Breaking the Silence

Seventeen

He cleared his throat. "Have you been living with your father your entire life, then?"

I set the fork on my plate, not meeting his eyes and not answering the question. I pushed the plate to him to let him know I was done.

Kota looked down, finding I'd only eaten one of the strawberries and just over half of one pancake. "That's it, your full?" He was astounded, but I felt stuffed. Did he really expect me to finish it? His green eyes darkened with concern, but I was surprised he was so shocked. I was built small naturally, and I was obviously malnourished.

"Hi, Eirenae." A small voice interrupted. I started a little and looked down to find the twins staring at me with owl-like blue eyes. I smiled and gave a tiny wave.

What sounded like a groan came from Kota, "I see you've met my sisters."

They were his sisters! The age gap shocked me a little, but studying their features now that I've been spending time with Kota, I could see they shared some. Different colors, but same eye shape. Similar ears and chins, and same skin tone. Kota's hair was dark brown, while the twins's was on the edge of red, but I definitely saw resemblance.

"If they bother you, don't be afraid to let me know. They can be a little crazy."

"Hey!" The one with her hair done in ponytails exclaimed, folding her arms. I think it was Amber. She seemed to do all the talking for the two of them. But they were so hard to tell apart!

"Amber, Autumn, why don't you go find Mom." Kota told them.

"She's right there." The other said. She pointed in front of her. Kota and I turned our heads.

A woman stepped into the kitchen, spotted me, and let out an excited shriek. She rushed over but with inhuman speed and strength, Kota cleared the counter and blocked her. "Kota?" She seemed offended.

"Gentle, Mother." He said softly and she took a deep breath.

"Right, I'm sorry. I'm just excited about your mate!"

I furrowed my eyebrows. Mate? What's that? But Kota nodded. "Mom, this is Eirenae; Eirenae, this is my mother." He stepped out of the way and let her walk a few steps closer.

She was a taller woman with short, strawberry colored hair. She wore a white striped t-shirt with a knitted black cardigan and a simple pearl necklace hung from her neck. Just from one look at her, you would think she would be, at most, thirty (but I knew that was impossible because that would mean she had Kota when she was twelve).

Even though I expected who I would see: the twins' mother from the park, she was definitely taken aback when she recognized me.

Amber spoke before her. "It's the girl from the park, Momma!"

"That it is," she whispered and she reached to give me a hug. When I flinched on instinct, she halted and drew her arms back, and Kota, eyes like a hawk, didn't miss a thing. I glanced at him, but he didn't speak up.

"When we met at the park, you seemed unwell; are you doing better? I hope my son has been doing everything to help."

I nodded and slipped a small smile. I wanted her to know her son had been helping.

She beamed, "well, just know that I am here too. And you can call me Eden, or Mrs. Anderson I suppose. Whichever one you're comfortable with."

When I didn't respond, she looked confused and like she wanted to continue for a second, but before she could say anything more one of the twins grabbed her hand and pulled her away, yapping about some game in mind.

"They don't have long attention spans yet." Kota laughed, taking my plate and scarfing down the remainder of my food. Shocked, I stared and leaned slightly back from the counter. He ate that like a dog!

He dumbed the plate in the sink and came back to me, taking my hand. The little sparks erupted and I flinched a little, causing Kota to chuckle. He let go, this time moving in more slowly.

"Want to watch a movie or something? Take your mind off things for a while?" I stood up, giving him his answer. He chuckled and led me up the stairs, back to his room. The stairs were slow, but he didn't carry me this time, letting me get there on my own. I appreciated that, because I knew I needed to gain strength back and if anyone coddled me it would be worse.

"Here, I'll set it up, and you can shower and change into clean clothes. That okay?"

I almost burst with happiness. I'd been wearing the same clothes since the day they all brought me here; I was probably so gross!

His eyes lit up at my giddiness. "Alright, you go and shower and I'll get clothes from one of the girls."

I nodded and headed into the bathroom. I slowly took off my tattered, dirty clothes, moving carefully. I placed them in a pile on the floor, leaving my necklace on around my neck, and looked in the mirror.

My face was still pretty covered in makeup, so I searched the cabinets and drawers for any sort of remover solution. I gave up after a minute or two, realizing a teenage boy wouldn't have makeup remover in his bathroom. Instead I grabbed a washcloth I found and used water to gently scrub it off.

When I was done, I studied myself in the mirror. It looked significantly better than even a few days ago. I was still as skinny as a tree branch, my elbows and knees knobby, my shoulders and hips sharp. My lip was still cut, but it wasn't as obvious. My cheek and eye bruises were faded, but the few cuts on my forehead were completely gone. My arms were pretty beat up: the right forearm and shoulder were various shades of blue and purple, and the left was in the hard cast up to my elbow. My left shoulder had some small spots as well. Only one laceration remained, and it was mostly healed as well.

My torso was wrapped in a bandage, to prevent me from bending much so my ribs could heal. One of my legs also had a bandage from a gash that would heal slower than the small cuts that were everywhere else.

What really caught my attention, though, was my neck. There were still angry red hand marks of Jack's hands across my neck, mostly behind my hair on the back, but a little poked through around the front by my throat.

Now I understood why Kota got so upset this morning. For some reason, he must feel connected to me as I am to him; he must've been mad at whoever hurt me like this. I mean, it was hard not to see it was created by hands. At least he didn't see all of it, only a little bit of red.

I sighed and stepped in the shower, letting the warm water hit my bruises. I wished there was a way I could just scrub them all away. I knew they'd heal on their own time, but I hated being broken.

That's how I felt: broken. I couldn't understand why Kota and the others had taken such interest in me. No one else had at any other place I'd lived and gone to school with. So what was different about them? Couldn't they see how ruined I was?

I couldn't speak to them, I looked like I'd been run over by a truck, I was malnourished, and on top of that, I was frightened. Scared of them, scared of being here, scared of going home, scared of what they truly thought of me.

I lowered myself to the floor of the shower and put my head on my knees forcing the torso bandage to bend with me, the water running down my back. And I cried. I couldn't stop the waterfall that came, streaming in with the spraying shower drops.

I just wished I knew how to get out of being broken.