"Come on, B. We are going to be late!" Dalton yells from the bottom of the stairs while I throw my backpack over my shoulder.
"I'm coming!" I shout, tucking my hair behind my ear as I leap down the stairs.
"Looking nice." Dalton whistles teasingly, making my self confidence climb slightly and I smile.
"Not so bad yourself." I nod at his clean appearance for the first day of school.
"Do not forget, our first game is on Friday." He reminds me for the eightieth time in the past two days.
"I won't, I promise." I say assuringly as we scoot out the door, finding the others have already piled into their vehicles. Just as I am about to make my way to my own, Tanner pulls his car into the drive.
"Want a ride?" He shouts and I nod, glancing back to the boys.
"See you guys there?" My eyes meet Rodger's, he watched me out his truck window before backing out past Tanner and leaving the driveway.
*
After both Tanner and I have gotten our schedules, locker numbers, and layout of our new school, we discover that we have three of the six classes together. I breathe a sigh of relief, comforted that he will be with me half of the day, and during the lunch hour.
We make our way through the hallway, eyes following us as we moved past our fellow students. Two new kids had made their way into the school, and people were obviously curious. Girls had their eyes glue to Tanner, whispering amongst themselves as they take in how attractive he was.
He shot smiles their direction, and slapped hands with a few faces he found to be familiar until we have found our lockers, which were three apart from each other. After we have unloaded the extra things from our bags, we slip into our first hour class and take our seats.
*
The day passes quickly, discovering that I shared two of my classes also with Dalton, as well as lunch hour with three of the Parker boys.
Tanner and I had been waved over by Dalton, forcing us to claim two seats at their table. Most of the company included a few members from the football team, their girlfriends, and a few random faces I had not met until then.
I take a seat in my last hour, greeted by a warm smile from the girl beside me as I arrange myself into the desk. Slowly, students make their way into the room, filling all but a few seats in the back. The bell rings, the teacher's desk in the front of the room remaining empty.
The door is pulled open, and Rodger slinks inside, his eyes finding the empty desk much like my own had down seconds before. Relief flashes before his face as he makes his way to one of the empty seats in the back.
"I'm Monica." The girl beside me says, her brown eyes meeting mine.
"Brooklyn." I smile and she twists in her seat to face me.
"We lucked out and got Mr. Tucker. He is hardly ever in his classroom, and when he is, the football channel is on, and he's passed out." She informs me, explaining the empty desk and the room full of only students.
She goes on to introduce herself, allowing me to know that she comes from a home with two highschool-sweetheart parents, two siblings, and has been in a relationship with her current boyfriend for over two years.
Her bubbly personality was infectious, making our conversation full of laughs and positive topics. She asks about my family, and why I moved here, which I am easily able to explain with the 'my father works away from home' line, and don't mention my mom.
When the bell rings, we gather our things and leave the classroom, thankful the first day has come to an end. Tanner bumps into us in the hallway, allowing for a quick introduction before Monica breaks away to find her boyfriend Marcus, who was her ride home.
Tanner and I chatter the way home about our day, finding that it had been a smoother day than we both had thought it was going to be. Stopping for smoothies, we slurp happily until we pull into the park that has become our spot. We toss our backpacks onto the picnic table and complete the few minor homework assignments the teachers had given us.
Hanging out a while, the sun begins to dip lower, making us retreat back to the car and on our way home. After dropping me off at the house, I shower and change out of my school clothes, eager to get into something more comfortable.
Wendy calls us all down for dinner, a heaping plate of spaghetti and garlic bread wait for us on the table. While we are eating, she informs us that she will be returning home to her parents, for her father was still very sick. We help her clean up, and give her tight hugs before she leaves out the front door, leaving me alone again in this house full of boys.
Thomas had left for college a little over a week ago, dropping the number of boys to seven.
I am upstairs painting my toenails when my phone rings loudly, putting a pause on the music that was playing from my speakers.
"Hey, what's up?" I answer, finding Tanner's name on the caller ID.
"Can I come over?" His voice was breathless, and quick, making me slowly put the brush back into the bottle of polish.
"Of course, is everything okay?"
The sound of a door slamming shut can be heard in the background, followed by the padding of footsteps on concrete.
"I'll be there in a minute."
He hangs up before anything else can be said, dropping the phone into my hand, I set it and the nail polish on my nightstand and make my way downstairs to meet him at the front door. Standing on the front step, I watch down the street as his camaro backs out of his driveway quickly, and to our driveway instead.
It was dark outside, blinding me from seeing him after he turns his headlights off, I hear the car door open and then close, followed by footsteps growing closer. I can make out his figure from the porchlight as he draws near, but only when he is standing under the light in front of me can I see the bloody rag he held to his lip.
Droplets covered his white t-shirt, head slanted shamefully so I could only see one side of his face as he throws an overnight bag over his shoulder.
"What happened?" My voice is laced with worry and confusion, stepping towards him, I remove the cloth from his lip gently. His bottom lip was split wide, making it swollen twice its size. Now that I stand face to face with him, I see that his left eye was swollen as well, almost so much so that he could hardly see. In addition, the eyebrow above was split open, leaving a small trickle of slightly dried blood down his temple.
"Tanner, what happened to you?" I ask again when I got nothing but silence the first time. He takes the cloth from my hand, and steps away from me once. "Come inside."
I usher him in the house, quickly grabbing two bottles of water and a bag of frozen peas from the kitchen. Rodger sits at the dining room table, watching me silently as I retrieve my things and scurry out of the kitchen.
"Hey man, how's," Dalton begins as he trots down the steps towards Tanner, his voice faltering when he sees his appearance. "Jesus, would hate to see the other guy, you alright?"
Tanner mumbles a quick excuse before I tear him away to my bedroom. Once inside, I continue pulling him into the bathroom, propping him against the bathroom counter. Digging through the drawers, I locate peroxide and band aids.
Both of us are silent as I work to clean him up, making him wince once or twice under my touch. So many questions flooded through my brain, wanting to know who had done this to my friend and why.
"Remember how I said my dad was a hard man to please?" He breaks the silence as I run the bloody cloth under cold water, watching the white porcelain turn red as it washes down the drain.
"Your dad did this to you?" My heart breaks as I search his face, silently hoping he would object and tell me I had things twisted.
He doesn't, instead he remains pressed against my bathroom sink, looking broken and defeated.
By his own father.
I turn off the water, pulling him into a tight hug. Both of his arms loop around my waist, squeezing me with a tight hold that steals my breath. We stand entwined like that, in a silence screaming so loudly in the bathroom it could swallow us whole.
"He's an alcoholic, once the bottle touches his lips, he loses his head." He pulls away from me, grabbing the clean cloth from the counter, and turns to the mirror to finish cleaning himself up.
"Everything will be fine when he has sobered up." He adds, trying to reassure me as he senses my concern, and himself.
"What about your mom, why doesn't she-.."
"He used to hit her too, until I was old enough to stop him." He shakes his head, eyes remaining away from mine. "She took the overnight nurses shift at the hospital, and spends most of her time there. It's safer than her being at home."
Anger fueled my veins, my eyes burning as they began to fill with water, looking at the reflection of his battered face.
"There has to be something that can be done, you can't keep living in a situation like that,"
"Brook, I'm okay. Everything is going to be fine. I promise." He turns away from the mirror to face me, forcing his swollen lip into a smile, he puts an arm around my shoulder and directs me back into my bedroom.
"Do you still have those M&Ms?"