Baby Girl | ADOPTED BY 5SOS

Chapter 7: Talking

Luke's POV

I woke up, squinting due to leaving the curtains open last night; stupid me. When my eyes adjusted a bit to the light, I looked at my phone to see it was about 9 in the morning. Smelling breakfast down stairs, soon I will need to put out a fire knowing it was probably Ashton cooking. I shook Alissa awake who was in my arms while holding her teddy bear. 

"Alissa, please wake up" I said gently while gently shaking her. She grunted and rolled over to look at me. 

She locked eyes and started smiling, I smiled back at her. I started feeling a bit territorial over her, but I don't know why, she just felt like a real daughter to me. I rolled out of bed, slipping on a baggy Green Day shirt on with basketball shorts. I don't even play sports, yet I own these? 

Anyways, Alissa eventually came down a bit after me. We all looked at her as she hopped down the stairs with her teddy bear still in her arms. She seemed startled still from last night's nightmare, the way she looked at all of us with worry in her eyes. She kept staring at Calum, almost in a way that seemed creepy. I shook it off before passing her a plate with some strawberries and a waffle I cut for her. She smiled as she started to eat her strawberries which seemed to lighten the atmosphere. 

We've only had Alissa for a day, we haven't seen her in her bad moods yet. I looked over to see her plate clean and I got off my stool and put her plate and fork in the sink. She laid down on the couch, cradling her teddy bear in her arms while watching Spongebob. 

The boys all looked at me in a confused manner. I shook it off, signalling to them I'll tell them all later what went on last night. Ashton still needed to tell me what she told him yesterday before the mall. Man, we have to fill each other in on everything. Alissa seemed to have a light bulb form in her head because she started giggling and ran up the stairs to her room. Least she seemed happy. 

The boys immediately turned to me. 

"Ashton, you spill first." Michael said. 

"Okay. So yesterday was Alissa's birthday as we all knew. But, when I walked in her room yesterday to ask her if she wanted to go to the mall with us, she had a small board out with photos of her sister on it. She had just read a card that her sister I guess wrote her years ago, she was explaining how her sister committed suicide a year after she was admitted into the orphanage, and sent her birthday cards that last her until her 19th birthday, which was the age of when her sister committed suicide. She said every year her sister gave her some money in each card and instructed her to save it for when she's older." Ashton said, almost all in one breath.

I didn't know Alissa had so much suffering started at such a young age. 

"Now Luke, you go." Ashton said after catching his breath. 

"Last night about maybe 1 or 2 in the morning, I was woken by Alissa because she had a bad dream, she was crying and was really shooken up about the whole thing. It seems like she's still not over it fully. She didn't tell me what it was about though." I sighed.

I wish I knew what the dream was about. Almost as if she could read my mind.

"LUUUKEEEE" I heard from upstairs.

I let out a chuckle and run up the stairs to see Alissa sitting on the bed, with her board out still. I sat down next to her as she hugged my arm. 

"What's up?" I asked casually.

"I want to talk to you about my bad dream last night." I nodded. 

"When I was one or two years old. My dad tried to hurt me. He would always scream and yell at me, always blaming problems on me even though I didn't cause them. One day, he was really mad or something and had a knife, he tried to kill me, he would've succeeded if my sister, Cameryn didn't jump on him and get the knife away at the time she did. Last night, in my dream, I relived this. I tried so hard to forget this whole portion of my life, but it's still there. Anyways, after the police got my dad and got him to jail, my mom is off the grid, I don't know if she's in jail too or if she escaped, if she's even still alive. Cameryn was sixteen or seventeen at the time, and fought to keep custody over me. She was still in school, and didn't have a steady income, so she couldn't afford food or clothes for me, so I was sent to the orphanage. Last night though, I realized something else. There was a boy there, about 8 years old was running frantically. Cameryn never mentioned anything to me in letters about a brother."

By now she was crying and I rubbed her back. She was scared, and confused. How can someone be so cruel to their own daughter? Why even have a kid if you're just gonna abuse them? 

Now I understand why she's always cringing when one of us boys scream, and why she was so scared last night. She has every right to be. I would be terrified if that was me. 

"Do you want me to tell the other boys, or do you want me to?"

"Can you? I want these memories out of my head." I nodded. I kissed her head and she turned the TV on and scrolled through channels. 

I walked out of her room and walked to the kitchen where the other three boys looked at me concerned.

"Well, she just filled me in."

"What happened?"

"She told me about her nightmare, she said her dad tried to kill her when she was one or two years old. He would've killed her if it weren't for her sister who really saved her life. She said that he would always scream at her, which explains why she cringes when one of us screams, even if it is in a happy way. She said she recalled in her dream a boy who seemed like an 8 year old was there. She said she has many letters from her sister and nothing said anything about a brother." 

"Wow, that kid is definitely unique. How does she handle this so well?"

"I don't know, she said that she's been trying to forget it." 

I looked over at Calum's expression, he looked back up the stairs then back at us.