Abused and Unloved~

Chapter Seven

With resignation I watch Kaylee trudge over to her side of our school building. She had spent the night in my room fearing the worst if she left me alone.

What she hadn't anticipated was our parents entering my room regardless of her presence.

Around midnight I stirred hearing my room door click open. I had undone one of the screws on my door years ago so that the lopsided hinge would alert me to any approaching danger.

Their shuffling feet were barely audible, but it was never the movement that struck fear in me, it was when it ceased.

When the room went completely silent I held my breath in hopes of increasing the capability of my senses.

"Christian don't you dare, if she wakes Kaylee I'll kill you." My mother hisses in a whisper. It was then that I smelt my step father's pungent breath lingering above my face. I relaxed my expression and stilled my body as much as I could despite the tremors his proximity elicited.

"Then what are we doing in here?"
"I just... needed to see Kaylee, get some perspective."

The two adults were clearly weighing out their options and trying to make a game plan. It was too late for me but maybe they could get Kaylee back in their good graces, convince her they had a few lapses in judgement but they weren't really bad people. Kaylee was naïve enough to believe it, sometimes even I was.

"Why don't we move out of the country for a bit? Throwing off their familiarity may give us an advantage."

My chest palpitated at the thought of being moved to a country with less laws, police, or bureaucratic agencies. I wasn't planning to turn my parents in but the option would be completely off the table if their plan came to fruition.

"That would take time Christian, we'd all need visas, and Jessica would need a passport. She never got one cause it's not like she goes on our family trips."

I remember their family trip to Italy— I had supposedly come down with the stomach virus. And their trip to Mexico when I got the chicken pox, even though I'd already had them when I was four.

"Then what do you wanna do? Make the kid mysteriously disappear? You know she would never let it go."

I knew I was "the kid" and I was almost surprised by how unaffected my nerves were by his words, almost as though deep down I always expected this is what they would eventually do to me.

"Well we have to do something, I'm not prepared to lose Kaylee."

An envious feeling enveloped me as I wondered how it would feel to have my name attached to that sentiment.

Kaylee shifts in the spot next to me and I hear them both go rigid beside me. When she settles they both signal each other in frenzied whispers then exit as quietly as they had entered.

My body refused to relax and fall back asleep for the rest of the night. I couldn't help but turn over all the possible ways to die and the varying levels of pain associated. It felt almost cruel being so certain I wouldn't get the dying in my sleep death most people hope for in their old age.

It twisted my stomach in knots as I half limped to homeroom trying to ignore the tight bandage messily secured around my leg.

I wish I knew how much time I had left on the clock, I wasn't sure what I'd do now that I was likely on borrowed time but it would be something meaningful.

Jayden turns the corner snickering at something Kevin Borelli said coupled with a dramatic waving of his arms. I scoot closer to the lockers in hopes of remaining invisible but Jayden's keen eye caught sight of me and remained trained for a moment longer than normal before saying something quickly to Kevin and walking over.