Hard Times

Prologue

"Hayley, you have to stop doing this. They are going to wind up killing you one day." Beca said softly as she held her best friend's hand gently.

"Beca is right Hayley." Benji said with a sympathetic look towards his younger twin sister. He was scared for his sister.

Hayley stared at her and Beca's connected hands. "It's the only way they'll pay any attention to us." She whispered shamefully. The fifteen year old had stolen her parents' stash of drugs in order to get their attention, she'd done this a few times before. Her parents cared more about their score than they did their children. This act of stealing her parents drugs had resulted in her parents hitting and kicking her until she collapsed. Now she sat in the kitchen of Beca's mother's house, blood running down her face from a cut on her forehead. She had a few bruised ribs and bruises and cuts over most of her body, blood covering her clothes and her dyed orange hair from when she had pushed the locks from her face. She was trembling and tears were rolling down her pale, blood-covered cheeks.

Beca's mother, Amelia, who was a nurse, was holding a cloth covered in alcohol solution to Hayley's forehead.

"Mom, we have to get Hayley and Benji out of that house." Beca said, looking up at the dark haired woman she called her mother. She was glad to be at her mother's house this weekend, if she had been with her father, he would have turned Hayley and Benji away, seeing them as the wrong kind of people for his daughter to be hanging around with.

"It's not that simple, Beca. If it was, Taylor, Stacie, Benji, and Hayley would already be living here." Amelia said calmly, pulling the cloth from Hayley's forehead to examine her forehead. Hayley's father's wedding ring had caught her skin and ripped the skin pretty badly, leaving a large gash on her forehead, when he'd unleashed his first furious blow upon his child. "It'll need stitches, honey." Amelia addressed the fifteen year old sitting in the chair before her. "I can do them here." She added quickly when she felt the girl tense up. Hayley hated hospitals.

Taylor and Stacie, whom Beca, Hayley and Benji had met in middle school, came bursting into Beca's mother's house. They had rushed into the kitchen as soon as Beca had told them what had happened with Hayley and her parents. Beca had called their house using the phone on the wall in the kitchen once she had managed to get the information from Hayley and a very panicked Benji about what had happened. They skidded to a halt in the middle of the room.

"Hayley, are you okay?" Taylor asked, panting, out of breath from running half way across town. Taylor was the oldest of the group of friends and Hayley was the youngest. She was born ten minutes after her brother, so naturally Taylor took on the role of protector and often found himself wanting to beat the life out of anyone who dared to even insult any of his friends.

"I'm okay, Taylor." Hayley said quietly, not looking at him. She winced as Amelia began to stitch her forehead, trying not to withdraw from her touch.

Amelia had a very soft spot in her heart for Hayley, Benji, Taylor, and Stacie. She knew what it was like to grow up in a home where you weren't loved or wanted.

Taylor slowly moved over to her and crouched down. "I'm going to kick their asses." He said darkly.

Stacie stood off to the side, letting her brother check up on Hayley, while also trying to catch her breath, her left hand rested on her ribs under her jacket. Nobody knew what her father and sometimes his friends did to her when Taylor and their mother weren't around.

"No." Hayley whispered. "That won't accomplish anything. Plus it's my fault. I asked for it, I stole their drugs." She was shaking, her eyes closed. Her head was throbbing.

"You shouldn't have done that." Taylor whispered softly, taking her other hand and giving it a gentle squeeze.

Hayley cleared her throat and lifted her eyes up to look at him darkly, her left eye swollen shut and a dark purple and blue coloured bruise around it. "It's the only way to get them to pay any attention to us." She murmured, glancing at her brother. Her face was smeared with her crimson blood. A tear rolled down her pale cheek. "Benji and I needed money for food... and they wouldn't listen to us... so I took the drugs... and flushed them down the toilet." She squeaked. "It was impulsive and stupid." She dropped her eyes shamefully, wincing as Beca's mother finished stitching her forehead. "But they needed to listen." She finished, her voice cracking as more tears ran down her cheeks.