Poppy Child

Bruises For Everyone

When I eventually got up that morning I dashed to the bathroom to put a cold flannel on it, it was really painful! I'd had a few black eyes before but I didn't think they hurt as much as that one. That day I remember being in one of the moods when I wanted to be alone, to have time to think, so I rushed out the house and shouted " I'm going out! I'll be back later!" as I was stepping out the door, also I didn't want mum to start asking questions about my eye. I nearly turned around when I got outside, I wanted her to fuss over my eye, I wanted to see that she actually cared about me but in reality I knew she'd just question me then walk away. I don't know what happened between me and mum, since the age of about eleven, mum stopped acting like my mum, she cared more about Maisy than me. She would have denied it but in her head she would have been agreeing. For example, when Maisy was ten she fell over and cut her leg, it was a small cut and there wasn't much blood but mum spent about five minutes fussing over her, then offered to get a taxi to take us home even though we were only a five minute walk away from it. When I was about ten or eleven I fell down a flight of stairs and sprained my wrist, it wasn't a bad sprain but it hurt very badly, and I had a big cut on my arm, there was quite a lot of blood and it was very painful. Mum pulled me up and drove me to the hospital to get stiching for my arm and to get a bandage for my wrist, the only thing she said to me was " You should have been more careful".  Don't get me wrong, my mum is a nice and caring person but we just don't get along. I probably remind her of my dad, not that I'm like him. 

Anyway, I rushed out the door and down the poppy field, I wasn't going to show Steve that I was scared of him, he couldn't stop me from walking next to his house. So I strolled slowly next to his and noticed him looking out the window, yep, he'd seen me. Good, i thought, just because he gave me a black eye didn't mean he controlled me. I decided to go to the woods near the park, it was a good place to think. Only couples and other people like me went there so we kept out of each others way. I don't think any of my friends knew that I went there, i wanted it to be a secret, I didn't want loads of people over-crowding it. 

I must have sat in the woods near the river for a good two hours, then I headed to town to see if any of my friends were around, even if i wasn't in a good mood. I walked into the shopping centre but I didn't see any of my friends, in fact I didn't see anyone my age, I carried on walking to the skate park, that's where everyone my age hung out. Again there was no one, but then I suddenly saw some kid called Brandon I think, he was in my year running towards the bike shed at the back of the skate park. Then i heard shouting, there were lots of people.

I ran towards the bike shed and when i reached it there must have been at least fifty people crowding around two people having a fight. I saw a glimpse of my friend Charlie at the front of the fight so i shoved through loads of people and finally grabbed his arm, the crowd were shouting but I couldn't make out which names they were shouting, but when I got to the front I knew who was fighting. It was Mickey and someone called Bailey from another school. Mickey looked a bit small compared to Bailey, I'd seen Bailey around and always noticed that he was rather tall and strong looking. I could tell the fight was serious just by looking at Charlie's face. I looked down and noticed blood on the ground and before I knew it, Mickey was lying on the ground with Bailey kicking him in the stomach. I didn't understand how all these people, some of them were Mickey's and Bailey's so called friends didn't help them! I couldn't watch any longer, I ran up to Bailey just as he was about to kick Mickey again and I punched him full pelt in the face! He deserved it, he definitly wasn't expecting it! Bailey fell to the ground in shock whilst I got Mickey up and tried to help him, as soon as Mickey was up so was Bailey, he wasn't going to give up a fight that easily! He punched me in the face then kicked me in the stomach, I fell to the floor in pain but quickly got back up, I could see that Mickey was about a punch away from being knocked out so I quickly swung out my leg to trip Bailey up just he was about to punch Mikey. I got the kick perfect, i took out his knee in one shot, when he hit the floor he punched me in the face, twice, and kicked me in the stomach and then in the face. By that time I was as badly hurt as Mickey so I decided to take the wimp way out and run. I grabbed Mickey by the arm and pulled him up, at some point he must have fallen to the floor whilst trying to get Bailey off me. I gave Bailey one last kick in the stomach and we ran for it, I knew Bailey would be after us but I wasn't thinking straight. I couldn't even see straight! 

Run, run, run, was all I could think at the time.

We ran towards the shopping centre, I knew where a good hiding spot was but I wasn't sure if I wanted to share it, even if we were in dire need of a hiding spot. The woods had always been my place, none of my friends knew I went there, not even Mickey. I decided to take him to a different part of the woods, the part that led to the poppy field, I didn't think that we'd get followed there. I told Mickey to follow me, I knew that he wasn't in the position to argue, he was out of it. I grabbed is arm and pulled him along, it was a struggle, I was nearly out of it as well, I had to drag him and myself. 

When we got to the woods I helped Mickey sit down then I sat down next to him, as soon as I touched the ground I blacked out. I woke up about half an hour later with Mickey worriedly looking at me. I sat up and said "Well that was an epic fight." He didn't answer, he looked quite weak, he'd taken quite a good beating, even when I had joined in. He had cuts all over his face and a very bad black eye, a cut lip and I'm guessing he had a bruised stomach. 

We must have been sat in the woods for about two hours, we didn't really say a lot, we were both exhausted. Although he did say "Jamie.... when you joined in the fight... before you got punched I noticed you already had a black eye.... why?". I just said that I'd walked into a door, he didn't question me any further. He dozed off at some point, so I decided to try and walk about without feeling too dizzy. I stood up and took a few steps but immediately felt the world spinning around me, but I didn't give up. I knew I had to go home soon, before mum started trying to ring me. She wouldn't ring me out of concern, she'd ring me because Maisy would want to know where I was.

I waited half an hour before waking Mickey up, I told him it was time we went home but he couldn't face it, he didn't have the strengh to make up a load of excuses to is mum and over protective dad. So I invited him to stay at mine and just to ring his mum to tell her where he'll be for the night. He thanked me for everything and we slowly got up and stumbled to my house.

We were both exhausted...