My reason to smile|M.C

Remembering

"That's the last box." I sighed with relief.
Me and Michael had been unpacking for what felt like forever. We didn't go out to breakfast p, in the end we ordered a pizza after we unpacked a few boxes. It was like a snack to keep us going. Now it was 7pm and we were both so so tired.
I fell onto the sofa in the living room, and Michael flopped down next to me. We both sat there in a comfortable silence. Today I had learnt so much about Michael. I learnt that his middle name was Gordon, but he didn't like it and told me not to laugh. His birthday is on November the 20th, he's a single child and his favourites colour is green.
We talked for hours about nothing whilst we unpacked. I did have a couple of boxes left but they were the ones in my room so I'd rather unpack them myself.
"Hey, I need to go my mums wondering where I am, she hasn't seen me for 2 days." He smiled at me.
"Oh okay, thankyou so much for helping me unpack, you're a super babe," we both stood up and I hugged him," now get going before your mum worries even more."
"It was my pleasure helping you today, I had a great time, I put my number in your phone for you by the way. Oh yeah, I was going to ask earlier bit I forgot," I smiled at him, encouraging him to go on," what we're you having a bad dream about? You know you can talk to me about it."
My smile instantly dropped. I thought he had forgotten about it. I couldn't think of anything to say and I didn't want to lie to Michael.
"I get them sometimes it was probably just because you frightened me when you fell into me yesterday and I bumped my head." I laughed it off hoping he would believe me.
I felt bad for lying to him but I didn't tell anyone this.
"Oh I'm sorry for that." He rubbed the back of his neck, something he would do when he was nervous or embarrassed.
"It's alright Michael, you need to get going so I'll text you soon, yeah?"
"Yeah." He said smiling at me (omg like tfios).
Once Michael had gone I realised how lonely the house felt. It as 9:30 and I was watching some old replays of friends. Feeling like I needed to do something productive, even though that's what I'd been doing for most of the day, I went upstairs to unpack my things. I was dreading this the most out of all the furniture because they brought back memories this I'd rather not remember.
I approached the first box hoping this one wasn't the worst. Opening it, I peeked in and lucky for me it only had a few old photos of me and some of my friends from the uk. I missed them but I knew that they didn't really like me so the photos were worthless. Because I knew I wouldn't want to put the photos on display, I moved the whole box of them and started making a rubbish pile.
After half an hour of sorting through some old clothes and photos I was left with one box. It was the worst of them all because it contained photos of my family, and my dad. I didn't know whether I even wanted to open it, or if I should chuck it straight away. Maybe if I looked at some photos and thought about what had happened, the nightmares might go away.
Cautiously I opened the box. I don't know why I was expecting for something to jump out at me, I was just scared of all the memories that would be in this box. Inside the box was a large amount of photos in frames. Shakily, I picked on of them up. It was a photo of me and my mum, and my dad. I shivered whilst looking at it remembering the day perfectly. We were at the seaside and I was 10, my dad had only just started hitting me and because I was ten I thought it was just because I was misbehaving or I hadn't done something he asked. I felt angry from looking at the photo so I chucked it in the rubbish pile. Again, I picked up another photo from the box. This one was a photo of me and my dad, on my prom night. I had bruises all up my arms and a black eye.
Flashback
No amount of makeup would cover it and I remember that I was upset because I didn't feel or look pretty, due to the fact my body was bruised and my black eye. My dad somehow was still smiling and I was grimacing at him. I don't understand why my mum felt the need to take a photo, she didn't try to help me when my father beat me. She would just say," it's your own fault, you wind him up and keep on pushing until he snaps, now he's in a mood with me, get out of my sight !"
She would say that after every time he beat me. When we decided to move to Australia, we told my father, a month before we were due to go. He went absolutely mental and he took out his anger on me. Then, he hit my mum. This was the point where she had it. She looked him in the eyes and she screamed at him. My mother then grabbed her bag, and went out leaving me with my very angry father. That night he beat me to unconsciousness and I woke up in agony. When I woke up, it was 4 in the morning and I knew I had to get away, before her woke up. I stumbled out the front door trying my best not to put too much pressure on my left foot which was probably sprained. In pain, i hobbled down the street getting as far away from the house as possible. It was raining, dark and cold and I was wearing my shorts and T-shirt that I wore for bed. I began to feel dizzy and shaky, and then I blacked out again. As I lay there I could hear a constant beeping, which wasn't helping my headache. I opened my eyes slowly, letting them adjust to the bright light. I looked around me and I realised I was in hospital. For some odd reason my mum was sat next to the bed crying. Why was she crying? She didn't care about me.
"Honey I'm so glad you're awake, your fathers been arrested and we're moving to Australia next week instead of a month! How are you feeling?"
I looked at her. She was suddenly caring and I knew it was just an act. If she cared that much she would have tried to prevent my father from hitting me and she would have called the police a long time ago.
"Why are you here? Why do you care? If I remember correctly this is all my fault and I wind him up. Surely you should just go and get him, I don't understand why he's been sat tested its my fault, I keep pushing and pushing until he's snaps remember?" I was beyond angry, and I was trying my best to sit up, even though my whole body ached.
"Darling we're moving on from that, let's start a new chapter, and forget all of this ever happened yeah?" She gave me a small smile.
I smiled back," I really do wish it was that easy," I said sarcastically," but it isn't, when we get to Australia, I'll almost be 18. And when I am, I'll be gone. Not that you'll care anyway." I sarcastically smiled at her.
"Fine. If that's what you want to do then you do that, don't expect to see me much because I'll be away with work do you'll be on your own the whole time. Have fun finding friends.
4 days laters
Eventually, after a few days I was discharged from hospital and we were supposed to be going to Australia in 3 days. My mother had packed all of the house up, including my room. I still had a swollen foot, which turned out to be a sprain and I had a variety of coloured bruises all over my body. I was praying they would be gone by time we got to Australia.
Flashback over
I threw the photo into the rubbish pile crying my eyes out. That was only a couple of weeks ago and I still had bruises on my stomach and lower back. My foot was a purple colour but it didn't hurt anymore.
After a few hours of crying and throwing basically all the photos into the rubbish pile I felt tired. Michael had text me asking if he could come over, because his mum had annoyed him after only being home for a couple of hours. I Ofcourse said yes and told him he was welcome round whenever he wanted, he didn't have to ask. I decided that I should clean my self up and put the rubbish into the bin.
Me and Michael had been laid on my bed, my head in his chest and his arm around me for 3 hours now. I thought Michael was sleeping so I carefully placed a small kiss on is neck. He kissed me on the head signalling he was still awake.
" don't I get a proper good nights kiss?"he asked sticking his bottom lip out.
He looked like an angel with the low colour of my fairy lights softly masking his face. I didn't say anything, I just leant up off his chest and kissed him meaningfully on the lips.