This One's For You (Of Mice & Men Fanfiction)

Chapter 2

Delilah's P.O.V

There was a loud crash from the kitchen, and I rolled out of bed, just to seem like I was waking up. I didn't want to go out to the kitchen in case Dad was angry, and that was a sight nobody would ever want to see. Usually he'd shout, throw things, and eventually punch someone. Since I was the only one around to ever see him angry, that someone would be me. I got dressed in black skinny jeans and a bright blue shirt before quietly opening my door and peering out to see Dad pacing back and forth between the kitchen and lounge room. I didn't make another sound in fear that he would get angry at me, and waited for him to go to the pub. I never left my room if Dad was home. Unless he was asleep, but then I would make sure to leave before he woke up. When Dad had left, I opened my door completely and looked in the kitchen to see that there was broken glass everywhere. Dad probably did that. Tip-toeing so I didn't step on any glass, I went to the door and slipped on my shoes, and then saw that amongst the beer bottles on the coffee table, there was a small piece of paper that looked like a lottery ticket. When I picked it up I saw that Dad had actually made a bet - and lost all of our money. We were never very well off in the first place, so losing what we had left was probably the stupidest thing you could do. It didn't effect me very much, since he never actually took care of me, but it was still a really idiotic thing to do. Shaking my head in disgust, I got up and went to get my stuff for school, even though it was only six in the morning, when Dad came storming back in. He didn't say anything, and I don't know what came over me, but I had to talk to him about it. "Why did you throw away all of your money?" I blurted out, before realising what would happen. He yelled at me for about ten minutes, saying stuff that wasn't relevant, and about how I should "mind my own business". I wanted to go back to my room but if I did he would follow me anyways, so I didn't see the point. When he'd finished yelling at me, which seemed like forever, he stood about five centimetres away from me in complete silence for a few seconds before pulling his fist back and throwing it at my face. Well, fuck. I screamed and fell to the floor before he yelled at me for that and kicked me. I ended up lying at his feet until he left again, not coming back. I fell asleep on the cold, hard floor, hoping for Dad not to come back.

There was a knock at the door, so hoping it wasn't Dad, I dragged myself up off of the floor to answer it. I opened the door cautiously, but saw it was only Austin and a grin appeared on my face. "Hi!" I greeted him, but his face was filled with pure worry. "What happened to your face!?" He exclaimed. Fuck, I didn't realise it was that bad. "Wait here." I told Austin, and went to cover the bruise up with makeup. There was still glass everywhere, so I made sure Austin didn't come inside. It only took about thirty seconds, and when I came back, Austin still looked worried. "What actually did happen?" He asked, and I tried to avoid the question, but he wouldn't stop asking. I eventually told him, but quickly wished I hadn't. "Is that what the yelling was at six this morning?" He asked, and I simply nodded. "I should've come down here and stopped him, fuck." He whined. "It's fine, it's not like you knew it was him anyways." I told him, and he shrugged. "I still could've helped. No matter who it was." We were silent for a few seconds before Austin changed the subject. "Well what about my offer?" Austin asked. "What offer?" I asked, slightly confused. "To go on tour.. with me.. so you can stop.." Austin said, and grabbed my arm and pointed at every cut on there. I finally remembered what he was talking about. I thought it would be a good idea, but at the same time I wanted to die. So desperately. I sighed and closed the apartment door. "I'll tell school that I won't be there for a month. Good enough?" I said, and a huge grin spread across Austins face as he nodded and hugged me. "You'll be so much happier once I've shown you what an amazing place this is. I promise." He said, and started to go upstairs. "Wait! Do you have a phone number that I could text or something?" I asked, and he came back and wrote his number on my hand with a texta. I thanked him and headed off to school, which was like my daytime nightmare. My daymare, if you will.

I walked to school, which took half an hour, so I was of course late. I hadn't had anything to eat, but I never ate so I wasn't exactly hungry. Wow, the hospital really didn't care about my health did they. That bloody nurse just wanted me to keep living my dreadful life. When I got into my first class, everyone turned to look at me. God, I was late, I hadn't killed five people. I sat down in the only seat left, which of course meant that I had to sit next to someone I hate. Which was generally the entire school so I really can't win. The teacher continued babbling on about random shit, and I got out my phone and texted Austin to give him my number. I usually just slept in class, since Dad didn't let me have any sleep at home, but usually someone would wake me up for some stupid reason. "Delilah, whore! I heard why you were away for two days. You tried to kill yourself! Thanks for taking my advice!" Came the voice from next to me. I ignored what they said and put my head on the desk. Someone from the front of the room threw a ball of paper at me, which I ignored as well. The rest of the day continued like that, along with someone punching me and kicking me in the stomach when I'd fallen over. If it meant getting out of this hellhole for a month, maybe this tour thing would actually be alright.

By the end of the school day, I'd realised that I still hadn't told the teachers that I'd be gone, so I told the year advisor who agreed to email me all of the work I needed to do. I'd told them that my uncle had died and that my aunty needed someone with her for support, and hoped that they wouldn't give me any work. That didn't really go to plan though, unfortunately.

I heard a ringing from my pocket, and took out my phone to see that Austin was calling me. "Hello!" I answered it, cheerful as ever. I was used to talking to him like that, he was different to anybody else I'd talked to. "Yo! So I told the rest of the band and they think it's sweet that you're coming on tour!" He announced, which made me actually happy. "Awesome!" I replied, and we talked on the phone for a few minutes while I was walking home. He told me that we leave in two days, so I went to pack all my clothes and other shit I would need. I was actually really excited at this point, I'd always wondered what it was like for all of these bands to go on tour. I didn't play an instrument, or even listen to much music, but it'd be cool to meet a bunch of musicians that support people like me. Austin told me that the tour we were going on was called Warped Tour, and I'd heard people talking about it at school. Listening to a few of the bands made me cry, really. Their music was so relatable, I didn't realise what I was missing out on. This tour was going to be amazing. I would even fit in the crowd with my black hair and dark makeup. There are a lot of little emo kids at Warped Tour.. right? Oh god, this was going ot be insane.