Fixing Broken Hearts

2

Warnings:
-Mentions physical (child) abuse
-Emotional abuse

Elliot's POV

~ The Next Morning ~

I pulled back my chair to sit down at the table to have breakfast with everyone, but Clay. I swallowed and felt the tension between everyone growing the longer Clay wasn't coming downstairs.

I grabbed a plain piece of bread and a slice of cheese, lifting it up to take a bite from it. 'I have a soccer game later this week!' I exclaimed to try and cheer up my father.

'Where is that asshole?' my father scoffed, ignoring what I just said because he was busier with Clay than me. 'I will wake him up...'

'No, I can check on him!' I shouted, jumping up in the hope he would let me go. However, my father had already decided and shook his head, storming to the stairs.

I held my breath and saw my mother did the same thing. She slowly lifted her sandwich up to her mouth and took a bite from it, her jaws chewing a lot slower than they used to.

'Get up, piece of shit!' we heard my father scream, a heavy thud on the floor. I started biting my bottom lip and pierced it with my upper teeth.

'Is getting downstairs on time too much to ask? Are you actually always busy trying to piss me off? Because you did a good job.'

A second later, we heard a slapping noise and a gasp coming from Clay. I squinted and winced, knowing my father hurt him again.

'Do you have a busy day at school?' my mother asked to distract me from what was going on upstairs. However, I glared at her and shook my head.

'Why do you never help him?' I groaned, feeling only anger for her at this moment. 'He's your son and you're letting him get beaten up...'

'Elliot, you never help him either,' she replied coldly. 'He keeps messing up and-.'

Clay screamed and a second later, another loud thud came from the upper floor. I could hear my father gasp and then Clay's door was slammed shut.

'Elliot, go to school,' my father said when he came downstairs. I pushed my plate away after I hadn't taken a singular bite of it and grabbed my bag without saying much.

However, when I glanced at my father, I saw him shaking his hand because he hurt his knuckles. He rubbed his fingers over them to ease the pain, but I couldn't even believe that he would be able to do such a thing to my brother.

'Eat something, honey,' my mother told me, but I shook my head.

'I'm not hungry,' I stumbled, sniffling softly because I was trying to fight against my tears. I swallowed and was about to walk away as I heard slow footsteps on the stairs.

I immediately turned around and looked at Clay walking into the living room. He held a napkin against his forehead, while blood was rolling down from his nose at the same time.

'I don't think I'm going to be home tonight,' he whispered, blinking a few times in a row because he seemed to have a bad headache. His eyes were bloodshot as he raised his gaze, the colour of his skin turning ashen, like he wasn't even alive.

'You don't have a choice, Clay. You're going to come home right after school and if you don't listen to what I'm telling you, I'll make sure you're going to be sure about it after school,' our father scoffed.

'No, I don't want to be at home anymore...' Clay muttered, gulping from the nerves.

'Clay, don't tempt him,' our mom spoke, but it left a feeling of rage inside of me.

'I don't want to be here in this hellhole,' Clay replied, grabbing a sandwich from the table. He was about to put some cheese on it as dad lost his temper, again...

Clay realised it straight away and ran to the door that was still locked. He gasped and grabbed the key from the table next to it. With shaky hands, he missed the lock a few times, but then finally got it right.

He opened the door, father slowly catching up to him. I stood up as well because I couldn't stand him hurting Clay another time. I tried to hold him back so he wouldn't be able to catch Clay, giving him a head start.

Clay slammed the door behind him and I saw him run off when I looked through the window. 'I'LL GET YOU, ASSHOLE!' dad screamed out, pulling away from me as he kept looking at Clay.

I sighed deeply and stepped away, my eye catching a glimpse of Clay's schoolbag. It made me upset when I saw he forgot his bag and didn't even get to eat due to our dad chasing him like some maniac.

I walked back to the table and grabbed two new sandwiches. I put some Nutella, his favourite spread, on one of them and smiled as I decided to surprise him. I grabbed some ham, cheese, tomatoes, lettuce and sauce to make him the sandwich he absolutely adored.

After that, I started preparing his lunch, a sandwich with a boiled egg, a cracker with hummus, a few cucumber slices and a small bell pepper. Following, I put some biscuits in his lunchbox, a few of his favourite sweets and an apple.

I closed the box and slid it into his bag, grabbing my phone to check his schedule to make sure he had the right books in his bag. Gladly, he already packed his bag the day before and I grabbed it and walked to the door.

'Bye, sweetheart, have fun at school!' my mother exclaimed, which made me smash the door shut because she made me almost more angry than my dad did.

'Clay!' I yelled out after I had been running for a while to catch up to him. He stood still and turned around to look at who was coming, a smile appearing on his face when he saw it was me.

'Elliot, you took my bag. Thank you so much, dude,' he said as he wiped his nose. 'Is there still blood somewhere?'

'There's a wound on your forehead, but your nose is clean. I prepared your lunch and got you breakfast.'

I lifted up the small plastic bag I put his breakfast in and handed it to him. His eyes were sparkling when he saw I made his favourite sandwiches.

'Thank you, it means a lot to me,' he admitted as he gave me a short, but meaningful hug. 'I'm really hungry, I have time to eat before class.'

'I'll stay here with you,' I responded, grabbing his hand to pull him to a bench.

'Is my eye really black?' Clay asked me, looking at me with saddening eyes. 'I don't know how to explain this to everyone, but I guess I'll come up with some tree climbing accident.'

I turned my eyes away because it made me so sad to see how much he had to go through and always had to lie...

'I love you, Clay. I hope you'll always remember that.'

1196 words