Special - Ryden

Chapter Six

A/N: so I decided to be more specific with trigger warnings. The warnings in italics are for the first section that's italicized. Ones that aren't are for the rest of the story. I'm also adding this to the previous chapters, and this note will be on the first chapter for any new readers.

TW//

Abuse, Mentions of abuse

"Ryan!" I hear the deep voice down the short hall. 

I know it's my dad. Sometimes I want him to just confront me rather than making me go to him. Now is one of those times.

"I-I'll be right there!" 

"Stop stuttering and get out here. Now!"

I frantically open my door and rush to the kitchen. 

The look on his face is too familiar. Not tired, not sad, it's angry. Pissed off. Up for a fight.

"What is this?"

"What is-is what?"

He opens the fridge revealing that it's empty. "Explain." 

"Well, you to-told me you were gonna go to the store. You-you asked me to do it later, but I-I don't have a car or money and you said no w-when I asked to borrow those."

"Stop lying!"

The thing is, I'm not lying. He was drunk at the time, so I don't know if he genuinely remembers or if he's pretending not to for the sake of being difficult. 

Then, I do something that surprises me.

Fixing my posture, I say in a firm voice: "I'm not." 

He growls shortly under his breath and takes a step towards me.
I take a step back.

"Lying isn't good. Especially lying to me."

"I-" I take a deep breath, closing my eyes. "I'm not lying. I'm not. Either you were too drunk to remember or you're the one lying."

"Shut up!"

I feel his fist hit my arm. 

Shit.

My date with Brendon is in two days. I know it will bruise. The pain is shooting through my whole arm and I fall over on my knees. This is partly because of the pain and partly because I'm scared of Brendon seeing. I think it's on my upper arm where he hit, but the pain is radiating through my whole arm, so I can't tell in the moment.

"You were asking for it."

I want to reply, but the pain is now bad enough it's causing my vision to go blurry, so there's no way I could form a coherent sentence.

"Weak."

It's now Saturday, the day after me and Brendon's date. 

Dallon wants all of us (Brendon, Awsten and I) to go hang out at his place and possibly go bowling later. 

It's 7:00a.m., and I'm walking into the kitchen towards my dad's wallet. I can't consider it stealing if he's taken every cent of what I've earned or found in my life. That says something when I found a hundred dollar bill in the gutter outside our house. I waited outside for about half an hour before the person who claimed to own it walked by and told my I can have it. I took it inside to show off to my dad and... he took it. I should have been expecting it, but no.