Transparent

**************CHAPTER 1***************

"Brandon get your ass up!" My dad said, thundering into my room and throwing the covers off of me. "I'm up damn!" I said, getting up and sitting on my bed in nothing but boxers. "You've got five minutes to get your ass downstairs and clean the living room before I kick your teeth in!" my dad said, storming out of the room. I looked out of my window.

It was pitch black outside. I checked my alarm clock. 4:23 A.M. "that son of a bitch." I mutter, getting out of bed to take a shower. I grabbed my clothes, a dark pair of jeans and a black Linkin Park shirt with a hoodie and walked into the bathroom. After getting dressed, I walked out of my bathroom, to get punched in the face by my dad.

"I told you five minutes! You were in there for twenty!" he said, kicking me in the ribs. That was it, I had had enough. I got up and tackled him to the ground. "Hit me again and I'll fucking kill you, you abusive bastard!!" I said, holding my arm back, ready to hit him.

He pushed me off of him and I crashed into the wall. He tried to hit me but was a little to slow, so I dodged it and punched him the the throat. He started choking and fell to his knees. "If you ever even touch me again, I'll kill you. Do you hear me!" I yelled, about to hit him as hard as I could, when my mom burst in my room and grabbed my arm. "Brandon leave him alone!" she turned towards my dad.

"I'm sorry baby, he's just grouchy. Are you ok?" She kneeled down to check on him, then he slapped her. Hard. Hard enough it sounded like a firework had gone off. Her nose instantly started bleeding and she fell against the wall. "You're fucking dead!" I screamed, pulling out my pocket knife and kicking him in the face, knocking him to the ground. "Brandon stop!" my mom whimpered. I couldn't say no to the way she said it. I just froze. Dad got up, his lip and nose busted bad.

He pushed me out of the way to go downstairs to clean his face up, slamming my door behind him. I walked over and sat beside mom, putting my knife up. "mom...why are we still with him?" I said, tearing up and gently wiping the blood off of her.

"baby, you know we need to have someone pay the bills. Ever since your brother....things have just gotten so much harder. I'm to old to work as you know, and you've still got a few months before you're 16 so you can't get a job. He's the only one who can pay the bills." she said, laying her head on my shoulder. I looked down. My brother had been paying the bills ever since I turned 14. But, a few days after my birthday, a large steel rod fell on him. My brother was a tough guy and was pretty big, but even so, the rod crushed his ribcage, which stabbed his lungs. He died the day after.

That's when we moved back in with my father. I stared at the ground, watching one of my tears fall to the hardwood floor. Without hurting mom by jumping up really fast, I got up and looked in the mirror. I had a bad black eye, and a busted nose. I pulled my shirt and hoodie up and found a nasty bruise on my side where my dad kicked me. My friends were definitely gonna notice this, no matter how much make-up I put on. After talking with mom, she hugged me and kissed my cheek, then went back to bed. I locked the door and turned my music on. I still had an hour at least before I had to get up for school. I opened my drawer and went to the bottom back, pulling out my razor. I pulled my sleeve up sitting on my bed. 'fuck this life' I thought, pressing the razor against my arm for the thousandth time.