hurt | luke hemmings

5

TW: abuse and mentions of sexual assault

Five

I laid on the floor in the kitchen, staring at the ceiling as it spun around. My mother packed her bag while I faced my punishment for missing Saturday. "Three of my friends already planned on what to do to you, and I had money on the line," my father screamed. "Now we have some Goddamn doctors on our case, and if you or Alex say anything you are going to pay," I didn't reply with words, I just laid there nodding. My father stormed off and my mother came over, rolling her eyes as she began to put foundation over my bruises.

"You look like shit," she said, acting like I chose to get beat up.

"I feel like that too," I mumbled. My face was finally covered and I managed to pull myself up. Alex came down and frowned at me. "I'm fine,"

"Can we go?"

"Yeah, we're going," I promised. We left and our mother dropped us off at the house. Alex had forgotten about everything and was excited, but I kept to myself.

"Welcome," Luke greeted us. "You guys already know Michael and Calum, this is our other friend, Ashton, he's a doctor too,"

"I wanna be a doctor too," Alex smiled.

"What kind of doctor?" Ashton asked.

"One that fixes cars," he said, making the group laugh.

"That's a mechanic, bud," I reminded him with a smile. We were given a quick tour, then showed to our rooms.

"Dinner will be ready in a couple of minutes, but you can get settled in," Luke offered.

"Thanks," I thanked him. Luke left and I tossed her bag on the ground, then went to the bathroom in pain. I closed the door, locked it, then lifted my shirt to see a terrible bruise forming. It was more painful than my knee, which I guessed was a good thing because I wasn't thinking about my shoulder. As much as she wanted to shower, I wasn't going to bother. Then I would have to reapply the foundation, and I wasn't as good as my mother was.

I heard Calum yell for dinner, so I went down and already saw Alex down there playing a game with Michael. "Superboy," Alex yelled as Michael had his stomach on his feet and was holding his hands. Michael laughed and put him back down with a smile.

"Let's go eat dinner, buddy," Michael said and Alex nodded, rushing over to the kitchen. They all sat around, Alex doing most of the chatting while I dozed off every now and then. I guess Ashton took notice of my distance because he was the first to speak up about it.

"Do you not like the food, Kenzie?" Ashton asked. "I can make you something else,"

"No, it's really good," I quickly told him, just grateful to have a dinner, "my head just feels dizzy,"

"Why don't you go get some rest?" Calum suggested. I agreed and excused myself, going upstairs with Luke following. I have no idea why he followed, but he did.

"You sure that's all?" Luke asked as he tucked me in, though I had protested, and put ice on my knee. It was weird, no one has ever done that for me. Even at age three, I was tucking myself in as my parents were downstairs arguing.

"Yeah," I nodded.

"You seem really distant and hurt," Luke took notice, "physically and emotionally," I didn't reply, just stared up at the ceiling. "Your knee is horribly bruised, you have a concussion, and your mom just kept leaving. She also didn't care and just wanted you to attend the party,"

'What are you saying, Luke?" I furrowed my eyebrows at him.

"I'm just wondering if everything is alright at home, you know you can tell me anything," Luke said.

"Everything is fine, I would tell you if it wasn't," I firmly lied. Luke sighed, but nodded and kissed the top of my head.

"If you need anything you can come and get any of us, no matter what," Luke promised. I nodded and he left, knowing I was mad and didn't want to talk anymore.

I wanted nothing more than to tell him everything, but that was putting Alex and myself at risk. My father made it very clear to keep my mouth shut or he would hurt me and possibly Alex. If Alex ever got hurt I would never forgive myself, I wouldn't be able to live with myself. Alex understood our parents hurt me, but not fully why, or anything past that. My purpose was to be a human punching bag and to please men, but I didn't want that. I wanted to be somewhere where my brother and I were loved, not a place where I would be forced to take sexual activity and abuse. I couldn't bring myself to do that again, and that was why I was staying here and disobeyed what my father said for the first time ever.