Chapter 12
I woke up to the sound of someone making a lot of noise in the kitchen and automatically assumed that it was morning already but when I opened my eyes and saw the clock I saw that it was actually half past seven. I sat up and noticed that the kitchen was full of life, Jason was helping his mum cook the dinner and Joe, Lindsey and Ziggy were all stood in the kitchen pretending to be busy. I felt a pain in my arms and saw that I my arms were already bruising to form finger marks from where Browning had grabbed me earlier in the day.
"I'm glad you've joined us." Sandy said from the kitchen where she was looking at me.
"Sorry, I kind of fell asleep." I attempted to explain but she just smiled at me instead.
"Don't worry about it love Lindsey explained that you had no sleep last night so we decided to let you sleep. Dinner is ready in ten minutes." She told me and I figured that I needed to cover up my bruises in case any of them started questions.
"I'm just going to go and grab a jacket." I told them before rushing off upstairs.
I decided to grab a jacket from Freddie's room as the one that I had bought on my shopping trip was in the wash. I picked up the jacket and put it over my arms tenderly because the bruises were still fresh, I was too concentrated on putting the jacket on without hurting my arms that I didn't realise someone had entered the room.
"Freddie told me what happened." A woman's voice made me jump and I ended up smacking my arm against a nearby wall and I winced in pain.
"What do you mean?" I acted as if I had no idea what she was talking about.
"The whole thing that happened with Doctor Browning this afternoon." She elaborated.
"It was just a misunderstanding." I tried to make it sound like it was nothing.
"Those bruises don't look like just a misunderstanding." She gestured towards my arms that were now covered up. "I understand. That's why Freddie came to me, the other week I went to a conference with Browning and he made a pass at me and got a bit nasty when I told him no."
"He assumed that I was their sister because I was living with them and tried to make me give them a message but when I said no he grabbed me that's all. I'm sorry about what happened to you. I was lucky because I had Jim and Freddie there to help me." My voice came out with more emotion than I expected it to. "Did he tell everybody else?"
"No he only told me. However he did make up an excuse for you not to go to work by saying that it was the time of month for you because he said that nobody would question it." She told me with a laugh and I felt myself cheer up.
"Great. Why didn't he just say I had a stomach bug or something?" Lindsey laughed.
"I told him the exact same thing but he was just looking out for you after you told him not to go after Browning which was probably for the best."
"Well I didn't want him getting into trouble for something so stupid." I told her, "Plus he got a pretty good punch in this afternoon."
"Girls dinners ready." Sandy called from downstairs so we both headed down to endure some of Sandy's cooking, I wished that Freddie had said I had a stomach bug because I would've been able to get out of eating it.
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After dinner we all sat around in the living room watching something on the telly, Freddie was working late and Robbie was at work so it was just the six of us. There was a knock on the door which made me jump and Lindsey have me a questioning look but I gave her on back which told her not to worry about it.
Joe went to open the door and I heard voices in the hallway before Joe appeared in the doorway with Jim behind him.
"I'm sorry to disturb you but I was hoping that I might be able to talk to Minnie in private?" Jim addressed the room and everyone turned to look at me.
"Of course. We were all going to get ready for bed anyway." Sandy spoke for me and everyone got up to leave.
"No it's okay we can speak upstairs if that's okay." I told everyone and they all looked thankful and sat back down.
"Sure." Sandy told me.
I led Jim up the stairs and into Freddie and Ziggy's room and shut the door behind us.
"First of all I would like to apologise for my friend's behaviour earlier today." Jim started.
"That guys is a psycho, you should choose your friends more carefully." Jim laughed at my comment but didn't say anything else on the subject, "What do you want Jim? I'm pretty sure you didn't come here for me to insult your friend."
"Straight to the point just like your dad. I came here to correct a comment you made earlier today." I looked at him confused, "You asked me to tell Paul that you don't have brother but in fact you do have a half brother."
I had a brother?! What hadn't anyone told me before? I was so shocked that I had to sit down on one of the beds before I passed out.
"What's his name? Why didn't my dad tell me?" I asked Jim whilst I was trying to get my mind straight.
"I'm sorry I can't tell you that, your dad has sworn me to secrecy. I spoke to him earlier today and he said that if you want to find out then you must do what he asked you to do in your last visit."
"My own dad is blackmailing me?" I asked shocked.
"I'm sorry but I'm just telling you what he said."
"So when you came round earlier it was to check up on me for him?" I asked him and he nodded his head, "Thank you."
He looked shocked that I had thanked him, "I have told Paul to stay away from you so you shouldn't be expecting anymore visits from him. I ought to go because Paul will be wondering what has happened to me."
"I'll see you out." I told him and I led him to the door where we said our goodbyes.
"What was all that about?" Ziggy asked me when I walked back into the living room.
"Something happened at work and he needed to ask me about it." I lied but luckily they all seemed to believe it.
I walked into the kitchen to get myself a glass of water to try and help my head which was pounding due to the questions I had about my brother.
"What was it really about?" Lindsey asked me quietly, I guessed that she hadn't believed me and had followed me because she knew I wouldn't talk in front of the others.
"He wanted to talk about what happened earlier with Browning." I lied again and I knew that it was more believable lie.
"What about it?" She asked me.
"He wanted to know if I was going to be pressing charges or not but I told him I wasn't bothered because I didn't want Browning pressing them against Freddie for punching him." I avoided her gaze and poured myself some more water.
"Well if you want to talk about it anymore then you know where I am." She told me and I felt bad for lying to her.
"And if you want to talk about what he did to you then you know where I am too." I told her sincerely and she smiled before leaving me to go back to Joe.
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I couldn't get to sleep when everyone had left and figured that it was due to the fact that I had a long nap in the middle of the day. It could of also been due to the fact that Robbie and Freddie were still not back from work and felt more comfortable when I knew where everyone was.
I heard the front door open and Robbie poked his head round the door to see if anyone was about.
"Finally. You were at work for ages." I said and realised how sad I sounded.
"Why were you missing me?" He joked but then carried on, "Doug asked me to stay behind and help him with tidying up so I thought I'd earn myself some extra cash. You feeling better?"
He came and sat down on the sofa next to me.
"Yeah I'm feeling better now." Silence filled the room after I had said that so I decided to carry on the conversation, "It feels like forever since we hung out that day."
"I know, a lot has changed since then." He was right a lot has changed, I'm now living with the Roscoes because my sister had thrown me out and now I've just found out that I have a long lost brother.
"Tell me about." I muttered whilst thinking about everything.
"But one thing hasn't changed." I looked at him to try and understand what he was getting at, "I still like you Minnie. I was going to tell you that day that we hung out but Freddie seemed to ruin the whole thing and I haven't really seen you since then but I still feel the same."
I stared at him in shock but he must've got the wrong impression because he moved forward and pressed his lips to mine. I was frozen to the spot and before I could react someone coughed behind us and Robbie moved away from me. I looked to the doorway to find Freddie stood there.
"Ruining the moment once again." Robbie muttered when he saw Freddie.
"Look Robbie I'm tired maybe you should go to bed." I suggested before he tried anything else.
"I'll speak to you tomorrow?" He asked and I nodded my head.
Robbie left and went upstairs leaving me and Freddie in an awkward silence.
"Well that looked cosy." He broke the silence with his bitter comment.
"It's not what it looked like." I attempted to tell him.
"So you weren't shoving your tongue down my brother's throat?" He asked me and his tone was hurtful.
"No I wasn't." I tried to defend myself but then I realised I didn't need to defend myself, "Not that it has anything to do with you. I don't know why I'm even defending myself because I realised something earlier, you're the reason why I was attacked."
He looked guilty but continued to argue, "How did you figure that out exactly?"
"None of your brothers have it in them to blackmail people but it is something that you would do. Tell me I'm wrong." My voice was raised by now and I knew if I wasn't careful then someone would wake up upstairs.
He didn't answer me and walked to the door instead.
"Where are you going?" I asked him still shouting.
"Out. Tell the others that I'll see them at the garage tomorrow." And with that he stormed out of the house.
I went back to the living room and curled up into a ball on the sofa and pulled the covers over my head. I felt a tear fall down my cheek but I just let it fall.
I realised that my life was officially complicated and was slowly spiralling out of my control.
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A/N: I've now finished my exams so I should be doing regular updates now :) I was going to update yesterday but after my last exam I went to see Man Of Steel which was absolutely amazing if anyone has the chance to watch it, do!
