Our Sandbox

nine - piper

|| warning : this chapter contains sensitive themes, involving domestic abuse ||

"I'll call you later?" I asked Nolan as I was standing in his doorway, prepared to leave. 

"You better." He cracks a smile, and gives me a rye wink.

"Alrighty, bye Ducky." And with that, I stepped out of the doorway, striding towards my home. The lights were all one, which is strange for this time of night, since I didn't expect my mom and him to be home yet. 

Placing my key in the door, I can hear faint voices, and it sounds almost like an argument. Here we go again.

I step into the walkway, throwing my keys into a dish sitting on a front table, walking upstairs to toss my backpack into my room. But as I ascend the stairs, the shouting voices grow louder, and I can identify them as mom and Jerry almost right away. 

Tip-toeing, I sneak past the slightly opened door to my mother's room to my bedroom, and I almost make it in without being noticed when her door bursts open, and a red-faced and furious Jerry appears.

I freeze, my bag held in mid-air and my pulse racing in my throat. I've never seem him get this mad, sure he's been pissed at times, but his eyes are as red and bloodshot as his face, causing fear to pulse through me. 

"Where have you been?" He growls, breathlessly. I frown at him, gently placing my bag on the ground. 

"At Nolan's..." I respond gingerly, cocking my head to the side in confusion. 

"Oh, of course, because that's where you're spending all your time now, huh?" He slams his hands down on his hips, his frown growing deeper. 

"I-I-" I stutter, words escaping me. 

"That explains the D you got on your most recent physics tests!" He nearly screams, his hands shooting forward, fingers splayed apart. He looks absolutely insane, and he's genuinely terrifying me. 

But then his words begin to register, and a pit knocks in my stomach. 

"I-I studied so hard f-for that t-test." I stutter, twisting a ring on my finger nervously. 

"Don't lie to me!" He points violently to his own chest, squinting his eyes in suspicion. "You were over at that boy's house, doing god knows what, I wouldn't be surprised if you were pregnant already!" 

My jaw drops open at his words, anger, shock, and horror filling me. 

"What the- Nolan is my friend, Jerry!"

"If that's what you kids are calling it these days!" He lets out a humorless laugh, his throat sounding dry and hoarse. With his exhalation, I can smell alcohol on his breath. 

"Jerry, please calm down." My mother's voice appears behind Jerry, and I can finally see her face, and I gasp audibly. There is a newly forming bruise on her cheek, and terror fills me. 

"Shut up, Karen!" He screams, his eyes wild, and I flinch violently at his words. My mother cowers behind him, disappearing into herself. 

"Don't speak to my mother that way!" I snap without thinking, and after the words leave my mouth, Jerry's head turns back to me slowly, like an evil child from a horror movie. I begin to move backwards, my entire body shaking horribly. 

"How dare you, you little slut." He hisses.

This has to be a nightmare. I don't really like Jerry, but it's because he's generally annoying and odd, but this... I've never seen him do anything like this. And this fact terrifies me even more, because I officially have no power over this situation at all.