Battle Scars

Chapter 3

I wake up with a jolt, what just happened? I look around the room for something to refresh my memory but everything looked the same except I was on the floor in my room. Then I look down at my arms and legs and that's all I need to remember. I stand up, Kaylee and Luke are still sleeping, it's 6:00. I unlock my door and look in the hallway, its dark still. I walk over to dad's room and peek in, gone again. I turn on the hallway light and head to the bathroom. I needed to wipe off my blood anyways so why not shower now. So I take a shower, get dressed, and go downstairs. I get breakfast ready to go, cereal is the lucky food this morning.

I yell,"Kaylee, Luke, get up and get some breakfast." I turn on the coffee brewer while I wait for them to get down here. What was my crazy dream suppose to mean anyways. Kaylee walks down the stairs she whispered, "Is dad gone?"
"Yeah, I guess we're lucky today," I answer but was lucky really the word I was looking for more like not lucky enough to have a normal not abusive father like anyone else would. She grabs a bowl and pours the milk in, then the cereal. She always did it backwards for some reason. Beep. Coffee's done, awesome. I pour myself a mug and sip it thinking about the word lucky. Lucky for me is having part of a family and my life? Luke ran down the stairs, he's always energetic; he grabbed himself a bowl and started dumping the cereal into it. I'm always surprised how much he as an eleven year old can eat and still stay as skinny and as small as he is right now.
"Did you guys sleep well," I ask. Kaylee munched her food as she shook her head, but Luke started speaking with his mouth full, "One minute I'm in my room, then next I find myself in your room." He swallowed, "I just don't get it, do I sleep walk or something?" Well I've never seen or heard him walking around before in his sleep but that could explain other things.
"It was dad again," she said her voice was unsteady, "We didn't want him bothering you." He had a look of worry on his face, "What did he do?" he asked gently. Kaylee opened her mouth to answer but the words seemed to get stuck so I answered for her my voice tight, "He, um, he was yelling at us again, and um," I trailed off. Luke didn't know about him being abusive yet and I didn't plan on telling him, well at least not right now not today. Luke got the notice and I downed my coffee while they finished eating.
"Hurry up and get your bags, we have to leave in a few minutes," I say to them as they get up and out of their seats. I grab my own bag and purse and wait by the door. Luke comes down first and we wait for Kaylee. "Where do you think mom is right now?" he asked. That I actually didn't know the answer to, it's always been where's dad? Never mom.
"She's probably working right now Luke," I say because last time I talked to her she was still working but I don't know how much has changed in that period of time since we talked.
"When do you think she'll come home?" When do I think she will come home, probably when she knows dad's dead and gone for good. But of course I don't say that to him, he's looking for an answer that would be possible, so instead I say, "Sooner than you know it, she loves you and will come back for you, for all of us. But I don't know when that is exactly."
He smiles and I pull him in for a hug, he says, "Okay." Just Okay, as simple it seems but in reality it's not that simple. Kaylee comes down the stairs and I open the front door, they both walk out and I shut it. I stand their digging around in my purse for my keys while they hop into my car; it was very old pickup truck that use to be my mom's lucky car. I couldn't ever imagine her giving me her most valued care but she did, I pluck out my keys and walk over to the car, open the door and get in.
Would mom even come back to see us even if dad's not gone yet? I mean I would assume so but her life is different now, without kids and a nasty husband to deal with she probably feels free of her burdens and doesn't want us back, but that's always a possibility. On the other side she could actually miss us and plan on coming back to take us with her but like I said before, she'll want dad gone before even deciding to come back. I mean why else woul-"Autumn are we going to school or just gunna sit here all day," Kaylee says. I put my hands up in defense, "Fine, Fine, I'm going," I say as I put the key in the ignition and put the car in reverse.

********

I park my car next to a little white Volkswagen and a Mustang. Kaylee and I get out of the car and head over to the school. The definition of school for me is a half and half of a place, one half is where you learn and the other half where people mess with and bully you. It started happening last year and no one seemed to care, I was called various different names and thrown into trashcans I was cyber bullied after that also. It went so far that I got rid of social media for that whole year. They were telling everyone stuff that I'm not and they tormented and harassed me, some people this year still bother me. They also started to get Kaylee involved but that was where I drew the line. They can mess with me, of course it hurt but not to Kaylee or Luke. They were, they are too special to have a screwed up life and I'm trying to prevent that at school but it's not gunna work at home if dad keeps his act up.
"Hey, you wanna hang with us for awhile?" some guy in the popular crowd said, of course not to me but to Kaylee, Kaylee was tall and skinny and she had auburn hair like me and Luke. She and Luke were the same, same hair color, skinny, beautiful, ect. She had curly hair while I had straight and she was skinny while I was fatter than them both, well about average, maybe, but she was the one who got all the guys. One hypothesis on why the guys don't hit on me because of last year's drama proceeding to this year, or she's just prettier than me. "No thanks I have to be early for a class," she replies which isn't true because we were just going to walk around till the bell. "Aww, it's too bad we can't talk to a pretty girl like you," he says.
"Yeah, it's very ashaming," she says in her sarcastic voice which I love when it's not directed to me.
We walk away, it seems like we just won a battle but it's just another high school guy checking girls out. Let me phrase that right it seems like she just won a battle but it's just another high school guy checking her out, that make more sense. We leave our lockers just as the bell rings she says, "First class, see you later sis." And she says it with that little wink of hers, if only I could be that attractive. We walk our separate ways and I head to Biology, so fun. Not.
I find an empty chair near the back and plot myself down. I almost always sat in or near the back, I didn't want people to notice me last year was bad enough. I don't even know why they would say those things if they knew they weren't tru-"Get out of my seat," a voice says, I glance in their direction. Of course it's Jenna, she always messes with me and trust me if you wanna be friends with her I recommend not. I don't know how she turned into this; we use to be friends but they she strayed away and stabbed me in the back with like a freakin' giant knife, well not literally but she might as well have. It all changed wh-"Hey I'm talking to you, get out of my damn se-."
"I don't see how this is your seat when she's already here and you sit near the front," I thought I heard Cole say. I look and yeah, he's there. He's so protective and cute, no, just an really awesome friend that's all.
"Don't you know who she is? She's that fake, the one who cuts and makes people think her life is horrible for attention. She's a slut." I suddenly feel small, I'm not a fake, my life is horrible in a matter of fact, and I'm just a tomboy so yeah I hang around guys but a slut? I've never dated a guy before, let alone never had my first kiss either.
Cole speaks in my defense, I can tell he's getting angry, his voice is rising, " Lay off, you don't even know her or her life, just because you can't accept who you are doesn't make it right for you to tell others what you see in them. Cause you're so wrong." A crowd is starting to gather around us now, I feel like I'm trapped yet again. "And if you want to know my opinion on you, just ask. Come on tell me, if you wanna know." The crowd started chanting do it, so their expecting her to ask which she does. That was her first mistake. "What do you think about me?" she asks feeling strong but her voice wavering just enough that I could actually tell. Cole chuckles, great this is gunna be a little different this time. He says flatly, "You're a no good and worthless, you're a backstabber and a liar. You only have people to pay attention to you because of what you did to Autumn, and if even that."
She backed up a step apparently affected by these words. She just looked at us and smiled, but I could tell she was a little hurt. She walked over to her original seat and sat down not saying a word the crowd that gathered glared at Cole and I apparently they didn't like what we said, let me fix that once again, they didn't like what he said, he won another battle. I haven't. Maybe I'm too weak, or just not ready to fight yet.