The Search For Shattered Pieces *Complete*

Chapter Twenty Six: Double Axle's and Double Entrendre

Lyra:

And...a giant hole will open up and swallow me up right...right...now...COME ON! Give a girl a break.  Where was a giant hole when you needed one?
I was seated in the kitchen with all four of my brothers and the air was tense.  Only a total moron wouldn't be able to see, sense it.  I'd tried to escape to my room the second I'd seen to Cami, but the guys insisted that we all have dinner, together...like a family.  I was seated squashed between Trent and Tal and I knew my face beet red.  Xav and Zach sat opposite me and continued to stare at me as if memorizing the lines on my face (many more now that I'd moved in with this bunch, I'm sure).
   "Eat pigeon," Trent says.
   I shake my head.  "I'm not hungry," I lie.
   Trenton's eyes darken (what's that about?).  "That's a fuckin' lie, Lyra.  You haven't eaten anything today.  Don't think I haven't noticed.  Hell, when was the last time you actually ate something, huh, when?"
   I was so not having this conversation with my stepbrothers, not here, not now, not ever.  "I said, I'm not hungry Trent."
   "Don't push her, bro," Tal says from my other side and I shoot him a grateful smile before I remember that I'm still mad at him.
   "If not me, then who?" Trent says.  "Don't you think we haven't noticed...I haven't noticed?"
   "Noticed what?" I squeak.
   "You don't eat."
   I sigh.  "I eat just fine, Trent."
   "No, Lyra, you don't.  You eat less than bird, if anything at all."
   My face burns brighter.  I absently push my fork across the plate.  "I...I...I've had plenty of meals with you guys, and so you've seen—"
   "—You push food across the plate.  Yup I've seen it plenty of times, Lyra." Trent continues.  "You don't think I haven't noticed how little you eat? That you don't cut your food into a million fucking tiny pieces and then swirl them across your plate like you're doing one of your routines?  Waiting for everyone else to finish and then dump your food?"  Trent covers my hand which is still holding the fork with his, and his eyes bore into mine, as if daring me to refute his claims.
   "I...I...don't have a big appetite.  I never have."
   "Seriously?" Trent squeezes my hand.  "How many excuses are you going to make, Lyra? You don't eat.  You almost never eat.  You're...you're skin and bones and you don't eat.  Guys, come on..." He implores them.  "Why am I the only one to bring this up, huh? Tell her, tell her you've seen it too."
   The table is silent and Trent snorts, "Thanks a lot guys for the help."
   "I think what my brother was trying to say, Lyra, was, that we're just concerned for you, that's all." Zach finally speaks.  His voice is gruff and does things to my stomach.  Or that could just me the vast empty hole that was there right now.
   "Because you all care about me..." I say and I can't leave out the bitterness in my voice.
   "Exactly," Trent says.  "We care so much about you Lyra, and I couldn't just not say something."
   "Like family..." I say and watch as Trent looks suddenly floored.  "You care about me because I'm the hick new stepsister you were forced to accept when I was virtually left at your doorstep." I begin to squirm.  I'm done with this conversation.  "Let me out.  I'm suddenly really not hungry."
   "No Lyra, that's isn't what—" Trent tries to say but it stopped by Xav's voice.
   "Let her out, guys."
   Trent tries again, "No, she doesn't understand..."
   "Let her out, seriously.  We're not going to keep her here against her will."
   Tal slides out and I quickly slide out after him, making my getaway to the sound of harsh voices arguing.  I flee, like the coward I feel I am, to my room.  Where I close my door and sink to the floor.  I take deep gulping breaths, trying to get air into my lungs.  I reach around for my bag and find my inhaler and take a few puffs.
Oh god.  Oh god.  I thought I could survive anything.  But now I feared I was wrong.  I would not survive my stepbrothers.