Do They Bother You? (Editing)

Chapter Seven

"When Thomas and I were younger, he was everything a sister could have wanted- he was protective, and kind, and gross, but he was sweet to me and he never hurt my feelings. Even though Matthew was the oldest, Thomas was my protector. He was the reason why I had friends in Junior High- I was painfully, terribly shy, and the only way anyone could ever get me to talk was to indirectly ask me questions through Thomas. In elementary school, it wasn't a big deal, because everyone was friends with everyone. But Junior High was harder.

"I was fourteen when Thomas died. It was the summer right before high school started, and I started the school year late. When I heard from Mom- she's the one that had gone to the hospital, because Dad was at work and couldn't leave- that he had died, it was like my world had shattered. I didn't think, didn't move, didn't feel. Everything was just...gone. I'd lost my best friend, my brother, my protector. My twin. It's like physically taking a piece of your own heart and wripping it out with your bare hands.

"It was Matthew's senior year, and he didn't want to fall behind, so he went to school right away- I think it screwed him up a little bit, though I'd never tell him that to his face. He was irritable, and distant, and I think he drank for awhile. He was hard to deal with, but he always made sure I was safe. I was fragile, and shy. I didn't handle school very well, but he became my new protector to help me. Matthew's always been the kind of person to help others.

"I fell in with a group of friends that weren't very good for me. It's easy to do that, when you don't know any better. Most of them were okay, but there were triplets- basically the ringleaders. Trinity, Chastity, and Eternity. I used to look up to them, before I understood what was really going on, because they seemed so pretty and confident with their caramel-colored ringlets and gorgeous hazel eyes and the fact that they never backed down from anything. I thought I wanted to be like them when I grew up, but I was wrong. No one wants to be like them.

"They used to make thinly veiled threats, and were always insulting me and making it look like they weren't. But the worst was Ethan. He used to leer at me from across the lunch room, and would purposely go out of his way to bump into me whenever he could. We had one class together where he sat behind me, and he would pinch and kick. He left bruises on my skin that never seemed to go away because he would always hit the same place, over and over again.

"I don't know why I didn't tell anybody. Somewhere along the line, Ethan and Eternity started dating. It got worse after that, because he would sit in between Eternity and I at lunch. He used to drive the heel of his sneakers into my shin until I cried, but when I told the triplets about it they said I was acting like a child. 'Suck it up' they would say. 'Quit crying, you stupid bitch'. And I still trusted them as my friends."

I choked, tears filling my eyes. "We were at a school dance. The winter formal." I sniffed, letting the tears fall down my face. "I told Trinity I was going to the bathroom, and didn't think anything of it when she ran to go get Ethan. I thought it was strange when there was no one else in the bathroom- it was a school dance, and they only kept one girl's bathroom open because they kept part of the school roped off. Didn't want anybody going off by themselves. And- and then Ethan walked in.

"I found out later that the triplets had stood guard at the door while he did it. He left me lying on the floor, covered in my own blood- he'd bashed my head against the floor, trying to keep me still, but that wasn't the only place I was bleeding. It was all over my arms and my back from his nails, between my thighs...

"I was rushed to the hospital. Chastity told my parents I had slipped and fell, but when the swelling went down in my nose, I was able to tell them what really happened; they hadn't actually believed Chastity's story, anyway. No one could get those kinds of injuries from slipping and falling in a girl's bathroom. He'd broken my nose, fractured my skull and given me a terrible concussion, so it took me awhile to recover. But when I did, I made sure my parents knew the truth.