My Bully

Submissions and Returns

Devon's POV

The next day, after school, and a whole day of not talking to Haylee, a certain someone struts up to me.

"Kaden. What do you want?" I sigh, not wanting to deal with this guy today.

"Aw, did your little friend stop talking to you?" He laughs. "All I can say is...it sucks to be you." He shrugs and smirks. I stand there, putting my hands in my pockets. "What, no reply? No punching? No kicking? No anything?" I shake my head, not wanting to break a promise I made myself long ago to not fight others. Why is that? I didn't want to let Haylee down. "Wow, lost your will to fight? Now that's a first." The little b**** laughs again. I roll my eyes and walk away.

As I walk into the lovely household I grew up in, I catch sight of my father.

"Hey, Dad," I say, hoping that he might say "hey" back.

"What do you want?" He never does, though.

"What's up?" I try again.

"Nothing, other than your mother's back." ...what?

"What do you mean Mom's back?" I ask slowly.

"Just what I mean. She knocked on the door a few hours ago."

"And you let her in?!"

"Of course I did! When it comes to her, I'm weak! She's the only person that could make me happy, angry, and sad at the same time. I fell in love with her and the feelings never left."

"But she left you!" And me.

"I know."

"Then why'd you let her in? Why didn't you just say no?"

"Because I couldn't! I...I still love her. Even after she left."

"You are an idiot." After Mom left, I couldn't forgive her. Dad had abused me from the start. Mom...she couldn't handle Dad's mood changes from calm to angry. They were too often and too many. So, she left and left me as well. She couldn't afford me. I loved her with all my heart. She was the cause of most of my happiness. She would take me out for ice cream and shopping, and she would always play with me, whether it was board games or coloring, or crafts, or anything I wanted. Dad wouldn't. He would beat me for not doing well enough in school, or anything I did wrong in his eyes.

"What did you call me?"

"An idiot. You shouldn't have let Mom in. She would just leave again." Whack! There it is.

"I don't care. And you shouldn't either." I roll my eyes. Slap! In all of the places he's punched before, he punches again. Oh, joy. Bruises on top of bruises. Yay. As soon as I'm beaten to another pulp, he leaves me alone once again. I go up to the bathroom and attempt to clean my wounds, but they're mostly bruises. I can't do anything but let them heal. I take a warm shower, letting the feel of the heat run down my damaged body. As I walk into my bedroom, I see a woman sitting on my bed, looking through my...photo album?

"What are you doing?" The lady turns around and I soon realize that it's my mother. I notice her auburn hair flow down past her shoulders, her blue eyes twinkle in the lighting, and the red dress she's wearing. Clearly, I take after my father. I got the brown hair and brown eyes from him, while my brother got his brown hair from Dad and his blue eyes from Mom.

"Hey, Devon," she says softly. "Who's this?" She points to Haylee in one of the pictures I've printed from my phone. She managed to get onto my back, so I gave her a piggy-back ride. In the picture, we're both laughing. Josh got a hold of my phone and took a picture of us. I found in my photos soon after and printed it out. That's when we first started hanging out. I decided to make a photo album of all of my favorite memories with Haylee.