Both Broken } Isaac Lahey x OC

• VISIONARY •

"Liam get the door!" Marley said as she spread butter on her toast. She was home alone with Liam because her mum was out with David, so when she heard a knock at the door, she ordered Liam to open it.

"Why can't you?" Liam projected from the living room to the kitchen. Marley dropped her arms onto the worktop.

"Answer the damn door!" She shouted. She heard Liam grunt and then his feet walking through the house. Marley continued to spread butter and listen to mumbled voices from the front of the house.

"Marley, you're boyfriend's here," Liam said, walking into the kitchen and opening the fridge. Marley's head snapped up and saw Isaac awkwardly standing in the doorway. The couple hadn't talked in two days. Marley was upset that Isaac hadn't talked to her about what was going on with him, not to mention Boyd's death and the fact that she was a little jealous that Isaac liked Miss Blake.

"Hey," he said.

"Yeah... hey," Marley said, dropping both her toast and butter knife. "We should, um, go upstairs."

"Ew," Liam said, placing ice cubes in his water. Marley stepped around the counter and and reached for Isaac's hand. It was cold and rough. She held the ends of his fingers loosely.

"Shut up Liam, not like that," Marley said, pulling Isaac to the stairs. "If you eaves drop I'll tell mum that you failed your maths exam."

...

"So," Marley said as she sat at the foot of her bed.

"So," Isaac repeated, sitting next to her, further away than she had hoped.

"We've been here before," Marley said half heartedly. She made subtle and quick eye contact with Isaac, seeing his small smile. But it soon went away as he thought about what he was going to say.

"Marley, I came to talk to you," Isaac said. "About everything. About the motel, about my dad, everything."

"Okay, take your time," Marley said gently. She actually had no idea what Isaac saw at the Motel, but mentioning his father was a give away. Just the thought of him made her sick.

"I- I was just in the room when i started to hear voices. Just quiet voices that I recognised," Isaac said, quieter than usual. "It, um, it was my dad. It was this one time when he was fixing the car and- and I handed him the wrong bolt. He threatened me."

Isaac pulled his sleeves over his hands and clawed at them. He looked down as he retold the story, an icy sweat forming over his brow.

"It's okay, it's okay," Marley mumbled moving closer to him. She touched his closed off hands tenderly and pulled them from their clenched state.

"I was just so scared, and the voices. They wouldn't stop. They wouldn't."

"Isaac?"

"Isaac did you wash the dishes?" Mr Lahey asked.

The boy, only just a freshman, stood behind the kitchen table. He held his chemistry book in his hands tightly. His knuckles were turning white. Isaac was supposed to be going next door to Marley's house to study, but his father had stopped him before he could leave.

"I- I started," Isaac said. His father stared at him from the couch in the living room, watching his micro expressions.

"You started?" Mr Lahey asked, bringing his beer bottle to his lips.

"I didn't wash all of them because I have to be somewhere," Isaac said quietly. He stepped towards the door but was stopped when his father beat him to it.