Cassie (Book #1 of the "Cassie" Series)

Chapter #13: It's Gotta Come to an End (Naya's POV)

A/N: Hello lovely people! I'm gonna start this chapter off by saying it deals with the topic of step-parent to step-child abuse and domestic abuse, and is definitely the darkest chapter of the story so far, so if that kind of topic is at all triggering to anyone reading then feel free to skip this chapter. I've always tried to keep the story full of light humor and fun cuteness, but inevitably there was always going to be darker undertones and mood whiplashes. This storyline is kinda happening in the background of everything going on in Cassie's life (obviously as the narrator she's completely oblivious to what's going on) but it will be revisited a few times. This is a glimpse into Chad and Naya's home life, as narrated by Naya. Spanish translations in comments!

3:34 pm

"Does it look at all better today?" Chad asked, examining his left eye in my vanity mirror.

"It happened two days ago, it'll probably be a couple of weeks before anything heals." I was standing behind him, handing him an ice pack to help soothe the pain. I didn't want to leave the bedroom, I hadn't left it at all apart from to go to school recently. I knew he was downstairs and I didn't want a repeat of what happened on Saturday.

Who's he?

Tony Deal. My step-dad for the last two years. My birth father, Brian Hills, died in a car accident when Chad and I were ten years old. My mother, Luciana, swore she'd never marry again. Then she met Tony, a delivery driver who did drop-offs at the store she was working at. She always said "Tony was different" and "Tony made me believe I could love again" and all of that shit. She wasn't wrong, Tony was different, but different doesn't always mean good. After the wedding, there was some sort of horrible shift. My mother is Puerto Rican, my father was American. Dad always appreciated and loved Mom for who she was and the culture she came from, Tony was the complete opposite. He stopped her from going back to Guaynabo to see her family and forced her to cut them off, he banned us from speaking Spanish in the house, he went from being this attentive fiancé to this ugly, cold-hearted husband. It's not just the cultural differences that he hated, it was everything. When I came out as gay, he flipped the dinner table, when Chad got arrested for vandalism, he tried to throw the TV at him. We couldn't be his perfect, white suburban family. Then he lost his job, and now all he does is sit on the couch, drink beer, and yell, and Mom cleans up after him and is repaid with more yelling. 

"We have to tell someone what's going on." Chad took the ice pack and swiveled around in the chair.

"You think I don't know that?" I shot back. Of course, we had to tell someone, but it wasn't that easy. Nothing like this is easy. Chad and I balance this undeserved feeling of shame that this is happening, with this fear that things would escalate even further if we tried to talk, and this wasn't just about protecting us but also protecting a mother who's too scared to leave him.

"Why didn't we just tell Cassie and Hope when they came around? Or when they asked today? That would have been the perfect time for us to get out!" Chad started to raise his voice at me, I held up a hand and signaled for him to quiet down.

"Do we really want to put all of THIS on them? Cassie's the happiest she's ever been with her new boyfriend, and Hope's getting awful close to Max O'Connor. I think after everything they've gone through they deserve happiness." I responded. It was true that I didn't want to involve them, but not because I don't trust them, but because I don't see how much help they could be. Cassie's a sweetheart, and I love her to death, but the truth is she lives in a bubble. I'm sure if I told her the situation she'd do all she could for us and she'd be horrified at what we've been through, but she lives in her own little world with her popular boyfriend (if that's even what he is) and her perfect home life with two loving but separated parents. I'm not mad she has all these things, but as someone from another household where we haven't known that kind of nurturing love in two years, I feel like she's taking all of these things for granted and doesn't appreciate what she has enough, she is in no state to help us out. As for Hope, she cracks me up, but she just doesn't take anything seriously.