Family First

Chapter 29: Coming Out

I holed myself in the room for two more days. I had supplied myself with a box of water bottles that I snuck in when the kids were gone one day.

In the past couple of days, I was replaying the last time I spoke with my parents that night over and over again. I was filled with grief and guilt.

I shouldn't have gone to that party. I should've just stayed home and celebrated my baby sister's birthday. If I did, none of this would ever happen, and my parents would still be alive right now. I beat myself over it and swore that I would never go out any more.

I got a lot of text messages from my friends and from my siblings. But all I did was ignore them. I also heard a couple of the kids knocked. But as the days had passed, the knocks became less and less frequent each day.

I don't know how long I was in the room for, but one day a letter was slid under my bedroom door.

It was from child services...

It said that they were coming in to get us in a couple of days.

What happened to Mrs. Franklin?

Then, I heard a knock at the door. It was Tom.

"Emily? Emily can you please open the door?" he said miserably.

There was a long pause between us.

I was still crying.

"Emily, I need to talk to you...Mrs. Franklin said that she can't help us anymore. She says that we're on our own..."said Tom.

He knocked on my door again.

"Please come out," he said soft and slowly.

When I didn't reply, I was shocked to hear him bang on the door very loudly. I could hear his voice changing into the tone when he argued with someone. He sounded frustrated and angry at me.

"EMILY! Open this door now!!! You're being fucking selfish you know!?" he yelled.

When I still didn't budge, he shouted, "Why are you doing to us Em? Don't you care about us? I don't know what to do anymore! I need someone to talk to! To figure this whole thing out!"

The more he screamed, the more louder I cried.

He kept on ranting and ranting until he lowered his voice and finally stopped banging on the door.

"The kids need you Em...I need you," he said.

There was a whole silence between us. Then, I heard Tom walk away. I sobbed and sobbed, thinking about what he had said.

Does he think I know everything? Does he think I can solve all kinds of problems? The thing is I don't know what to do too. But, he was right. I was being selfish. It wasn't fair that Tom had to take care of the rest while I was sulking here in my bedroom for days on end.

I finally stood up and opened my bedroom door.

I could hear everyone downstairs. I slowly walked to the edge of the staircase.

I could hear my baby brother wailing downstairs. I heard Hannah trying to calm him down. I finally had the courage to go downstairs. I could imagine that my face was still red from crying.

When I got downstairs, the whole room went silent except for the sound of my baby brother crying. Peter and Sarah were sitting on the couch covering their ears. Tom was in the kitchen, preparing a bottle for the babies. Jason was nowhere to be seen.

The first one to break the silence was Sarah.

"Emily," she said, with sad puppy eyes.

I just stood there and looked at my siblings.