There All Along

Chapter Six

There was a knock at the door. My eyes shoot open. I look at my surroundings, trying to take everything in. Ok so I'm at home, in the living room. On the couch. The tv is playing.

I look at my stomach area to find Emma cuddling up to me, fast asleep.

Aww. Emma must have cuddled with me on the sofa watching Disney movies and we'd fallen asleep.

I kiss the top of her head. I was lost in the world because I was so occupied by my sister's cuteness.

Then the door knocks again, this time louder and more aggressively. I jump and Emma opens her eyes.

"Emma sweetheart," I gently say, "there's a knock at the door."

"What's going on?" she asks me. She rubs her eyes to wake herself up. I gently move her over a bit and stand up. The knock starts again and is still loud. "I'm coming!" I shout. I rush to the door and open it to find Josh standing there. He looks furious. I feel embarrassed because my hair must be a state and I have like zero makeup on and Josh usually sees me with minimal makeup on.

"What's going on? Why didn't you answer straight away?" Josh asks me, trying to remain calm.

"I was asleep," I reply. "Me and my sister must have took a nap on the sofa."

"You shouldn't be asleep!" he snaps at me.

"I'm sorry, Josh."

"I hope you're not hiding anything from me."

"What? No! No of course not!"

My heart starts racing. I thought that he could hit me any minute. Then my sister would come through and see her sister getting beat up by her boyfriend. That's an image I'd never want Emma or anyone I love to see.

"Well let me in then," Josh orders.

"Ok," I say, moving aside. He barges past me and I close the door behind him. He walks right into the living room and looks around. "Where is he?"

"Where's who, Josh?" I ask him.

Emma looks up at Josh. They've met a couple of times before but Emma doesn't really like Josh because she thinks he's too 'scary'.

"Anna what's going on?" Emma asks me, looking fully awake now.

"Nothing, Emma," I reply. I hold out my arms and Emma rushes over to me. She gives me a hug and I wrap my arms around her tiny body. I want to protect her from Josh. It feels weird me saying that especially since he's my boyfriend, but it's the truth. I wouldn't want him harming Emma, and Josh would harm someone.

He looks everywhere in my living room. "Where is he?! Come out you little brat!"

"Josh there's no one else here but us," I plead to him but he pays no attention to my words. He looks at me and his face looks evil. "I know! Someone's upstairs, aren't they?"

"No...."

But before I could convince him that there was nobody upstairs, he races out the living room and up the stairs to check.

"Anna what's going on?" Emma asks again. She sounds so scared. I feel my eyes tear up a little.

"Nothing, sweetheart. Josh has just come here to check up on me, that's all. He wants to protect me and keep me safe." Well it wasn't all lies. He did want to protect me and keep me safe. From others, that is. But he would only beat me to protect me and learn me a lesson.

When Josh finally came downstairs he sighed. Emma gripped onto me tighter and I gently stroked her head with my hand to soothe her. Josh looked at me. "I'm sorry, Anna. I'm sorry I was being paranoid and too overprotective."