Francesca Romano

Chapter 30 | My Daddy's Gun

Flashback

Rock. Paper. Sisser. Shoo!

"I win, Gio looks like you have to sleep in the dark for a whole week." I said flipping my hair as I stuck my tongue out to him. He looked sad and crossed his arms. "That's not fair. Best two out of three?" He asked and I agreed. And again I won. Ever since I taught him how to play, he always chose rock, so I always chose paper. "Fine but on friday I get to have two ice creams." He bargained. "Gio you know dad wont let..Nevermind you can have mine. But only if you sleep with no lights." We've been trying to get Giovvanni to sleep without a night light for a while but he swears the monsters are scared of light.

Before we could say anything else the sound of the front door being slammed scared us both. "Get on the bed Gio lets watch tv." I said as I picked him up and laid him on his bed. I turned on his tv and tucked him into bed closing his window, which the moon shined through.

I'll be back dont make a sound." I told him as I ran out of his room all the way to mine. On the way I saw my dad walking in with a bottle of gin and turning into the kitchen where mom was cooking her rich pasta.

"So where are the kids?" I heard him ask as I sat on the floor behind my door. "In their rooms waiting for dinner. Why don't you go call them down, Vincent?" Mom asked, sounding mad. "God you smell horrible." She followed up. It went silent for several minutes so I laid on the floor listening through the crack. My father was coming up and I knew it was him because his steps were the same that I memorized. Heavy and dragged. I quickly jumped onto my bed and sat on the edge acting as if I was reading a book I pulled from my nightstand. My door flew open knocking a picture I had framed off my wall. I jumped and dropped my book as glass shattered everywhere.

"Why isnt your hair done?" He asked. "It is, it just got messy while I was playing at school." My eyes frantically moved across the floor looking at all the glass from my picture of me. "You should  fix it, no boy wants someone who looks like you." I lowered my head and nodded. "Daddy!" Was yelled from behind him. I looked up and Gio was out of his room, arms up ready to be caught. Dad picked him up and hugged him before setting him down and looking at him. "Go wash up for dinner. Oh and Francesca pick this up. He walked back down stairs as Gio tiptoed into my room. "Do you want help?" He asked with his arms up for me to grab him.

I smiled and got off my bed from the opposite end and tiptoed to grab him.

I picked him up and brought him to his bathroom where I cleaned him up for dinner. "And how old are you?" I asked as I smiled at him. "Five and sissy eight." He yelled before I high fived him. I brought him to the dinner table and sat him in his chair before going into the kitchen where mom and dad stood yelling at each other. I quietly grabbed a bag and made my way back up to my room. I kneeled down and grabbed each piece of glass off the floor.

Once I finished I threw away the bag outside and sat down at the dinner table. Mom served us and we all ate in silence. The food was good. The song mom always played while she cooked kept playing which was good. Giovanni mostly played with his food which pissed dad off as he kept groaning each time gio hit his plate.

Mom was obviously scared of his response after dinner as she ate slowly. So I ate slowly as well. I was on the opposite side of dad and could smell the grown up drink from here. I didn't like the smell and hated how dad got when he smelled like grown up drinks. But eventually our plates were empty and there was no more stalling to do.

"Baby take your brother to bed and kiss him goodnight for me okay." I nodded to mom and took Giovanni up to his room. I tucked him in and kissed his forehead. I shut off his lights and closed his door making my way to my room. I sat on my bed and listened as the yelling down stairs got louder. Nothing out of the normal.

This was my normal. Have a good day then have it ruined when dad comes back from his office smelling the bottle in his hand that said 'gin', I'll never drink if it means being mean. I'm not mean. I'm so nice to everyone, even dad who's mean to me. I snapped out of my thoughts when the sound of a plate crashing scared me.

I was curious now and to know mom was okay. I walked out of my room holding my stuffed pink bear. Her name was Vanilla. She was my best friend and listened to all my secrets. We walked down the stairs and peaked around the corner to see mom picking up a broken plate.

"Tonight is the last night you sleep here." Mom said standing up. Dad's back was facing me so he didn't see that I noticed him pull something from his belt. "I want you out of my house and away from my kids, you horrible excuse of a man."

Before I knew it My ears were ringing and moms arm was bleeding. The cabinet behind her was broken and Vanilla was on the floor next to me. Dad had turned around and saw me now and marched over to me. He grabbed my arm tight and his other hand was still holding what I now saw was a gun. My eyes were wide and I was scared. "Daddy you're hurting me." I yelled.

"You should've stayed in your room, you better have not woken up your brother." He said dragging me towered the stairs when he let go of me out of nowhere. Mom was now holding dads gun now and pointing it at him. "Get out." She said out of breath. I ran upstairs to Giovanni's room.

He was asleep so I sat by his bed as I was  breathing fast. My heart was pounding in my ears. Was mom okay? I don't know but Gio was and that's all that matters.