*ANNA'S POV*
Eli sat up in bed and hugged me as best as he could, considering the circumstances. Even though it was Eli and I knew he wouldn't harm me, I flinched. I couldn't control it, couldn't prevent it, it just happened. Years of abuse and trauma had ingrained themselves into my mind, unable to be erased. I froze, praying Eli wouldn't notice. Unfortunately, he did, and pulled away as a result. He opened his mouth to say something just as a nurse walked in. "Mr. Elliot Bradbury?" He nodded. "You have a visitor."
"Who is it?" She checked her clipboard.
"Mrs. Amelia Bradbury and Mr. James Bradbury." Eli smiled at the first name, but it vanished at the second. The people were obviously his parents, so I wondered why Eli seemed to express a dislike for his father. He nodded, noticeably more tense now.
"Ok. Let them in." She opened the door, letting in a woman that looked just like Eli, and a man that looked similar. The woman had long, straight, black hair that reacher her hips, along with golden-brown eyes that seemed to hold the sun, shining brightly onto everything in the room. Her mascara was smudged slightly, some of it running down her cheeks, and she had bags under her eyes, as if she hadn't slept in a while. The man had clipped, straight, brown hair, matching stubble on his beard, carefully trimmed to a uniformity. His eyes matched Eli's, the exact shape and color, yet there was a cruel glint in his eyes, a hardness to them that I'd never seen in Eli's kind ones. I stayed silent at Eli's side, faintly listening, but not retaining anything about his parents. Until James raised his hand and Amelia flinched. I recognized that as instinct from past experiences. Suddenly, it clicked. The reason Eli was a bad boy, why his mother wore full coverage clothes and looked like she hadn't slept in weeks, the cruelness in the eyes of his father. Eli's father was abusing his mother. And I knew from my past that one day, James would kill what mattered to his son the most. His own mother.
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When Worlds Collide
Teen FictionThe bad boy of the school, Eli Bradbury, has always been seen as a player and a delinquent. He juggles girls like clowns juggle pins. Enter Anna Murphy, the transfer student from Ireland. She suffers from depression, anxiety, suicidal tendencies, an...
