Smile For Me

~2~

A/N

The worst thing happened, I wrote this chapter but it didn't save properly so I just quickly rewrote it so sorry about the length. Also this is hasn't been edited so sorry. Also, that's Chase.

~2~

Maggie stood at her mailbox, tryign to catch her breath before she entered her home. She noticed an unfamiliar car in the driveway and hoped that whoever it was would draw the attention away from her being late and the bruises forming on her face. She eventually stood straight, flattened out her clothing and walked up to the front door, opened it and dashedd forward for the stairs.

"Maggie!" She heard a familiar voice exclaim.

Her brother, Damon. She mentally cursed and slightly turnedd to face him, careful to keep the bruising side out of vision.

"Hey!" She said awkwardly, almost wincing at how unnatural that sounded.

"Well come give me a hug or something" he chuckled.

As much as Maggie wanted to, she couldn't risk her brother seeing her bruisd face.

"I- ugh, I have to use the toilet" She raced upstairs before he could protest and entered her room in a hurry.

She dropped her bag in front of the door and wandered over to her mirror, staring at her face. She looked absolutely terrible and had no idea on how she was going to cover it up. She ccould tell that not even layers and layers of foundation could hide the bruises, hher face was too swollen. A thought struck her, her short black veil that covers the left side of her face, the side of her face that's bruised. She bought it when she was fourteen, when she was going through her gothic phase. She searched through the mess of old belongings in her wardrobe and finally pulled out the dark head accessory.

After placing the veil on her head she then exited her room. The veil isn't necessarily something she wants to wear but she was desperate. When she got to the door to the living room she spotted her family, sitting on the couch talking. She took a deep breath and strode forward.

"Oh, hi darling" April started "Please don't tell me that you wore that to school"

Maggie hesitated for a moment before speaking "Um- of course not, just thought I'd do a bit of a dress up I guess, for old times sake" As soon as the words left her mouth she knew that what she had said was completely out of character.

Thankfully her family didn't seem to notice and her mother just smiled "Okay then, well how was your day?"

"Ugh- normal, yeah, completely normal you know, why?" Maggie rushed out.

Her dad chuckled slightly "Okay ducky, no need to freak out, mum was just asking"

She noticed her brother watching her intently and she knew that he coulld see right through hher lies "Maggie and I have a lot of catching up to do, so we'll be up in her room" Damon said standing up and walked over to Maggie, grabbed her hand and pulledd her towards the stairs.

"Okay darling, I'll tell you when dinners ready" Their mother said.

As soon as the two siblings were in Maggies room Damon practically pushed her against the wall, anger on his face "Take the veil off" He demanded.

"No, why?" She asked, trying to play dumb.

"You know exactly why now take it off!"

She shook her head and rather than continue to argue with her again he just ripped it off her head. When he saw the forming bruises on her face his anger just got worse "Chase, he's still doing it? I'm going to fucking kill him" He ran straight out of the room and down the stairs, Maggie chased after him screaming at him to stop, by this time their parents were asking what was going on but neither child answered.

If Damon didn't know where Chase lived, Maggie wouldn't have been so afraid but he did and as soon as he grabbed his keys from the kitchen couner she grabbed her moms car keys and ran out into the cold evening air. Damon was already speeding down the road by the time she got in the car an with both parents yelling at her she started the engine up and started to drive quickly out of the driveway. Her heart was beating fast and she mentally cursed at herself when she saw Damons car parked in the driveway, the door still open and the door to Chases house already open. She was, however, thankful that there seemed to be no other cars in the driveway, meaning his parents wereb't home. When she entred the home she followed the shouting voices of multiple men and ran towards it.

"You're fucking dead meat!" She heard Damon shout before he lunched hiself at Chase.

That was when the two other boys, Harrison and Phoenix, Chases friends noticed Maggie "Holy fuck" Harrison whispered looking at her in disbelief, noth boys look down at Chase who is being pinned down by Damon but not yet being punched as he was struggling to hold Damons arms back "You said you barely did anything, that isn't just anything" Phoenix said to Chase.

"You deserve this" Phoenix hissed and then went towards the fight and took Chases arms away, allowing Damon to land a punch.

No. This can't happen, she doesn't care what Chase has done to her. Nobody deserves to feel what she's felt everyday since the age of eleven, Maggie could clearly see the fear and vulnerability on Chases face. The she did something that surprised everybody in the room including herself. The ran straigh ahead and leap on Damon, knocking him off Chase. Then nothing was said, she stood, heald her hand out to Chase who took it and pulled him onto his feet and turned to leave. Damon, still on the ground, breathing heavily and looking completely and utterly dumbfounded got up and followed her out. And then both siblings just left.

*

When they parkedd in the driveway both parents were basically fuming from the ears and as soon as Maggie exited the car her parents started blasting her with questions, that was until they sawy her face.

"Oh, Maggie. He did it again didn't he?" Her mother askedd, refering to Chase.

She didn't answer, and that was when Damon finally spoke up "You mean to tell me that you know this jerk has been beating up your daughter and you haven't done anything about it?"

And that was how and argument broke out, Maggie couldn't be bothered with anything and, with her family too occupied with yelling at each other, disappeared off to her room. She passed her mirror and frowned when she saw her face, she already looks horrible and it was only going to get worse tomorrow.

When she got into bed she tried not to blame everything on Damon but she couldn't. None of this would've happened if he had just stayed out of it, but no he had to be the stupid overprotective brother he always has been instead of taking some time to actually ask Maggie how she was feeling about it. Of course he didn't assk because it seemed to Maggie that in this world, her opinion didn't matter. And with these thoughts swirling arounfd her mind she fell asleep.