Short Stories

Short Story 4

A/N- Trigger Warning- mentions of abuse.

There was a tap at Avery's window. She looked up from bed to see a very drunk Emerson fumbling with the latch. She got up and slid the window up.

"Hey." Emerson said, drawing out the y's.

"Em what's going on? You don't talk to me for weeks then you show up at my window drunk?" Avery said and Emerson giggled like a four year old. Emerson fell into the room with a loud thud causing  Avery to cringe. She really hoped her parents didn't hear it from the living room. She paused for a second to listen for footsteps but didn't hear any.

"Seriously Em. Why are you here?" She said a little too harshly causing Emerson to whimper like a hurt puppy.

"Brandon didn't want me anymore. Said I was too much of a slut for anyone to love me. So I stole my mom's bottle of vodka and drank it. I didn't want to be home anymore so I came here."

"You walked here?!" Avery said worried about how Emerson started to cry, "you know how dangerous that is at 10:30 at night." That made Emerson cry harder. Avery didn't know what to do. Emerson was always so happy but she started pulling away when she met Brandon. Avery sat next to her and hugged her. Emerson turned to her and cried in Avery's shoulder.

"Come on honey, you need to sleep it off." Avery said.

"I didn't sleep with anyone. I never cheated. I'm not a slut." Emerson said through sniffles.

"I know." Avery said soothingly like her mom used to do years ago. Emerson sat on the bed while Avery got her a pair of pajamas to wear. She got a pair of shorts and and old t-shirt and handed them to Emerson. She helped Emerson take her shirt off and what she saw shocked her to her core. A bruise consistent of being kicked in the stomach. It wasn't more than a day old. The look on Avery's face must of gave it away because Emerson put her arms across her stomach. A look of worry and scared crossed Emerson's face.

"Let me see it." Avery said softly. Emerson slowly released her arms and Avery touched it and Emerson flinched. It looked the ones Avery used to so desperately tried to cover when she was living with her biological dad. Before she got adopted. Avery checked over Emerson body, looking for bruises, cuts, anything. She found yellowing fingerprints on her wrists from being held too tight. Emerson, still sitting in a bra and jeans, sniffled breaking Avery out of her thoughts. Avery gave her pajamas and Emerson changed. Avery tucked Emerson into bed and went to set up a makeshift on the floor. Emerson pulled Avery's arm.

"Stay?" She asked and Avery climbed in bed with her. Emerson rolled over and rested her head on Avery's chest, and hugged her close. Avery waited a little bit so she knew Emerson was asleep. It didn't take long for Emerson to drift off into sleep. Avery quietly slipped out of bed and went to her parent's room. Her mom was sleeping but her other dad wasn't there. She went downstairs to find her dad making tea. He turned around to find a very scared Avery.

"Why aren't you in bed? Is everything ok?" He asked.

"Can I talk to you?"

"Of course."

"Emerson is in my room right now."

"Is she ok?"

"No." Avery started shaking and holding back tears. Her dad saw that and wrapped her in a hug.

"Hey, it's ok. It'll be ok." He said trying to calm her down.

"Can we wake mom? I want to talk to both of you."

"Yeah, let me get her. Go sit on the couch and drink the tea I made."

"Ok." He went upstairs to his room to wake up his wife. She came out of the room yawning and sat next to Avery. Her dad sat on the other side of her. Avery took a deep breath before talking.

"Emerson is in my room right now sleeping off the bottle of vodka she stole from her parents. She's not ok. Her boyfriend broke up with her saying  that she's a slut. She's been distancing herself from Orion, Jasper, and I ever since she started dating him. I always had a bad gut feeling about him. Every time I tried to talk to her, to tell her he wasn't good for her," At this point Avery was crying their arms, "She'd pull even more away. The last time I talked to her she said that he was right, that I was jealous and that I was trying to break them up. When she changed into my pajamas, I saw a fresh bruise on her stomach. I think she was kicked. I think it was the first time she was hit but I think he's been emotionally abusing her. I saw yellowing marks on her wrists from being held too tight. I'm really scared. I don't  know what to do."

"Oh honey its gonna be ok." Her mom said when Avery buried her head into her chest. Her mom looked at her dad with a worried look on her face.