Poison

Chapter 35

Poison

--------|| { Alex's POV } ||---------

I awoke the next morning feel good. When I got in the house last night, Karen wasn't there so I didn't have to explain where I'd been. I just went straight to sleep. I stretched the sleep from my limbs and got out of bed and got dressed. I dressed in a simple T-shirt and jeans and put my hair into a ponytail and headed out.

The school day was very uneventful. Me and Harry decided not to skip today seeing as we had skipped a lot of days in the past. We saw each other during passing periods but he kind of avoided me which was strange. When I would pass by him I'm the hallway, he would normally befouling on the ground before raising his head to see me. He'd smile and give me a short kiss on the cheek before scurrying off to whatever class he had next. It was strange but I wasn't going to worry too much about it. He told me he'd see me after school so maybe he just wanted to focus on his studies or something.

As I walked home from school I had my headphones blaring as usual when I noticed a car parked outside of Karen's house. I cocked my head to the side in confusion as I walked closer to the house. Once I was close enough I took a peak inside the car. It was definitely one I hadn't seen before. I shrugged my shoulder and continued to walk to the house. I opened the door, but didn't find Karen in her usual spot in the kitchen with her cigarette. Instead I saw a young man with short, light brown hair quiffed upwards, strong arms, a baseball retro Tee, straight leg pants and converse, who had to be around my age. I walked a bit closer and saw he had Chapin sitting comfortably on his lap.

"Excuse me what is going on here? Who are you?" I said sternly as I walked to Chapin and picked her up from his arms.

The young man looked confused and stood up so he was now towering over me. "I'm Liam. Chapin's older brother."

My eyes widened a bit. I had heard about her older brother years ago. I had seen a picture or two I just didn't expect him to ever come around.

"What are you doing here?" I asked holding Chapin close to my chest. Liam looked down at Chapin, signaling that he didn't want to talk about this in front of her. I nodded my head and put Chapin down.

"Chapin why don't you goto your room and get your toys ready to show your brother?" I said with a smile.

"Okay!" She said as she ran excitedly up the stairs.

I looked back at Liam. "Where've you been? What are you doing here?" Liam sat down at the table and motioned me todo the same. I did and waited for him to

"Who are you to my sister?" He asked now skeptical of me. I opened my mouth to answer but before I could a small Chapin ran up time and climbed on my lap.

"She's my big sister. She the best big sister ever. I love her." Chapin said as she hugged me tightly. I smiled and kissed the topic her head.

"We'll there's your answer." I said.

Liam smiled and looked to Chapin.

"You gonna show me those toys now?!" He said excitedly.

"Yeah yeah! Come on!" She said as she hopped from my lap and took her brother hand towing him up the stairs with her.

I followed with a small smile on my face. Chapin showed him her Barrie's and her doll house. Then she showed him all the pictures she'd drawn. Most of them of me and her causing him to look up at me and smile. That when he noticed a picture she'd drawn that showed Karen and me. His brows furrowed and he picked that one up out of the pile.

"Chapin what's this one of?" He asked as he examined the picture. Chapin grew serious also as she described the picture. It was a picture of what had happened a few nights ago. When Karen beat me and almost lost Chapin in the process.

After Chapin had described what happened to me that night and how Karen had scared her, she looked up at me with tear filled eyes. I got down to her level and held my arms open to her. She ran into my arms and cried a little on my shoulder.

"Shhhhhh. It's okay sweetie. It's fine you're fine." I said to calm her.

"You were screaming so loud.." She mumbled into my hair. I rubbed her back and rocked her side to side slightly.

"I'm fine. It's okay. Everyone's okay. Come on, show your brother that pretty smile." I said as she picked her head up from my shoulder and wiped her eyes. "Please?" I asked pouting my lip to make her laugh. She giggled slightly and turned to Liam and gave him a little smile.

"It's that the best you can do? I know you can smile bigger than THAT!" I said as I dipped her without warning causing her to burst into giggles. She turned back to him and smiled a wide and bright smile. "There's that smile." I looked to Liam and he was looking at Chapin with nothing but love. I smiled to myself and put Chapin down. Chapin ran into his arms immediately and hugged him. Liam hugged her tightly but then looked up to me with a bright smile.

Chapin skipped over to her toys to continue showing her brother. Liam listened intently and showed enthusiasm with every new piece of information about her dolls new wardrobe. Even though they had known each other for only a couple years before they got separated, they had a connection from the start.

"Why don't you play in the front yard? I just want to talk to Alex a little." Liam said looking at Chapin.

"Okay!" She said excitedly.

Chapin ran down the stairs with me and Liam following close behind.

"Why are you here? Where have you been?" I asked with a stern look as we both walked into the front yard.

"I wanted to come by and visit her for years now. I have I swear. But her case worker wouldn't let me. None of them would. They said I was too young. And when I turned 18 I tried to gain custody but they wouldn't let me do that either. They said I wasn't responsible enough." He said looking at his feet.

"Oh I didn't know..." I said.

"What happened to you with your foster mom?"

"Karen. She's not my mother." I said with slight anger.

"Sorry.." I said looking downward. He didn't deserve my rudeness.

"It's fine.. But tell me what happened.. Please." Liam begged. I sighed but told him. Everything.

By the end of the story he wasn't looking at me. He was focused on Chapin riding her bike off in the distance.

"I had no idea. Thank you so much for being there for my sister when I couldn't.." He said as he looked at me with tear filled eyes.

"Oh don't cry.." I said ask drew him in for a hug. One I'm pretty sure he wasn't comfortable with at first but he ended up melting into my arms and letting out a few tears.

"I just feel completely useless. Here you are, taking punches and abuse for Chapin, and I've been MIA.." I saw the tears begin to well up in his eyes as he looked off to the side again. I grabbed him by his chin and forced him to look at me.

"You are not useless. You did what you could and you are here NOW. You can be here for her now when I can't be. I try to do everything I can for her but sometimes it's just not enough. You can be what makes it enough." I said as I rubbed his cheek.

He placed his hand atop mine and gave me grateful eyes.

"Thank you. For absolutely everything." He said as he pulled me in for another hug. I smiled and hugged him back.

That's when I heard a car door slam..

"What the fuck is this?"

Harry's here.