Summertime Strawberries

3

I was dragged to the nurse's office by a couple people that had found me all alone in the empty hallway the football team had ditched me in, and I spent the rest of the day there, refusing to give information to either the nurse, principal, or school counselor. At the end of the day, after many failed attempts to reach my father, the principal called the only relative he could reach. Michael, my younger brother. He couldn't do much except for walk me home, which he did in complete silence, but when we got home, he ditched me on the couch and ran into his room crying. I had a feeling that what I had done to Tiffany had backfired and now, it actually was my fault that he had gotten bullied. I would have to take care of that problem after work, but for now, I had to clean myself up and get to the shop before I was late. I left early so that I could take my time walking, but when I finally got there, I was late anyways.

When I walked in through the back of the coffee shop, I came into contact with the manager right away, causing her to scream ad drop the plates she was carrying. As she caught her breath, almost everybody in the back came running. "Oh my god Jax. What happened?" She gently touched my arm and I flinched away, not wanting to feel more pain than I already have today. "Oh. I'm so sorry. Why don't you call the police or something if it's getting that bad?" She gestured at the giant bruises on my face that were caused by Ed, but I never told her about what was happening at school, only what happened at home since she was really the only friend I had.

"You know I can't call." She waved away all of the crowd gathered and they went out to reassure the customers that everything was alright. "If I called, I would be put into the hospital and I wouldn't be able to take care of Michael. Then he would be put into the foster system because I'm not old enough to take care of him legally and I wouldn't be able to see him ever again. I can't do that Stacy."

She just sighed and looked at me sadly. "You're over exaggerating. I'm sure that wouldn't happen."

"You don't know that." I knew for a fact that If I called the police, I would never see Michael again because I would be shipped off to jail or juvie or something, but I would never live past my twenties.

"Fine. I don't know that, but you have to get some of those injuries looked at or else you might die from an infection or worse."

"I'll die either way. All I can do now is work so that I can care for Michael." I slid past her into the changing room and started to undress, grabbing my things out of my locker. I had just pulled my pants on when I heard talking from outside the room, so I quickly dug out a bottle of pills from the back of my locker and popped a couple into my mouth to numb the pain of the multiple cuts and bruises all over my body. I shoved then back in and looked around for the shirt I needed to put on for work, but couldn't find it anywhere. I found it finally and picked it up, but dropped it in surprise when I heard a gasp coming from the direction of the changing room door. I saw Ed standing there, his hand covering his mouth, tears trickling down his cheeks. I had never told him where I had worked, so it was probably the biggest surprise that I had gotten in a while. "Ed? What are you doing here?"

He sniffed, stuck on the spot as he uncovered his mouth and flinched at the sight of me. "I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry." He fell to his knees, right then and there, sobbing with his arms wrapped around his stomach. I quickly rushed over, shutting the door and grabbing him around the shoulders, holding him as he cried. He wrapped his arms around my waist, and as he felt the scars, he sobbed harder into my chest.

"Ed. It's alright." I held him tighter as he cried, and for a while, we just stayed like that, in each other's arms. Then, as the tears dried, I gently tilted his face up with a few fingers under his chin and placed a soft kiss onto his lips. "It wasn't your fault." I pulled him closer to me, wanting to feel his body on mine, but unable to at the moment, and pressed my cheek to his, comforting him with the gentle touch. "I know you didn't want to."