Briley.
I fell in bed, still feeling the throbbing of my lip, my heart beat pounding in my eye and the feeling of just pure sadness in my heart.
I covered myself up, texting Cole and telling him know I wasn't going to be at school tomorrow before plugging my phone in, closing my eyes.
Let's dream about a family that actually loves me.
Ben.
First thing the next morning, I checked Briley.
She was breathing.
Her lip and eye were swollen, but nothing she hasn't had before.
I wrote her a note, telling her I went to school and leaving her out Tylenol and hoping she would have a good day, since she would be home alone all day.
I went to school, starting my day on a good note.
And soon I was being called to the nurses station.
I immediately was led into a room with the same doctors from Briley, both of who were very nice and told me everyone had to have an assessment, so I of course agreed.
"How's your sister feeling, that how blood pressure has to give her some side effects that make her feel pretty bad" one who stayed in the corner asked me.
"Like what?" I asked him, seeing him glance to the other doctor before back to me
"She'd be lethargic, nauseated, easily dizzy, stay pretty cold-" "oh she's always cold" I spoke as soon as he said it- knowing I hadn't ever heard her complain about any of the other symptoms, but she honestly doesn't complain at all, so it wouldn't surprise me if she just didn't say it when she felt bad.
They went oddly silent, making me wonder why.
Calum.
I didn't like this.
I didn't like any of this.
I liked Briley and her vibes, she seemed like a normal teenage kid, but as soon as her guardian and brother were brought into the mix, she got weird and defensive.
She completely changed.
When I pointed this out to Ashton, he agreed, but we couldn't figure out what.
When we spoke on the phone to her dad he seemed really cool, like overly concerned about her and immediately agreed that we needed the appointment.
But we wanted to see if we could uncover more from her brother today, but he was pretty short, just telling us what we needed to know and not a detail more.
"So your sisters a junior and you're a senior?" I asked slowly, watching him nod.
"And your mom she's-" "gone. She gave up parental rights to Roy about five years ago and left without a trace" he spoke as if it didn't even bother him.
"And Roy is-" "my stepdad, Brileys biological dad." He nodded slowly, making us nod.
"And you like him- I mean clearly he cares for you guys so" ashton spoke slowly, acting as if he was charting something just to keep the conversation going.
"He's normal," he shrugged.
What was normal to them?
Just as I went to speak our nurse walked in, letting us know how much time we had left before all the students needed to be at lunch.
"Thank you, Jessica" Ashton spoke to her, calling her the wrong name which was a big inside joke to all of us, from one of her first days working with us, when we all called her the wrong name.
"Fuck off" she laughed out quietly before leaving, making us turn attention back to Ben.
"Woah- you guys let your female staff speak to you like that?" He seemed genuinely shocked.
"Oh she's just joking-" "women shouldn't cuss- especially at a man." He spoke as if this was textbook fact, and it made the two of us almost shocked.
"Like said, Ben- it was just a joke between all of us. We take no offense to her cursing or joking back to us-" "that's crazy." He laughed lightly, shaking his head.
"I couldn't imagine what Roy would do if someone spoke to him like that."
