Why us? - Montgomery De La Cruz

Its you or Bryce

Ella stood behind Montgomery in her cheerleading outfit with a fake smile plastered on her face, it was hot and there were protesters all around and Ella couldn't help but feel like something big was about to go down. Marcus stood up out of his seat and made his way up to the stand

"Good afternoon. Im Marcus Cole, the student body president" Marcus says and some of the crowd claps for him, but due to the tapes being released, the main thing that the Cole boy was receiving was glares and looks of hatred "happy to be here. Happy to be here today. since 1939 Liberty High has been committed to to helping students achieve academic excellence in a safe, supportive environment. But in recent years, our values have... gone to shit"

Scott who was standing next to Montgomery had turned to look at Ella but she had been ignoring him as well as the other boys for the whole day, instead, she had been sticking to herself. She felt her eyes on him but chose to ignore it and continue to look ahead

"i am part of the problem, i lead a group called enGUYtened which is supposed to be for enlightened guys. But today i am... officially resigning from that group. Because i am a hypocrite. How can i say that i care about protecting girls when i have been protecting... a rapist, like bryce walker" Marcus says and the crowd gasps and begin to mutter quickly amongst themselves and Ella couldn't help but feel happy that someone was finally taking responsibility and choosing the right thing to do over their fear of bryce.

"bryce walker should pay for what he has done!" Jackie, who was leading the protest called out loudly and Marcus quickly ran off "Hannah baker was a victim of bryce walker. Liberty needs to change the culture of their school"

"Okay okay, alright, uh" Principle Bolan says quickly, trying to change the subject 

"it does not protect a child" Jackie continues to yell "we must protect children like Hannah baker"

Ella looked out and noticed the look on Chloe's face and she couldn't help but feel bad for the girl.

Ella finally made it to her house and the car parked out the front confirmed her theory of her dad being home. She closed her eyes for a moment and calmed her breathing and tried to clear her thoughts but nothing happened instead she just kept thinking about everything that had happened that past year, her mind kept screaming at her and not matter how hard she tried to get it to stop, she couldn't 

'Youre a monster'

'you don't deserve to live'

'filth'

'murderer'

'it should have been you'

Ellas eyes shot open and she had made up her mind, she didn't deserve to have a happy life, she deserved pain, she deserved torture for what she had done. Ella quickly placed her skateboard on the front porch and then grabbed the cool door handle in her soft hands. She hesitated for a moment because she knew that once she had twisted the handle it would be like her opening the doors to hell, to her own hell where her father was the devil and she was the sinner, and in her mind, she knew she deserved it because she was a sinner.

Finally a large breath exhaled from her mouth and she twisted the handle and pushed the old, cracking door open, she wasn't surprised to see that it was unlocked and she definitely wasn't surprised when the burning scent of various kinds of booze wafted up her nostrils and set a deadly aura around the home.

The house was cold yet it made her sweat, the smoke from cigarettes clung to her soft skin and filled her lungs, burning them as if someone was holding a flame right in her chest. A cough escaped her lips and that was the moment she knew that she had messed up. The sound of a bottle smashing echoed through her ears and sent a river of chills down her spine, making goosebumps appear on her skin and wrap her like a protective shield, though she knew that it wouldn't be able to protect her from what was coming

"Eleanor, is that you?" His voice was rough and course, like razor blades that had just been sharpend, the croak in his tone had alerted her that he had been drinking and smoking the whole day and the usual aggression that was evident in his tone was shining like the moon in a night sky

"hey dad" she managed to reply after a moment, she tried to be brave but she was shaking

"where have you been? i haven't seen you all fucking week, Youve been out with that damned boy again haven't you, fucking around with him like there's no tomorrow, well listen here you little slut, he doesn't care about you" His laughter echoed through the house and the footsteps coming from the other room made her breathe hitch in her throat. He was waking towards her and from the banging, she could tell that he was stumbling and knocking into things 

"y-your wr-wrong, he loves me" She says sternly and he finally appeared in the door way and when she looked up at him she felt sick, his hair had grown out and was unkept, his facial hair covered his bottom half of his face and his clothed were covered in sweat and stained with alcohol. There were rips in his clothes and he smelt like a dead animal, and along his body he had small cuts, either from himself or someone at one of the many pubs that he had visited over the past 2 weeks

He laughed and shook his head "He loves you does he? is that what he told you? you're pathetic and so is he, you don't know what love is"

"I didn't know what love is when i was growing up because i had a shitty father who didn't care about his daughter any more than a billionaire would care about a 5 cent piece, but i know what love is now" Ella says sternly, she was no longer stuttering 

"you're an ungreatful bitch, i raised you all by myself" the man screamed in her face and she laughed 

"oh please, by the time i was in my first year of school my friends parents had noticed the bruises that covered my skin and looked after me. You gave me nothing. You gave me nothing but a shitty life" Ella yells back with tears falling down her cheeks and before she could even see it coming, the man in front of her had thrown himself at her and pushed her against the wall, her head smashing against it in the progress and everything became blurry in the process. The burly man then lifted his clenched fist up in the air and sent it flying into the small girls face

'You deserve this'  the voice in her head reminded her

"that's all you got?" The girl mocked with a smirk on her face and then she spat a bunch of blood out of her mouth onto the mans face "fucking pussy"

He then grabbed her by her arms and threw her onto the floor and began to kick her with her foot which was covered in his thick boots. Ella groaned slightly as she felt the bones in her chest beg for help and he punched her in the face a few more times and she could already see the blood begin to pool from her position on the floor

"Careful old man, you don't want the hospital knocking on your door again with suspicions" Ella tells him with a grin and an animalistic growl escapes his lips and he grabbed her again and began to drag her towards the bedroom and her eyes widened when she realised what was about to happen 

"no no no please no I'm sorry" Ella quickly cried and tried to pull herself out of her fathers grip as he edged closer and closer to the door but she couldn't, his grip was too tight her her whole body was aching 

"no so tough and mighty now are you" he asked her with a grin and he opened the door and threw her mangled body on the messy bed which had the familiar disgusting smell

She tried to ingore the scratchess on the bedside tables and walls that she had previously put there when she had tried to escape from the times that this had happened but she had only been successful in escaping twice and she knew that that number wasn't about to go up

A scared cry escaped her lips "please don't"

'Nobody helped Hannah and nobody is going to help you'

His grimy and heavy body crawled ontop of her and he held her down on the bed and began to strip her of her clothes, she struggled against him but it was no use

"please, please stop" she cried and in her head she couldn't help try and call to Montgomery or Scott for help but none of them would even know what was happening to her