Jeremy Fitzgerald

Chapter 6 pain

I stared down the path were Mike had left, the aroma of pine cones and the soft breeze that flew strands of my hair back, made everything seem calm....for once I smiled...a real smile. That all stopped when my dad burst open the wooden door, "Hey did I tell you, you could stop working!?" He screamed the wind blowing his shirt up exposing more than I ever wanted to see. He stomped down the wooden steps, I was very surprised they held his weight as he stormed into the half mowed lawn. He came up to me until he was inches from my face, before I could even react he balled his fist and popped me right in the jaw. I tasted the blood as it leaked out of my mouth and onto my neck. The warm thick liquid rolled down staining my shirt. My dad looked satisfied and lifted his hand again, a grim and terrifying smile across his lips. I braced myself and crossed my arms as I took another blow to the face. I felt the blood flow become stronger and my head become lighter. The last thing I saw was my dad wiping the blood from his knuckles as everything went black. I heard the loud thud fill the clearing as I fell.
I soon woke up later, my face throbbing, there was a pool of red sticky blood pooling around my head as I stood up, I wiped my face with my wrist. My face felt numb to the touch but hurt like hell at the same time. I sighed and walked inside curving towards the bathroom, the old tile moaned as I stepped into the bathroom. I turned towards the dirty mirror the cracks seeming to change the shape of my face. I looked at the damage, dried blood and a hide bruise surrounded my bottom lip, making it incredibly fat. I looked up at my cheek a huge bruise had formed there as fell black and blue splotches covered the outside of my eye and dried blood sat there. I sighed again and started to cry, the warm tears made the dry blood smudge down my bruised cheeks. The tears persisted on and my breath came in heavy gasps my cheeks just getting more and more blood stained. I heard my dad shuffle out into the living room, I quickly grabbed an old washcloth and ran it down my cheeks. I washed the blood off as best as I could, and walked outside into the living room my face throbbing uncontrollably. My dad heard my attempts to be quiet and whipped his head around to look at me, I flinched at just his gaze. "Grab me a beer" was all he said to me not even acknowledging the fact that my face was throbbing ack and blue. It took me a while to nod as I slowly walked away my face becoming even more numb as the day progressed on and on.
My hair fell around my shoulders, it was getting longer and longer, when I strained my head back the flower locks would tickle my back. I couldn't afford a haircut though. My words now seemed to come out slurred as drool would drip down my chin....not like I could feel it though. I sighed holding back the urge to cry again, the stabbing pain in my jaw persisted in adding on to the need to cry. I sat down in my room not holding anything back anymore and sobbed silently into my arms.