The Girl With Many Names

▪︎ Chapter Ten ▪︎

"Why did Steve call this house yours?" I asked.

"Oh, that" he started "well, after the death of my parents, all of their properties were willed to my younger sister and I, well me because she's barely ten, and then my aunt and uncle, Steve's parents, had to become our legal guardians to prevent us from going through foster homes. They moved here because, not to be rude, but this place is better than theirs in every way, and since they moved, Steve has been bitter about the fact that he had to live in his cousin's house. He never really welcomed the idea. He loves this place obviously, but he hates the fact that it belongs to me. It's not such a big deal to me, but he would rather die than let anyone at school know that the house he lives in is in my name"

"Oh, I'm sorry about that" I replied "And what a jerkface Steve is"

"It's okay, I'm a big boy, I can handle it" he repeated my words, a smile on his face "besides, I'm finally getting over it"

"That's great" I replied "Alright let me get you a first aid kit, bruises have formed on your knuckles and they have cuts. What is wrong with boys and jumping on the chance to get into a fight anyway? Ugh"

"It's over there, in that drawer" he said chuckling, as he pointed over to a desk. I went over to the desk, opened the first drawer, nothing. I closed it and opened the second one and gasped at what I saw.

Right there in the drawer was a gun. A freaking gun! Metallic and black like they look in the movies. What was he doing with a gun?! Does he even have a licence? As all these questions filled my head, the image of how he looked when he and Steve were fighting flashed through my head and I couldn't help but tremble. I'd never ever seen him look so angry, I didn't even think he was capable of that.

"What happened?" He asked when he noticed my frozen posture.

"Nothing" I replied quickly and closed the drawer, moving on to the next one where I found the first aid kit.

"Come on" I said, applying some spirit onto a cotton wool and taking his hand. "This might sting a bit" I said before applying it onto his knuckles.

As the cotton wool came in contact with his bruise, he didn't even flinch. He just sat, staring at his hands like I wasn't applying loads of painful and stingy spirit.

"Doesn't it hurt?" I asked.

"Nah" he shrugged.

"So that means you're used to this? You've gotten into lots of fights?" I asked, my mind everywhere now.

"I won't say lots but with Steve around, I'm bound to get into a few" he chuckled. Oh, that's convincing, I thought.

I applied it on all the bruises and wrapped it in bandages. I didn't even know if I was supposed to do that, but my mind wasn't even here anymore, it was on the gun I just saw. Or maybe it was a fake one for self defense. I sure hope it's the latter.

"Earth to Dani" He said, waving his fingers in front of my eyes.

"Yeah?" I replied looking up.

"Where are you?" He asked.

"What do you mean? I'm right here"

"Sure, your body is but your mind isn't"

"Well, I was just wondering how you're not flinching with that amount of pain" I replied slyly, getting up and returning the first aid kit, making sure to go straight to the third drawer. I walked back to the bed and took my spot.

"So, your little sister, where is she?" I asked breaking the awkward silence that ensued as I stared at anywhere but him.

"Yeah Elsie, her nanny took her over to a friend's house for a play date, they aren't back yet" he replied.