Finding Family

Chapter 10

Lily woke the next morning, her mind fuzzy from yesterday's events. That's when she realized she was in JJ and Emily's bed. She quietly slipped out of their bed to go to the bathroom. She looked up at herself in the mirror to see her dark black circles under her eyes, she looked terrible. She quickly finished her business and went downstairs to the piano. She wanted to get her minds off of things. She wanted to avoid JJ and Emily's questions and stares. Now that her all her secrets were out, she couldn't hide anymore. As she started to play, she thought about how their life used to be with her mom, she would always go back to those happy memories because that's all she had. She wished her mom was still here with her. Charlotte had come downstairs looking for breakfast when she saw her sister sitting at the piano. She smiled at the sight, she loved when her sister played.

"Lily?"

Lily snapped her head around, and calmed down when she saw it was only Charlotte.

"Hey"

Charlotte sat down next to her and laid her head on her sister's shoulder.

"I heard what happened." Lily's heart dropped, she wanted to avoid talking about this.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because he said he'd kill you!" Lily was getting frustrated.

"Well I don't always need you to protect me! Worry about yourself for once!" Charlotte cried.

"No, I won't, I am your sister, I am supposed to protect you, no matter what" Lily replied. By then JJ and Emily were rushing down the stairs worried about all the yelling.

"No, I am 10, I can take care of myself. All those houses we were in, you never worried about yourself and you never dealt with any of it either. You just tuck everything away inside of your head and hope you forget about it, but one day it's going to come out and you are going to end up dealing with it all at once. You can't keep going on like this" Charlotte continued.

"I am dealing with it" Lily replied, unknowing of the presence of JJ and Emily in the room.

"How? By cutting? By not sleeping? You didn't even tell anyone about coach and from the looks of it, you never were, until we walked in on you" Charlotte said. JJ and Emily let the girls continue their fight.

"Why are you so mad?"

"Because you aren't protecting yourself! Think for once in your life! All those houses, you protected me, but what about you? We have JJ and Emily now and I think we've been with them long enough to know they won't hurt us, so why can't you just let go and let someone else help you?" Charlotte finally let it out, all that she has been holding in for the past few years. Charlotte may have been young, but she was wise, sometimes wiser than Lily. JJ and Emily were surprised at what Charlotte was saying because Charlotte never spoke about their past much. In fact both JJ and Emily still don't know what they went through in the past, only what was in their files.

"Are you done yet?" Lily asked. Charlotte nodded.

"I have been doing fine and I have been dealing with it for the past few years. Even though it's not the most conventional way of dealing with things, I haven't died yet, have I?" Lily replied.

"You really don't know and that's what scares me."

"Know what?"

"That one day you will really hurt yourself, one day you'll cut too deep" JJ interjected, surprising both girls.

"One day you'll cut too deep and you won't wake up" Emily continued.

"I don't know why you all are so worried about me, I am fine" Lily went to get up, trying to avoid this conversation, but JJ quickly held her arm.