I woke up in my bedroom. The covers neatly tucked under me, only Mum could do that. I got out of bed quietly and tip toed to my door. I faintly hear my mother and father talking in their room. I opened my door and sneaked across the hall to their door; I pressed my ear to it and listened.
"How could you do something like that, to your own daughter?" Dad said loudly.
"I didn't mean to hurt her" Mum sobbed. "I drank too much".
"And you think that's an excuse for all the bruises and how scared she must be of you right now?"
"No, but I honestly didn't mean to hurt her like that, she means the world to me".
"Well if that's really true then go see if she's okay".
I heard footsteps coming towards the door and I ran quickly and quietly to my bedroom and jumped into my bed landing on the part of my body that mum had hit last night. It stung so much I had to gasp for air but eventually the pain numbed and I got into bed and pretended to sleep. My bedroom door opened and I hear footsteps coming towards the bed. Mum sat next to where my head was and started smoothing down my hair. She pulled the covers over and lifted my shirt up to the side where she'd repeatedly hit me last night and gasped. She started crying and all I could do was keep pretending to sleep.
"I'm so sorry, my baby, my angel, my darling Bethany, I never meant to hurt you like that!"
I sat up and looked at her. She was crying, not just crying but breaking her heart crying.
What could I do? She'd hit me last night out of anger and sadness and it was her fault. I just sat there and watch her until she finally realised I was awake.
"Darling, I'm sorry for last night....."
I didn't answer her just stared out my bedroom window.
"Please, answer me,"
"Do you honestly think you deserve me to say anything to you, after what you did?"
She stared at me, like I'd just done something wrong.
"There was no need to use attitude towards me, I apologised and now you're making it even worse"
"No mum, that's where you're wrong, look at what you did to me, your own daughter". I got out of bed and lifted my shirt again to reveal the purple bruise all down the left hand side of body. It looked horrific.
Mum started sobbing again at the sight of it and I just walked out of my room and left her. I didn't care about her at all, she'd hurt me bad and I could never forgive her.
The next couple of days I completely shut my mum out of my life. When I got home from school I grabbed some food and went straight up to my room and bolted the door. I never answered her calls on my mobile or never spoke to her when she tried to make me.
The weekend came fast. Mum and Dad finished work early so when I and Nathan got home they were sitting in the living room, talking, quietly. I led Nathan up the stairs thinking mum and dad were talking in private until I heard dad call my name.
"Yeah Dad?" I say walking into the living room, closely followed by Nathan behind me.
"I want you to apologise to your mother, you have purposely been avoiding her all week and it's really upset the both of us" he said.
"Yeah okay", I said sarcastically. "After you see this I'm sure you'll still want me to apologise".
I lifted up my shirt to show Dad the bruise.
He stared at it in disbelief and then he glared at Mum.
"Why didn't you tell me about this?"
Mum didn't answer him, tears dripped down her cheeks.
"Answer me now!" Dad bellowed, slamming his fist down on the dining room table.
Nathan ran upstairs; Dad must have frightened him to death. Mum had also jumped but instead of being scared she cried even more.
"I don't know what you want me to say David, I know I did wrong" she sobbed.
"I can't even look at you right now" he whispered. "I'm going out".
And that's just what Dad did. He grabbed his wallet and car keys and was out of the front door in a matter of seconds. I just stood there staring at the front door, not knowing what to do.