I watched as the guy fell off his board and laughed, as I rolled along stopping in front of him smiling down as he stood up “Yo girl what’s your name?” shirtless skater dude asked as he picked up his board; walking up to me we moved to the side of the skate park where it was quieter.
“Zoë” looking round to see that people had either gone back to what they were doing in the park or they were skating, the only ones who were still watching were the guy’s mates “You know Zoë you’re pretty good; for a girl” he stepped closer to me so my back was pressed up to a tree. His face leaned in closer to mine.
“Thanks” I said pushing past him, walking away
“Wait!” He called running up to me “Aren’t you going to ask for my name?” he asked.
“No, why would I do that?” As I said that his face dropped, my guess he was in shock a girl didn’t give into him and lean in closer. Once I got away I took my phone and looked at my messages.
Josh- where are you?
Zoë- on my way
I checked the time on the message; he had sent it only 5mins ago. I replied saying that I’d be back in 5. Skating home feeling more calm and relaxed than when I left. As I skated I got some pissed off looks from people on the footpaths, they were jumping out of my way. I slowed down as I got closer and closer to home. Opening the door to see mum and dad looking pissed, both of them wore a sour expression. “Where the fuck have you been?” mum yelled storming towards me. Slamming the door behind me.
“I was at the park” I replied; as I said this I felt a sharp stinging on the left side of my cheek. Bitch.
“Why were you there? Did you even ask us if you could go to that place and do god knows what?”
“Since when have I ever told you what I’m fucking doing?” another slap to the face.
“What do you have to say for yourself?”
“Nothing, I can do what I want and I will bitch” I looked down at the ground. I wasn’t going to apologize; which was a big mistake, Dad shoved me up against the wall, next to the door and started to punch me in the stomach a few times then he threw me to the ground, shouting at me.
“Apologize to your mum you fucking cunt” He punched me again. He kept doing this until I finally chocked out the word sorry. They always did this when Josh wasn’t here, taking advantage of how much damage they can do to me; they know that Josh would jump in and defend me, playing the hero. I stayed down on the grey floor. I could feel a little bit of blood roll down my face. Wiping it away, waiting for them to leave the room and go back to doing whatever they were before. Once they did go back to watching tv, I got up and went to the bathroom and ran a cold bath. Looking in the mirror my cheek was bruising with a small cut from where mums rings had cut my skin. My stomach was a bit blue, nothing too bad today. I don’t know how I’m going to put up with this, with Josh gone; he’s the only one who knows about the abuse none of the guys know. Steeping into the bath slowly, getting use to the coolness of the water. I closed my eyes and relaxed as much as I could in the cold bath. Putting my head under holding my breath as long as I could, before I felt like passing out. I quickly lifted it up gasping for air and settling back down.
I dried myself off then got back into the clothes I was in before, looking in the mirror again. The swelling had gone down a bit and my stomach was almost back to its normal colour. I walked into Josh’s room, it was filled with boxes only his bed and his draws were left. “I’m going to miss you bro” I say sitting down next to him. His walls that use to be covered with girls and sports poster were in a pile in the corner of his room. “Same here Zoë. You know you should tell someone about mum and dad, you can’t keep letting them do this to you”
“Yeah I know but-”
“No buts. Zoë you’re going to get seriously hurt some day and I mightn’t be there to help you.”
“Josh I know what I’m doing, just trust me”
“You promise to tell me if something is wrong?”
“Yeah course” I smiled at him. He looked up at me and noticed my eye.
“Zoë what happened?” Josh asked looking at my eye
“Got into a fight at the skate park, it wasn’t anything big.”
“Zoë” I could tell he didn’t believe me but I didn’t want him to prove his point about the abuse.
“What?”
“I know mum and dad did it”
“So what!? It’s nothing new. It’s always been like this! It will always be like this!” I stood up
“It won’t. Just let me help you”
“No!” I turned away from him and stormed off to my room, Josh’s hand landed on my shoulder, spinning me around.
“What?” I growled, glaring at him.
“I only want you to tell because I care. You’re my little sister”
“I know. But just leave it” I walked into my room and flopped onto my bed looking at the box with the necklace in. I walked over and picked it up. It was silver and 3 stars on it. Placing it back in the box then I chucked it in a draw. I dragged my feet to my bed I collapsed on it and fell asleep instantly.
