✓ 𝐓𝐑𝐎𝐔𝐁𝐋𝐄𝐌𝐀𝐊𝐄𝐑, 𝘫. 𝘮𝘢𝘺𝘣𝘢𝘯𝘬 ¹

44

"Hello.?"

Lynn searched the dirty house, practically the same as she had left it before, but he didn't seem to be around.

"I got some of the money for the restitution," Lynn stated to the emptiness, and her blue eyes landed on the wooden table. Her father seemed to be rolling a blunt as she walked in, and he looked awfully annoyed she had interrupted him.

"Like hell you did, you're a lazy—"

"—I got twelve k, and I-I'll get more," Lynn interrupted, not wanting to hear the list of disgusting words her father had for her now.

The man rose up from his seat at the table, and instinctively Lynn backed up a foot or so. Her chest was noticeably heaving, and she was trying her to best to show him, to show him she wasn't scared of him, to show him that he couldn't hurt her no matter how hard she tried.

Lynn peeled the wad of money from her back pocket, and held it in her hand for merely a moment before the man snatched it out of her grip.

"That's all you got?"

Lynn's body quivered uncontrollably as he took a threatening step forward, and when she tried to back up, her back only hit the metal frame of the door.

"I-I said I'd get more and I—"

Lynn was interrupted when a fist collided with the door behind her, her eyes were squeezed shut as she was expecting the fist to hit her square in the face. When she opened them, her fathers face was viciously close to hers, and no matter how much she pressed the small of her back away from him, she couldn't.

"You're always making up some damn excuses!"

"Like you with the goddamn police!?" Lynn snapped back, and she was almost shocked in her sudden confidence in herself. "Saying I stole shit from you? The hell was to steal!? You did nothing for me!"

Lynn winced as the mans palm collided with her cheek, instantly leaving a stinging sensation behind. She raised her hand to touch it, almost covering it from any other possible wound, but that didn't seem to stop her anger.

Little did she know, JJ's attention was now peeled directly for the house. He had heard some rumbling along with faded yelling, and debating with himself whether or not he should go into the house.

"Fuck you!" Lynn screamed, and she shoved the mans chest, backing him up a foot or so. "You did nothing for me! My entire fucking life! You may be my father, but you'll never be my dad. You'll never be my family."

"So you're worthless ass is going to be alone for your whole goddamn life?" The man spat, gritting his teeth towards her.

"I have a family," Lynn stated, and she almost felt a smile appear on her face.

She did have a family.

She had JJ Maybank, the boy who most definitely cared and loved her most in the entire world. She had John B Routlegde, the boy who somehow always knew how to make her laugh even when she felt her lowest. She had Kiara Carrera, the girl cared so deeply about everyone around her that they would never be forgotten. She had Pope Heyward, the boy who would never lead someone into the dark without having an entire plan dedicated. She had Sarah Cameron, the girl who already felt like a best friend for years.

"I have a family! They may not be my blood, but they are my family. They're closer than anything you could ever be."

Even though Lynn's speech was moving, her father didn't seem to be affected at all. He reached forward, grabbing a chunk of her hair close to her scalp, and dragged her back to where he was originally sitting at the table.

Lynn had let out a yelp, and in that moment, JJ out on the sidewalk had decided that it was enough. Whatever the hell was going on, he wasn't going to have Lynn go through it alone.

Lynn kneed the man in the groin, and instantly his grip on her had loosened. She had managed to get out, but that didn't make much of a difference since he still had the wad of cash in his other hand.

Just as Lynn was about to try to make a move on him, her father raised the back of his hand to collide with the same cheek as before. She fell to the ground, feeling a ringing in her head as she did so.

But both people froze in their steps as they had heard the front door open, and there stood JJ, staring with the widest blue eyes Lynn had ever saw. He had just witnessed the whole thing, and he couldn't even process what had actually happened.

"Who's this dipshit?"

"J, I said stay outside!" Lynn howled, and as she rose herself up for the ground she was cruelly interrupted as her father once again grabbed her hair.

"The hell are you doing to her!?" JJ snapped, and instantly he darted forward towards the wrestling Bardots. "Get the fuck off her!"

JJ shoved the man with as much strength as he had, making him bump into the wooden chair and eventually land with a thump on the ground. After seeing the man would be down for a second, he rushed to Lynn, who had once again fallen to the ground in a sudden heap.

JJ helped her up from the ground, and he could see the tears already threatening to spill from Lynn's eyes. She had a red mark on her cheek, and JJ swore he could quite literally see the hand print from what he assumed would be her father.

That's when the red took over his eyes.

Neither JJ nor Lynn knew how many times JJ had landed his fist on her fathers face, but she thought it would never end. As much as she hated her father and how much she wanted to see him get the ass beating he deserved, seeing JJ cower over his body on the ground just made everything inside of her break.

"JJ, stop! Please, stop!"

Lynn pulled at JJ's arms, and after seemingly a moment of realizing that her father was competent unconscious from the beating, he ceased. When she glanced over to the man bleeding on the ground, she saw his lip, nose, and teeth were gushing blood.

"He deserved it," JJ muttered, but Lynn couldn't tell the difference of whether he was trying to convince her, or himself.

She gazed down to his now bloody knuckles, and she only gasped at how beaten they looked. The tears were now staining her cheeks as she backed up a few feet from her fathers unconscious body, and she felt like her lungs weren't working anymore and she couldn't get air in or out.

"He deserved it," JJ said again, but a bit louder this time. He kneeled down beside his body, grabbing the wad of cash the man had dropped in the process, and then back towards Lynn. "Evie?"

"What did you do?"