Summon All The Courage You Require(DISCONTINUED)

You Knock Me Out, I Fall Apart

(Everything, except flash blacks, is in chronological order. I'll try to keep that up.) :')

J. Laurens POV (Domestic Violence)

I ruffled through Maddie's hair supplies. I knew it aggravated her, but she let me. Henry refused to let me own anything to maintain my hair to try and get me to cut it to something like his basic bird's nest. Maddie sat in the corner of my room with Ellie in her lap. She was trying to untangle Ellie's ball of tangles she called hair. It didn't seem to be working so well, with all of Ellie's squirming and yelling 'ow' every two seconds. Maddie, in defeat, pulled Ellie's hair into two brown, actually slick-looking pigtails going over her shoulders and reaching her elbows. A style that was obviously heavily inspired by Maddie's bouncy brown pig tails going down to her mid-back.  I sat on my bed, looking for a decent hair band—one that didn't snap upon impact. Apparently, I was going out to a fancy restaurant tonight according to Henry. Last minute, but I had to admit that it was a decent way to spend Halloween. Once I found a sturdy one, I wrapped it around my pre-made ponytail held by my hand. I stood up and got Maddie's attention.

"So?" I asked. I was wearing an oversized blue galaxy sweater, white jeans, and black combat boots. Ellie made a confused face while Maddie sighed. Ellie crawled out of her lap and ran out of the room, free from her torture chamber.

"This is fancy," Maddie said as she stood up. I gave her a face and grabbed my phone from my bed. 

"So?" I asked after securing my phone in my pocket. 

She rolled her eyes and opened the cracked door a little more. A squeakier voice took the chance to chime in, "You can't go on a fancy date dressed like that." Leaning on my doorway and looking into my decent sized room, Junior was shaking his head. "I know you don't actually care, but you'll want to give your date the opposite impression. Just for a minute."

I turned to the mirror and looked at my outfit seeing nothing wrong with it. "No I don't," I said, looking at Junior's reflection. "And what do you mean, 'date?'"

Junior came into my room completely to give Maddie space to leave. "I mean, a girl is waiting in our living room waiting for you to answer, and claims she's 'Jacky's girlfriend.' Poor girl, she's probably oblivious to the fact Henry most likely did this. Let her down gently, please."

"Fine," I groaned and kicked off my boots. "Did you get her name?" Junior shook his head no. "Well then," I deadpanned. Squeezing on a pair of nicer shoes, I mumbled, "She could be literally anyone so I'm in for a ride." 

Junior, Maddie, and Ellie all followed behind me as we went down the staircase. There was no one at the door so we went down the hall to the living room. While we walked over there, Ellie hid behind Martha—Henry had held a burning hatred for her since she was born and thought that I only really made it worse. He easily played favorites and constantly tried to mold Junior and Maddie into the perfect son and daughter. Still the four of us took comfort in being able to bitch about Henry together and actually understand what was going on. Before entering the living room, I looked back at the three of them and smiled. 

I walked in while the other three hovered by the frame. On the couch, Henry was talking to a pale girl with blonde locks. Goldilocks, almost? She wore a diamond-studded black minidress with black, knee-high, heelless, gold spiked boots. There were plenty of gold rings on her fingers, a golden choker with way too many accessories, and giant gold earrings. She turned to look at me and I took a deep breath, biting my tongue. I usually laughed at Maddie's antics. Always dressing her best everyday. Always going over the top. But she—this girl's clothes didn't even go together. It was a jumble of expensive, cute clothes put together to make...that. And her face was layers of concealer that was obviously too dark, shiny black lipstick, glitter, white eyeshadow, and a heavy pink blush. I recognized all the expensive brands and realized she probably spent a couple thousand dollars to look like a rich clown. I just gave her a tight smile and hoped those heelless boots were comfortable as she smiled back.