Little Shelby Girl

Part 27. We're warriors

Vive's POV

I can't believe he just left. At least I expected him to come back to me within half an hour, but he just left my room leaving me here with the story being out in the open. John and the kids already left and I also heard Arthur leave to The Garrisson again. Which means, Polly and Tommy are still in the house.

It's 1 a.m. and I'm too restless to fall asleep. I decide to go out of the bed and sneak downstairs. I refused all the food Polly offered me today, but right now I feel like eating something. Polly is an early sleeper so I bet she's in her room. Tommy on the other hand, hardly ever sleeps. He must be in the living room, drinking and smoking like he always does.

I think he's mad at me about the whole Luke situation. He probably thinks I asked for all of this since he already warned me for Luke and told me to not hang out with him. I hate the fact that he now knows about the things I wanted to do with Luke and I hate that he just didn't say a word about it. I still need to figure out how I can skip school tomorrow. There's no way I am going to be in one room with Luke. What if he told his friends about me, or the girls from our class. Then I'll probably skip school forever.

I put on a loose trouser and a sweater before opening my bedroom door as silent as possible, hoping it won't creak. I sneak downstairs and luckily the kitchen door is still open so no one will hear I'm here. Polly left my meal on the kitchen counter wrapped on a plate. As I want to pick it up the door of the living room swings open with Tommy in the middle. He sighs as he sees me.

"What are you doing? Why aren't you asleep?"

I don't move myself but just look at him. Definitely not in the mood to talk and thereby, he knows why I'm in the kitchen since I'm holding a plate with food. I don't answer him and walk back towards the hall.

"Vive, come'ere." He says as he walks back into the living room, expecting me to follow him. Part of me wants to just continue my way upstairs, other part wants him to speak up so it would be less awkward tomorrow. I decide to take my food to the living room and eat it there.

Tommy's sitting on the couch and gestures to the other side of it. "Sit down." He demands.

I put my food on the table and crawl into the corner of the couch, keeping my distance from Tommy. I pull up my knees to my chin and wait for him to talk to me.

"Vive, what you just told me... it... broke my heart and it made me want to kill the man." Tommy is bend over as always, leaning on his knees. He looks at me with a straight face while he nods and turns his gaze back to the ground.

"I'm sorry I left, but I had to blow off some steam first. You know... if I find the guy I will cut him. No one speaks to you like he did, no one."

"No, I don't want you to do that, I just... want you to leave it." I say shaking my head.

He nods. "I knew you were gonna say that. That's the only reason he's still breathing, but next time, I'll finish him. Just so you know that."

He sticks out his hand, meaning he wants me to come closer to him. I grab his hand and move to his side of the couch.

"Listen to me." He says while he holds my chin with his hand, forcing me to stare into my brothers eyes.

"You are everything... everything but disgusting. Everything that pig told you, is a lie."

I nod and for the first time I feel like he's getting... emotional? He never spoke to me this intense which makes me emotional as well. My eyes still locked on his while I feel tears welling up in my eyes again.

Tommy swallows away his own and continues.

"You are beyond beautiful. Everything about you is beautiful and a guy who treats you like that's not true is not worth having you."

I softly shake my head, turning my eyes to the ground.

"My body isn't like... pretty or anything. All because of dad." I almost whisper.

Tommy's quiet, clearly frustrated by my comment. Then he pulls away from me and stands up from the couch. He looks at me and lets out a deep sigh before taking his bretels off his shoulders. I give him a strange look, unsure about what he's doing. He pulls his white shirt over his head making him stand in front of me bare chested. I've never seen him without a shirt, not so crazy since he's my brother, but still. This is new for me, just like the fact that he has tattoo's.

He sits himself back on the couch.

"Look." he says obviously referring to his upper body. When I take a good look I see besides the tattoo's there are pink scars all over his chest and shoulders. Some are stripes just like mine, others are in hole shapes. He points to them all individually and tells me how he got 'em.

"This is from my time in France. The cuts and bullets left their marks on me as well."

He's trying to read my face since I don't say anything back. I'm out of words but so thankful he's telling me all of this, knowing exactly what he wants to show me and what lesson he wants me to teach.

"You know who has these as well? John and Arthur." He continues while putting his hand on my shoulder rubbing my arm lovingly and giving me a little smile.

"I know you have a lot of scars too, but do you think this is ugly or disgusting?" He says pointing to his body.

I shake my head. "I don't."

"Right. There's nothing wrong with you or your body. Those marks are proof that we Shelby's are warriors, that we know how to survive and we know the downside from life. A man who can't appreciate that... is just a boy. Keep that in mind Vive."

He stands up again putting his shirt back on as he continues.

"Listen, last thing I want to say about this is that I don't want you to lie to my again. There's a reason we don't want you to hang out with people we don't know and protecting you from fuckers like Luke, is one of them. I know you want to try new things and that hanging out with boys can be... exciting, but you have all your life for that. We want you to focus on school and on your work at Charlie, but stop with the boys for now okay?"

I nod. "I promise. I'm sorry."

He then sticks out his hands and I climb on his lap hugging him like my life depends on it. Never imagined that he could take all the negative feelings away with just one speech. He couldn't be more right about everything and I'm glad I see that now.

He hugs me back and gives me a kiss on the cheek.

"What about tomorrow then?" I ask when I pull back from him.

"Tomorrow is just a day like all others. You go to school, listen to your teacher and you ignore all negative distractions around you. Whatever happens, your family is nearby. Trust me okay?"

I nod while falling back into my brothers arms, planning on never letting go, at least not for tonight.

"I love you." I whisper before closing my eyes and finally getting the rest I was hoping for this whole weekend.