Maya's little sister

Can you help me?

The first thing I ave to do is get out of here before Maya or Carina think anything is wrong.

"Hey Maya?" I say breaking up the laughing fit that is currently going on. "Hey kid, what's going on?" she asks me turning towards me a little bit. "Nothing is going on, what makes you think that?" I say a little bit too defensively. she just raises one eyebrow at me, something I've never been able to do no matter how hard I try. "What?" I ask her. "You know you always were a bad liar, you always do this little thing with your hands and you can't look people in the eye when you lie to them." she says looking down at my hands. "Yeah, that thing." she motions towards my hands that are nervously playing with the bottom of my t-shirt . "How do you even remember that?" I ask in hopes to change the subject. "I don't know kid I just do, and don't even try to change the subject it won't work with me, what's going on, talk to me." she repeats herself but this time se sounds a little bit more worried like she knows that I'm trying to hide something, so I just try my hardest to come up with something on the spot.

"No no, everything's fine I just, have to get back because I have training tomorrow with school and I need to shower and get myself ready and I still have some homework to do as well so I really must get going." I ramble on. I don't even remember standing up and getting my bag from the side of Mayas chair, I go to put the bag on my back when my shirt rides up slightly revealing the very purple bruise left by my dad.

"Maria, what the hell happened there?" she asks me slightly holding the material of my shirt to stop it covering the bruise again, shit, I can't tell her what it's really from, think Maria think. "The fire. I got it in the fire and I didn't mention it because it didn't seem like a big deal at the time that's all." I tell her, hoping it will suffice them both so I don't have to explain what really happened.

"Maria? look at me." I don't reply to her I just look at her as she stands up and makes her way to stand in front of me. "Ri? talk to me please, is someone hurting you, you don't have to be scared you aren't in trouble I promise you I just want to help you that's all." she tells me and before I realise it, I'm crying. shit now she's really going to think that is what's happening now.

Maya pov.

Something is going on I can tell, but for now I need to comfort my sister. "Come here" I tell her and she just walks forward slowly letting me hug her, while keeping a hold of her I share a worried glance with Carina who looks just as concerned at the whole situation as I am with and  considering she is a doctor who sees children Marias age all the time, this concerns me, a lot. A couple minutes later she pulls away wiping her tears and brushing herself down, almost like she's trying to hide how she's really feeling but when I get a clear look at her eyes, I can see right through her, she's tired, she's barely eating, she's overworking herself and see struggling. How do I know that? because it is exactly what dad was like with me day in and day out before I moved out.

I loved my dad more than I can ever explain, I still do honestly, he's my dad at the end of the day, but the way he treated us or still treats us apparently, is not okay, it took me a long time to realise that and there is no way I could have realised without Carina either, she showed me that abuse wasn't just physical and it could be given to people verbally, emotionally or manipulatively, I still have my struggles with what happened to me but,  my dad never laid a hand on me personally, so I don't know how she's managing to cope if it was our dad that did this to her.

"Honestly Maya, I'm fine, I just need to go and get ready for practice tomorrow okay?" she tells me pulling away from me completely and heading towards the dippers of the beanery.

"Bambina?" Carina calls her which causes her to stop and look back. "Yeah?" she replies. "Why don't you let me or Maya drive you home, it's pretty late now and I would hate for you to be walking home alone in this."