***WARNING: ABUSE
I turned to Zack, "How do you think he is?"
"Judging by the way he looks, not good." I watched the pale, angry man walk towards the door. "We should move." Zack grabbed my arm and pulled me up the steps to his room.
"Why are we hiding?" I whispered to him.
"We aren't. You are. I want to see how he is, first.... just in case." He walked out of the room and shut the door behind him.
I sat silently, trying to listen to the conversation down stairs. Suddenly the talking turned to yelling. I couldn't understand what they were yelling, but they were fighting about something. I heard glass smash and a loud thud. I glanced around the room and saw Zack's old baseball bat, I grabbed it then walked down the stairs. There wasn't anyone in the living room, so I continued to the kitchen. I stepped into the kitchen and saw Zack knocked out on the floor with a cut on his forehead, I looked up and saw my dad staring at me.
"Tyler," he staggered over to me, "where is everyone else?"
"T-they are all out." He started coming closer, I backed up until I bumped into the wall.
"Why is that? Do you think they abandoned you too? I didn't want to leave any of the other kids, just you. You have always been the problem." He got so close that I could smell the alcohol on his breath. "You worthless piece of garbage." He smacked me across the face.
I touched my stinging face and pulled my hand away with a little blood on it. "No dad, you're the problem. You're the one that always upset mom. Anytime there was a problem in the house, it was started by you." I stood pridefully, bat ready to swing.
"What did you say?" He quickly turned and ran towards me. Once he got close enough I swung the bat to his ribs he stumbled for a second and I tried to escape. Right before I reached for the front door knob, he grabbed the hood of my shirt. "Not so fast." He turned me around. I screamed as I felt a sudden sharp pain in my leg. I felt blood trickle down my calf. I slammed my fist into his face as hard as I could. He dropped me to the floor, I quickly looked at my leg which I could hardly stand on, he had shoved his small knife into it. It wasn't that big of a deal, I might need stitches though. Before I knew it a dark shadow was towering over me, "You'll regret this Tyler." Dad kicked me in the side of the head, knocking me out.
My eyes slowly opened, I was on the floor, but the house was quiet. I tried to stand but my leg was still in pain. I took off my hoodie and T-shirt I had on under it, I wrapped the shirt around my leg and put my hoodie back on. I slowly stood up and limped back to mom and dads room. I saw dad asleep on his bed so I quietly closed the door. I went back to where I last saw Zack, but he was gone. I pulled myself up the stairs and went to Zack's room. I found him cleaning his cut out in his bathroom. "You okay?" I slid my body up onto his sink.
"Yeah. I'll be fine." He smiled sadly at me. "What about you?"
"Oh I'm fine." I decided not to say anything to Zack about my injuries.
"Really?" I nodded my head. "Well your lip says otherwise."
I turned to look at myself in the mirror. "Shoot." He laughed.
"Here." He grabbed a rag and dipped it in warm water while I pulled out my phone.
"Hello?" Maddie answered.
"Hey, where are you?" I watched as Zack squeezed the rag.
"I'm about to pull in."
"Don't." I said quickly, "I mean, why don't you go stay with Jay and grandma for a few days."
"Oh, um. I guess I could. What about Tatum?" She sounded suspicious.
"Just so Jay doesn't have to be away from us long, we all know that you're his favorite. We can bring some clothes to you. And uhhhhh, Tatum can go too." Zack put the rag to my lip and started wiping the blood away I gasped a little from the stinging sensation.
"Sorry." Zack mouthed, I nodded it off.
"Okay, I guess that's fine. Are you okay?"
"Yep. I'll be out shortly." I hung up the phone.
"Maddie and Tatum are going to stay with grandma for awhile." I told Zack as he finished wiping off my mouth.
"Good. We need to keep them out of here. You should leave too." He hung up his rag.
"I don't want to leave you alone."
"You sure? I'll be fine."
"Yeah, judging by the way he knocked you out earlier I'm sure you'd be fine." I mocked sarcastically.
"Whatever." He smirked.
"I'll go get Maddie some clothes and stuff and bring them to her."
"Okay." I jumped of the counter but winced in pain, my hand shooting down to my calf. "What's wrong?" Zack looked worried.
"N-nothing. I'm fine." I limped out and into Maddie's room. I gathered her things then took them to her.
"Here you go." I handed her the bag.
"Thanks. You sure you and Zack will be okay?"
"Yep. We'll let you know how dad is, he just came in and went straight to bed." I gave her a half smile.
"Okay. I love you, be safe." She smiled at me and I stepped back as she drove off. I slowly got back into the house, up the stairs, and into Zack's room.
"Okay. What's wrong?" He pointed to my leg.
"Nothing." I laid back on his bed.
"If you don't tell me, I can't help."
I sighed, "It's nothing really."
"Them let me look."
"Fine." He squatted down and rolled up my pant leg. He untied the shirt and looked at the wound.
"Oh my gosh, Tyler. What did he do?"
"He just, well, kinda... I guess... stabbed me?" I questioned myself. "It wasn't that bad. Just a small knife, I feel like stabbed is over exaggerating."
"I don't." Zack shook his head. "I need to clean this out. Stay here."
"Okay." I sighed after a few seconds I began to feel tired, I let my eyes close as I slipped into a deep sleep.
"Tyler, Tyler wake up." Zack shook me lightly, I was still in his bed but I was laying on it properly with my body under the covers.
"What time is it?" I mumbled.
"6:00." Zack say beside me. "You've only been asleep for a few hours."
"Has dad woken up?"
"Not yet. I don't imagine we'll be seeing him until the morning."
"I hope we won't."
"Yeah, well, if he stays like this I'm going to talk to Tatum, maybe you guys can move in with us."
"Would we stay at college with you guys?"
"We might get an apartment."
"Oh, okay." I sat up.
"What do you want for dinner? I can cook something if you'd like." Zack suggested.
"I don't care, whatever you want."
"Okay. Well you have to eat too. How do sandwiches sound?"
"Actually really good." I laughed.
"Good." He stood up, "Lets go."
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Hey guys! I don't really like this chapter but.... oh well. Here it is. Hopefully the next one will be better. ✌🏻
- PeteyWentzy