Between Two Fires

^.^ Chapter 21 ^.^

Cyan's POV

   "I'm not drunk!" I hear my dad's voice scream from the living room. "You slag, you've been sleeping around with your friend and now you don't want me anymore!" His words are slurred and his words would have been incomprehensible to the untrained ear. 

I curl into a ball and make myself as small as possible, sitting close to the railing by the staircase. I knew that my mum hated me getting in the way, afraid it would only end up resulting in me getting hurt. 

"Dad, you are drunk right now, why don't you stop talking and go to bed. It's best to talk about things once you straighten up." My brother's voice is stern and authoritative. It wasn't his first rodeo and lately things had worsened, meaning he had to do this more often. He was going to start his university degree soon and I knew he was stressed about leaving home and moving to the dorm, knowing we would both be left alone to deal with my father.

"Look here boy, you don't understand. Your mother here sends me to bed and spends all night talking to her friends." He slurs. If the situation hadn't put me on edge I would have rolled my eyes. My mum had recently attended a school reunion and he insisted that now she was cheating on him with one of her old friends. Which was not true. He was the one who had cheated on her a few times and only recently had I found that out. 

This had always been my 'role' when my father came home drunk and created a raucous. I was always the wild card, daddy's little girl. Since I was his weakness, t I only went in when things got really bad. I had only really needed to get in the way once before but I had a feeling tonight might be the second time. When I didn't need to go in I would quickly run to my room and pretend to be asleep so that my dad wouldn't catch me spying. I had to maintain an innocent exterior to him for my presence to remain calming and diffuse the situation. Then after he went to bed I would quietly make my way down and help comfort my mum.

A loud crash brings me out of my thoughts and I retain the urge to run downstairs. "She has turned you against me! She is manipulating you so that you don't believe me! Listen here bitch, don't you dare try and turn them against me or I'll make sure you regret it!"  This is followed by my brother telling him to stop and I see my dog, Scruffy, quickly exiting the scene and making his way up the stairs quickly, trying to get as far as possible. Another crash and my heart is almost beating out of my chest, adrenaline kicking in. Unable to contain myself any longer I rush down the steps quietly and use the reflection of the mirror by the entrance to see what the situation is like. 

My dad is standing opposite my mum and brother and my brother is standing in-front of my mum, covering her. One of the vases had been flung to the floor and a photo frame had also suffered some damage.

"Richard stop! - Just stop!" I can tell mum is starting to panic and she moves so that she is in-front of my brother instead. I watch as my dad stumbles to the side a little, using one of the chairs to support himself. 

He grabs the remote from the table, flinging it in their direction, luckily missing completely. My eyes widen and i waltz into the room grabbing his arm and shoving him back. When I was younger, I would just play the innocent card, rubbing my eyes as I walked in and asking what was wrong. I knew that if I did this my dad would end up focusing on reassuring me and he would walk up with me and put me to bed before going to sleep in his own bed. But this time, I didn't feel like playing the innocent card. I was sick and tired of him.

I am fuming, tears streaming down my face and I can tell I have caught him off-guard. "What do you think you are doing! Who do you think you are, its two AM in the morning and you are here shouting your lungs off as if it's two in the afternoon! Can't you tell what you are doing is wrong! And don't you DARE throw things at them anymore! Get yourself under control and grow up! Do you think it's normal for us to live life as if it's a nightmare jsut because you can't get yourself under control!" All the pent up frustration I had been retaining the past few years just explodes out of me and I do little to contain it. I knew my 12 year old figure was no match for my father but I also knew he would think twice before physically harming me so I place myself sternly between him and my mum who is equally as shocked by my appearance as my dad. Although there was much more that i wanted to say, I stop myself, breathing heavily and wipe my face clean of the tears which this man didn't deserve.