Protection

It All Began...

Nicole's POV:

For the past three months I have been living a better life than I ever expected, once I finally made a change. I met the guy of my dreams who loves me unconditionally, I have been doing great in school, along with destroying the soccer field. But it was never like this before. I was a miserable, unhappy girl living in a home that just made her want to burn it and get rid of it all. All I ever wanted was a some what normal life where your parents didn't drink every night or abuse you. Yes I said abused. We will get back to that, why don't we go back to where it all started at the age of 13.

5 years ago
In the recent months after my Pop-pop passed away it has taken a huge toll on my mom. All she does now is drinks away her sorrows. She drinks every night to the point where she gets wasted and falls asleep on the couch in the living room. I come down stairs to check on her and cover her along with turning off the lights and locking the doors. My dad doesn't come home at nights which is kind of weird, but when I ask where he is my mom says he is working late nights. The only thing is it's January and electricians don't work long hours in the winter months since it gets dark earlier here in Boston. I can't worry about it I have to worry about me and my siblings. Me being the oldest I have to take care of them every night, well I'm not really the oldest. My twin Brianna who is always by my side helps with me with our little brother JJ who is 8. He has no clue what goes on because I make sure he is not effected by it, so I absorb all the pain and sadness I know he and Brianna are feeling. Once I came back upstairs from making sure my mom was comfortable on the couch I tuck JJ in and go to me and Brianna's room where I finally question her.

"Hey Brie." I say loud enough to get her to pull the earphones out of her ears.

"What's up, you ok?" She says getting up from her bed and over to mine wrapping her arms around me as I take a deep breath and look her right in the eyes. No or never Nicole tell her how you feel and what you think has been going on.

"It's just, don't you find it odd that dad doesn't come home during the week and if he does it is really late at night and then he leaves early in the morning before we go to school." I say holding back the few tears I have swelling up in my eyes.

"Nikki, remember mom has told us work has been really busy and they added more hours to this job he has been working on. Why where do you think he is?" She looked at me with the look of concussion.

"Ok promise you won't tell Nana this, but a few nights ago when I went downstairs to make sure she was asleep on the couch I walk down to her on the phone in the kitchen. I sneak down the listen in on her conversation because I was curious. She was on the phone with her friend from high school Kim. And, and.." All I could do was freeze and the tears fell from my face. Brie wiped them away and rocked me back and forth trying to comfort me. After a few minutes she spoke up.

"Are you good to continue?" She asked wiping away one more stray tear from my cheek.

"Yes. As I listened to her more and more she began to cry and mumble. But the one thing I managed to understand was that she said dad is with her all the time." Brie looked at me not understanding what I meant by that.

"What does that mean?" Moving a little away as if she is starting to add the puzzle pieces together.

"It means, dad is sleeping with another woman. And it's certainly not mom. Brie mom drinks we both know that, but it was worse once Pop-pop died 8 months ago. But it got even worse only in the recent months and that's when dad started to slowly not come home every night." I held her hands noticing she wanted to break down but she held it together.

"What do we do? Is it to soon to ask mom about it? She is not in the right frame of mind to be telling her 13 year olds that their father is a cheater. Should we just put it off until it starts to get worse?" Wanting to say no I think it's our only option.

"Yes, we are doing fine. Just have to continue to do well in school and in soccer. This can't effect us outside of this house, once we are together just me and you we can release all the feelings we are holding inside. JJ can not find out about this he is too young, not that we are old enough to be handling this but we have to mature and be here for him and each other. Deal?" I extend my pinky to her making sure this secret stays between the two of us.

"Deal." We connect our pinkies together and chuckle a little.

"Let's get to bed. At least tomorrow is Friday and we get to go stay at Nana's for the weekend." I say some what smiling.

"True, good night Nikki." She says faintly.

"Good night." This is only the start of many tough days to come. Pop-pop and God please just give me the strength to get through these hard times and understand why you are putting me through this.