. I grew close to Robyn, who I'd resented half of my life, but I could never forgive my father. He'd left me with her," Drea spits through the tears, and she climbs into Warren's lap so he. Like comfort her.
   "And then Jack was set free. First thing he did was find Mom, and she went back to him like a puppy. She convinced him to track us down and fight for the parental rights that were somehow not taken from them, and we were forced to go back. My father gave me back to them willingly, no questions asked.
     We were starved for days, beaten to the point where we couldn't move for weeks. We missed so much school that we were nearly a month behind in the curriculum. I'd picked up guitar from Robyn, and learned to excel in it. I'd stored the instrument at a bar I played at in order to get enough money to feed my brothers. Things were back to how they were before Jack's trip to prison, but he'd made it a mission to make sure to hit us where it wouldn't be visible. But Warren, the little sh*t he is, grew a 'tude while he was in the foster system, and started to fight Jack back. They got into a bad fight, and Jack was on edge, and then Liam asked for food--" she starts to choke on her tears, burying her head in her brother's neck. Warren sighs, his green eyes meeting mine.
"He went for Liam, and so both Drea and I jumped in and protected him. Last time Jack got his hands on the kid, Liam nearly went into a coma. But he was crazy this time. He beat the sh*t out of her, and so I pulled him off and shoved him into a wall long enough to send her for help. I didn't think she'd try to find him," Warren glares at Robyn for emphasis.
"Why do you hate Robyn so much?" I ask him curiously, and Warren turns his gaze back to me.
"Because when we were separated, he told me that he was the only brother she'd ever need, because He wouldn't be the one to end up like my f*cked up father."
"For the love of-- I was seventeen and jealous of you!" Robyn exclaims, sitting up once more. "You got to be with my sister when we were separated, and it felt like you took her from me! She means everything to me! Family means everything!"
"He's apart of your family," Drea whispers, pulling away from Warren to meet her other brother's gaze. We all go silent at this, and Robyn looks as if he's processing this.
"Yeah," he murmurs, looking at Warren as if it's the first time he's actually seeing him. "Yeah he is."
I jump as the doorbell sounds, and everyone sucks in a scared breath. Remington squeezes my hand when he sees my face. "It's fine, it's probably just Rylie."
I start to walk to the door, and I notice Remington coming with me. I'm not complaining, it's been a dramatic night.
Pulling the door open, Rylie and a blonde haired woman are revealed. She's got piercing blue eyes, and her hair falls to hype small of her back, curled into beach waves. She smiles at me. "Hi, you must me Stevie, I'm Alison, Rylie's fiancé. He said that someone was hurt? I'm a nurse, so I don't know how much I can help, but I would like to help as much as I can." I sigh in relief and motion got her to come in, to which she complies, and Rylie leans in to mutter to Rem and I, "Hey, there's a chick in your driveway who's pregnant, she's just been staring at the house for ten minutes." Peeking over his shoulder, I see Eve, watching the house in a nostalgic manner. I sucking in a breath, I tell the boys not to move before running in the house to grab her a water bottle and a blanket. "Winter" is over in Nevada, but nights still get chilly.
I motion for the boys to go in once I step back outside, and I walk slowly over to her. She doesn't notice me much until I'm nearly three feet in front of her, and then when she does see me, she smiles.
"Stevie, it's been a while, huh?" She says, accepting the water and blanket.
"What're you doing here?" I ask, keeping my tone cordial. I don't want to be rude to her, not after I saw the glimpse of my mother in her for the first time in years.
"I just wanted to visit you guys," she says, and turns to smile at the house again. "Your birthdays are coming up, am I right?" I try to mask my shock when she notices, and the words fly out of my mouth before I can stop them.
"Come home."

So I know I said 15 votes in three days, but a) close enough and b) I'm probably not going to be able to update any time soon so it's another early update to take next week's