The boy next door || a.i.

0.4

Marcus was my older brother. He isn't like other older brothers, who pick on there younger siblings, annoy the crap out of them, and pissing them off until they are on the verge of shooting eachother, no Marcus and I get along, very well.

At the moment, I just wanted to sleep. But right now, all I can hear is screaming... again. What didn't they do enough of it earlier this afternoon. I rolled over to check the time, 10:52. Here's the situation. Dad has become really abusive of late, he is always drunk, and probably at a new bar every evening. my mum is sick of him, but because he literally runs this place, she cant really do much about it. So recently, she hasn't done anything. She just lies on the couch all day. If she wants to eat, its always 'Emma, I want some ice-cream, grab 20 dollars out of my purse and buy it' ot 'Emma, make me a cheese toastie'. But it gets worse, that's just the start. And because of all this, my brother does drugs, and I'm probably just as bad off as he is.

One of mine and dads conversations will usually go something like this.
"who the fuck do you think I am Emma?! I'm the boss, cut that shit."

"Boss-y" I'd say, then he'd hit me, and that's an example of where half my bruises are from.

There you have it - a day in the life of Emma! To get away from everything, I listen to music. I love my music so much. Not many people think this isn't a stupid idea, but trust me, it helps. I can block everything out with it, it calms me from the minute I put my headphones in and press 'play' The main reason it helps, I suppose, is because I instantly forget about everything else going on. I just think about the music, whether I like it or not, and the band who's music it is.

OK, Now I'm annoyed. It's getting late now, and I'm pretty sure the rest of England, Ireland and probably Scotland is awake because of the noise too. I get out of bed, and walk over to my drawers. I pull out a small box with a little lock on it. I unlock it, and searched around for what I need. When I found it, I sat on my bed with my sleeves rolled up, as I sliced into my skin, allowing the warn blow to escape my veins.

Suddenly, my door swung open, as I whipped around to see Marcus standing there.

"Em, are you awa-" he began, stopping when he saw the shiny blade in my hand, and my red stained wrist.

I just sat there staring at him, blinking back tears, as he slowly walked over to my bed.

"Em" he whispered sitting down, grabbing the towel beside me "you've got to stop, please"

"but I cant take it" I sobbed.

"I know, but you have to"

"what about you Marc, how many times have I walked in on you with various drugs? That's just as bad" I pointed out, with a sassy tone in my voice.

"true, but this could kill you"

"drugs could kill you Marcus" I shouted "anyway, you can deal with it in other ways. Your 21, cant you just move away?" I said

"and leave you here? No."

"I'm fine, im 18, and your not even here half the time, your always with Madeline. I hate that fucked up bitch"

"no, you're not ok at all! Your depressed, and cutting is not good for you!" he yelled "and don't call my girlfriend a bitch" he shouted, getting up and storming out of the room.

Ok, we did fight sometimes, but very rarely, and he's more comforting than aggravating in a way. But yeah, I'd rather be with Marcus at times that be alone in my room. He was always there for me no matter what. I had no friends who I could tell all this too, besides the guys next door, but I'm not ready to tell them yet. I have to trust them first. So I just told Marcus, he was kind of like my best friend as well as brother.

*******************

the next day was a Saturday, so I had the usual.. Work. I liked working, I worked at the diner near my house. It was an easy-going, but still enjoyable job. Especially today.

I was cleaning some of the benches, when people came in the door, speaking loudly.

"oh I'm starving!!" a familiar voice said.

I turned around to see three tall figures standing in the doorway. It was Calum, Luke and Michael from next door.

"Yeah I think you're always hungry luke" I chuckled.

"hi Emma" Calum smiled. "I didn't know you worked here."

"haha well I do, come have a seat, and I'll take your orders" I said, leading them to a table. "So where's Ashton?" I asked.

"he's gone out. He said he had some errands to run." Luke explained.

"Yes ok." I said, "so, what do you guys want to order?"

"I'll have pizza! Hawaiian" Michael called, from where he was standing behind the other boys.

"aha ok. Anything else"

"Yeah me and Cal will have a burger and fries each, no beet please" Luke said "oh Emma, ash said for me to give you this, we were planning on stopping by your house on the way back" he said handing me a piece of paper.

I opened it up to see that is was his phone number.

"He said if you could call him that'd be great. He was also rambling about how cool you were and something about movies. I don't know." Luke said.

"I'll do that after work" I smiled, trying to hide the fact that I was jumping out of my skin with excitement.

Once work finished, i left the diner, and began walking back to my house. Halfway home, I remembered Luke telling me to call Ashton. So that's exactly what I did. After a few rings, he finally picked up the phone.

"Hello?"

"Hi Ashton, it's Emma, Luke said you wanted to talk to me"

"Hey Emma. Yeah I uh.. wanted to know if you'd like to go to the movies?"

"Yeah I'd love to go to the movies with you guys!"

"Oh, uh they're not coming. Just us"

"Me? After I was such a bitch to you the other afternoon"

"Yes I'm sorry for pushing you, but if something is up,then I supposed you needed a friend".

"Thank you , that's so sweet. Sure I'd love to go with you. When were u thinking?"

"Is 5 tonight ok?"

"Yeah that's fine"

"Do you need to like ask your parents first?"

"No they're fine it's ok"

"Cool, I'll see you tonight. Bye Em"

"See you tonight" I said, hanging up the phone.

Was this a date? I thought. No can't be, I'm, well me, and he's ashton. keep dreaming Emma