Open Up to Me

Ron - 7

Song of the Chapter: Where are You Now by Honor Society

Unedited

        Two weeks. Two weeks since the first day of school. I haven't talked to Odette for the past two weeks. I see Odette in class, but she always finds a way to avoid me. I can’t lie when I say I miss talking to her (even though we really don’t). I do most of the talking while Odette runs away from me. I haven’t tried talking to her lately because I thought she needed space. It seems that way when I tried speaking to Odette the second day of school. Apparently I’ve been “bursting her bubble” by the many attempts of me trying to be with her. She even threatened to file a restraining order. For such a tiny person, Odette is pretty feisty.           

        Home was boring as usual. I would come home late to see mom passed out on the kitchen table and Ben fast asleep in his own bed. There was hardly any interaction between my little family ever since we moved. But, today I don’t have any school because it’s teacher development’s day where all the teachers come together and decide what crap they want to put us through the rest of the year.

         Flipping through the several TV stations, I was on the verge of dozing off. Right now it’s 2:37 pm, so Ben should be coming home soon. I hear the front door open and shut abruptly once I turn off the television.

         “Ben? You home?” I ask from the living room.

         Ben, I think, doesn’t respond. Getting up, I walk over to the hallway near the front door. At first glance, I don’t see anyone there. As I was about to walk away, I hear little whimpers by the door. I turn around and see Ben hiding behind the coat rack.

         “Ben, dude! Come out, you look like Gollum standing there in the corner.” I go to grab his hand, but he flinches away.

         “What’s wrong?” I ask him.

         I notice he has his hood up, trying to hide his face. I turn on the hallway light to see Ben with heavy bags under his eyes. Looking at him, I see his cheeks tear stained and his skin gone pale. One of his eyes are covered in blue and black. It started throbbing around the rim of his eyes. The corner of his lip was cut, the flesh ripped open and blood slowly gushing out.

         “Ben?” I couldn’t look anymore. I pull my little brother to my arms, holding him close to my chest.

         Ben finally breaks down in my arms, bawling his eyes out. I try to calm him down, rubbing my hand up and down his back. Finally getting him to quiet down to a slight whimper, I kiss him on the forehead.

         “Who did this to you?” I say bending down to his level.

         He shakes his head. “Ben, I need you to tell me who did this.” Ben keeps saying no. Why the heck is he keeping this from me?

         “Ben,” I say forcefully. “How long has this been happening?”

         “Sincelastweek,” he mumbles quietly.

         “What?” I make Ben repeat it more clearly.

         “Since last week? Why the heck didn’t you tell me?” Ben just startes back at me. “Does mom know? He shakes his head no again. I can tell Ben didn’t want to talk about this subject so I remain quiet. I bring him to the living room, turn on the TV and make him a peanut butter sandwich.

         I’ve never seen my brother so upset before. He was always the little ray of sunshine in our household back in California. Even though my dad was a loon, he still loved my little brother very much. Whenever my dad came home drunk and mad, he would sober down as soon as he saw Ben. Ben was my dad’s kryptonite back in California. The day we left, Ben was distressed. He didn’t want to leave our dad; they had a bond that I never experienced with dad myself. I remember the first day we moved here, Ben asked when we were going to see dad again. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that we wouldn’t see him again, so I never answered him back.

         Walking back to the living room, I see Ben curled up into a little ball with the blanket over him. “Ben…” I say handing him the sandwich. “You will tell me who gave you this right?” I say pointing to his black eye. Slowly Ben shrugs his shoulders and continues to eat his sandwich. Feeling defeated, I sigh. I place my arm around Ben and cuddle with him until I fall asleep on the couch. 

A/N:

So so so so so so so sorry everyone for not posting in over a month. School is been a pain in the arse so I haven't had much time to write. And I'm very so this is very short. I promise the next chapter will be much longer. 

Thank you everyone for giving this story over 180 views. You guys are all amazing! Love you <3 :D

~virobix27 :D