Saviour

{1}

The clock strikes 11pm and a drunk Ellie stumbles through the flat that her and Joel now own, she places her bag on the floor and starts to head to the kitchen to grab a glass of water. Soon enough the concerned brother walks through and see's his sister in a terrible state. 

"Again?" he says to her as he softly grabs her and places her on the sofa. Since their dad left Ellie's behaviour had been out of control, she would often come home drunk even though she was only 16.

"It's fine Joel, dad left us, no rules"

"There are rules, I'm supposed to be looking after you, not letting you get yourself in a bad state like this"

"I can look after myself" she says as she struggles to take her shoes off

"Here let me help" the brother says to her as he tries to pry the shoes off her feet

"Joel"

"Yeah"

"I don't feel so good I-I I'm going to be sick" she says as she runs to the bathroom and throws up the alcohol in her stomach. Joel sighs but makes his way over to his fragile sister who was currently humped up against the toilet, he softly grabbed her hair and held it back as she finished throwing up. Both her and Joel sat against the wall, knees up to their stomachs and they just sat there in silence, waiting for one of them to speak.

"Is all this about dad"

"No"

"What is it about"

"Nothing"

"Elli-"

"I said it's nothing Joel" she starts to stand up and walk out of the bathroom "I'm going to bed"

-

"Ellie! I'm going out for milk" Joel says as he grabs his coat and puts it on, he just earns a groan from his sister who was still in a slumber. To say Joel was worried about his sister is an understatement, he cared so much for his sister and didn't want anything to happen to her, although it's clear that something has - the only part is whenever Joel asked her about it she blanked him. 

He made his way down to the shop and as soon as he walked in he was greeted by Brody

"Hey man"

"Hey" Joel said back

"How's things?" 

"They're...so so...Ellie she's very out of control at the moment, I mean going out, drinking alcohol, coming home drunk and barely going to school...she's only 16"

"Has anything happened that could make her this way?" Brody said, trying to figure out whether Ellie had told her father or brother about what she confided in him about

"The only thing I can think of is dad leaving but...I-I don't know it just seems like there's something she's not telling m-" Joel was interrupted by his phone beeping in his pocket

"Damn" Joel said as he read the text sat on his phone "Work need me to go in straight away"

-

Two knocks on the door of the flat is what first woke Ellie. she remembered Joel had gone out to got milk. "Joel I swear if you forgot your key agai-" she said as she opened the door and spotted Brody 

"Can we talk?" Brody said as Ellie let him in the flat and closed the door behind her

"About what" 

"I think you know, this behaviour of yours-"

"What? how do you know?"

"Joel told me"

"Look, it's nothing to do with you okay? you're not my dad or my brother"

"But I'm the only person who knows" Brody said as Ellie stayed silent "I can see it's tearing you apart"

"And what do you want me to do about that?"

"Talk to me El, I'm right here okay, I understand"

"No, no you'll never get it...none of you will...what happened to you and me is different okay"

"I know what you're going through Ellie, I promise you that talking about this makes it so much easier"

"I can't...every time I think of what happened it takes me back to that place, that time, having his hands all over me and not being able to do anything about it because I was too weak"

"You're the opposite of that, you've shown that...why haven't you told Joel or your dad"

"Dad left the day after everything happened, I went to the hospital prepared to tell him but he was leaving with the twins...he didn't need me to drop that bombshell and then have to leave anyway...he didn't deserve that"

"Joel?"

"He's got too much on his plate, he doesn't need this on top of things" she sighed as she sat down on the sofa, head in hands

"I'm here to talk about it...about anything...whenever you want to" Brody said as he sat down next to her "have you...have you thought about reporting it"

"I can't do that...I mean the statements and the trials? I just wouldn't be able to do that"

"Whenever you're ready I'll be there with you okay? even if you don't want me there and you just want a Brody free zone" Brody said as both him and Ellie let out a smile

"There it is" Brody said, looking at Ellie's face. She turned to him and looked at him in confusion

"What?"

"That smile, been a long time since I've seen that"

"Thank you"

"Don't thank me"

-

Joel walked through the door and immediately smelt the food coming from the kitchen, "So I made Spaghetti and then ended up burning it so now we're getting take out pizza" Ellie said as she was plating up the food on plates

"What's this in aid of?" he said with confusion all over his face 

"My dumb behaviour...I don't know what I've been doing...I guess I just lost control after dad left, take this as an apology"

"An apology in form of Pizza? I'll take it"

"Of course you will" Ellie said to her brother as they both smiled and looked at each other for a moment 

"Just me and you sis"

"Just me and you now"

And so for the rest of the night the brother and sister sat in front of the tv eating their dinner. Both laughing, crying and being jump scared by the terrible film that they were watching. 

They only have each other now.