Chapter 3
Autumn heads to the lunch room with me and I put my stuff down as usual then head to the lunch line. I noticed Autumn still has her stuff with her but I just shrugged it off. Once I got my food and went to my table Scarlet joins me. “Hey sis.” I say as she sits beside me. “Did that creep bother you again?” I asked as Autumn joins us and we both glance at her. “What?” She asks innocently as she grabs her notebook and pen. “Cole, who is this?” Scarlet asks me and Autumn looks confused. “Sis, this is Autumn, Autumn this is my sister, Scarlet.” I say as I pop a grape in my mouth. “Nice to meet you.” Autumn says as Scarlet nods. “Why did you call him Cole? Didn’t you mean Lucas?” Autumn asks before taking a bite of her pizza. “No, I meant Cole.” Scarlet says and I smile a little at Autumn’s confusion. “My full name is Lucas Cole Adams. My family calls me Cole.” I say as she nods understanding. “Okay is she your only sister or do you have more siblings?” Autumn asks and Scarlet raises her eyebrow. “I have three more siblings besides Scarlet.” I say and then I turned to face Scarlet. “We have an assignment in English that requires us to stick to each other like glue.” I tell Scarlet as Autumn laughs. “Our English teacher wants us to get to know our partner and write a two page essay about them.” Autumn says as I grin. After answering a few more questions from Autumn the bell rings.
Autumn and I walk into History class and instead of taking her usual seat she sits in the desk next to me. “Autumn.” I whispered as she leans closer to hear me. “When Mr. Parker said to stick to each other like glue, I don’t think he meant it literally.” I say as her face reddens and I laugh a little. “Sorry.” She says and I smirk as the teacher walks in the classroom. After class was over with I met Scarlet in the parking lot. “Ready?” I ask as she nods and we ride home together. Once we are home, I noticed that Jackie and Richard are there also. “Shit.” I say as I pulled my forgotten phone out of my back pocket. Five missed calls and ten text messages. I pressed my mouth into a thin line and brace myself before walking into the house. When I walk into the house I immediately tell Scarlet to take the kids outside. “Why didn’t you answer our calls or texts?!” Jackie shouts as she and Richard come into the living room. “I told you, I was in class.” I say simply as anger flashes in their eyes. I stand my ground, keeping my face emotionless as Jackie says, “That’s your excuse? You were in class?” “Yes I was and if I had answered your call or texts they would have taken my phone away and you would have to go to the office to get it back, and I am pretty sure you don’t want to go up there.” I say as Jackie’s face twitches and a loud smack echoes through the house where she slapped me. I bite my tongue and turn my head to face them. “Go upstairs, I’ll be up there in a minute.” Richard says as I push past them and go to my room.
A minute later just like he had said he came in my room as I sat on my bed and he took his belt off. “Come here.” Richard says as I get up off my bed and walked towards him. He grabbed my arm and jerked me to him. “What the heck man?” I say as he pushes me up against the wall. I prepare myself as the leather belt pierces against my butt. Then another one. And another. You can hear the sound of the belt hit against me echo through the house and I pray that my brothers and sisters can’t hear it. I count each lick he gives me until he stops at seven. He jerks me around to face him and spats in my face, “Next time do as you’re told.” He shoves me to the ground before he leaves my room. I exhale twice before getting up. I decide I would take a nap before I go to work, so I set my alarm to wake me up at six. Then I locked my door and took my shirt off. I looked in the mirror and saw my back. “They will be permanently on your back forever. There’s nothing more I can do.” The doctor’s voice rings inside my head. I shook my head to clear the thoughts and went to lay down.
Amanda’s pov:
We heard it, we all heard it. I cringed at the sound of the belt hitting him as the little kids looked like they could start crying at any second. “What’s going on?” Ben asks as I got on one knee and said, “Cole is in trouble and um they are talking to him.” I couldn’t. I couldn’t do it. I could not sit there and tell him that his brother was getting whipped. Timmy and Keira knew exactly why I was not telling Ben about the whipping part. “Kids, come inside now!” Richard shouts out the back door and we all go inside. “Sit down.” Jackie says as we all obey and sit down. “Jackie and I will be leaving the house for a week to go take care of some business, okay? So, Lucas is in charge. We will be leaving tonight.” Richard says as we all nod and they go to their room to pack up. I look at the clock and see its five-thirty. “Okay guys, go do your homework and I’ll go check on Cole.” I say as they nod and went to get started. Before I could go upstairs, the doorbell rings. Shocked and confused at why the doorbell rings, I go answer it before Richard and Jackie finds out. “Hey! I...” “Shh!” I said cutting Autumn off as I grab her hand and pulled her upstairs. “What are you doing here?” I whispered once we were in my room. “To work on the assignment with Lucas.” Autumn says as I roll my eyes and said, “He is gonna have to go to work in about thirty minutes.” “Oh good, I can just go with him.” She says as I roll my eyes again. I motioned her to follow me and put my finger to my lips telling her to be quiet. She nods as we go to Cole’s room and the door is locked, but it slides on open. I opened the door as Autumn slips in and walks over to where Cole is. Stalker. I thought to myself as I hear her gasp lowly and her hand goes to her mouth. Worried I walk over to see Cole is sleeping shirtless and is laying on his stomach, showing his back off. I gasp a little too, not because of his back but because Autumn has seen it. I quickly pull her out of there and back into my room. Before she can ask any questions I say, “If you EVER mention this to anybody, I swear I will kill you.” She looks shocked and scared but I don’t care. “B-But what happened? Why is his back like that?” She asks me and I sigh. “It’s his place to tell you not mine. If he doesn’t want to talk about it, don’t push it.” I tell her as I hear Cole’s alarm go off. “Can you at least tell me why I can’t ask him about it or whatever?” She asks me and I close my door so Cole won’t hear us. “Because it has to do with his past and he doesn’t like to talk about it. So please listen to me. If he doesn’t want to talk about it, don’t push him.” I whispered to her as I go into the hallway and Autumn follows me. I knock on Cole’s door and he says, “Come in.” I open the door as Autumn and I step in as he puts his shirt over his head, showing Autumn his six-pack. “Hey oh.” He says as he pulls his shirt down and looks at Autumn, his face going red a little. “What are you doing here?” He asks Autumn and she blushes then says, “Our assignment.” He laughs a little and shakes his head. “Oh hey guess what?” I say to Cole as he buttons his shirt and says, “Yeah?” “Richard and Jackie are gonna go out of town for a week.” I say as his eyes widen and his mouth drops, but quickly turns to a smile. He grabs me by my waist, lifts me up, and spins me while he laughs. “That’s wonderful news, sis.” He says as he puts me down and I fix his collar for him. He gives me a smile and I give him a hug. Clearing her throat we turned to see Autumn and her face reddens a little. “Oh hey, I got to go to work, can you take care of the kids for me?” He says with pleading eyes as I smile and say, “Of course I will.” He sighs with relief and kisses my cheek before he heads downstairs. Autumn and I follow him and when we walked into the living room, the kids were giving him hugs and kisses before he left for work. “Don’t worry, I’ll be back later.” He tells him before he heads to the door. “Lucas!” Jackie shouted as my eyes widened and I hid Autumn in the kitchen. “Guys, go upstairs. Now.” Cole tells them as they grab their homework and head to their rooms. “Lucas!” Jackie shouts again as she comes into the living room. I pull Autumn to the other side of the table where we had a clear view of what was happening in the living room between Jackie and my brother. “What?” He hisses at her and she slaps him across the face as Autumn gasps lowly and puts her hand to her mouth. “It’s ma’am. Not what. Understand?” She shouts at him and I could tell he was biting his tongue. “Now listen. Richard and I are going to go out of town for a week, you are in charge. Where are you going?” She tells him as he nods okay and says, “Work.” “Work? No, you have to babysit. You are staying here tonight.” Jackie says as I pray Cole doesn’t talk back. “How else are the bills gonna get paid? How will the kids get fed, huh? Besides Scarlet will be here. They will be fine. Unless of course, you want to pay the bills.” Cole says and I sigh softly hoping Jackie will let him off the hook for once. Jackie glares at him until she lets out a sigh and says, “Go to work.” Jackie turns around and heads back to her room and its safe for us to come out. “You okay?” I ask him as I look at his cheek. He simply looks down at his shoes and says, “Yes, I’m fine. Call me if you need me, okay?” He gives me kiss on my cheek before he and Autumn leave.