The Other Side - A Boys of Tommen Fanfic

Chapter 6- Taking Chances

Marcella

Almost two and a half hours had passed since Shannon and I had arrived at school. We had gotten to school hours early since the only bus to pass our terrace left at 6:45.

Classes at Tommen College didn't start until 9:15, meaning every morning, my sister and I had plenty of time to ourselves before other students arrived.

I waved goodbye to Shannon as I started to walk towards my first class of the day.

Unlike most days, I kept my head down in the hallways.

I had done a great job concealing the dark bruises below my eye this morning, but I really didn't want to take any chances.

If someone saw my bruises, they might report them, and if I was reported, the odds of my siblings and I going into foster care were high.

I don't know what I would do if something bad happened to my siblings.

Something like what happened to Darren

I had been in care once, when I was younger.

My siblings and I had been separated, going into three different homes.

Joey and Shannon had been placed in a perfect home, with loving parents and bright futures.

I had been hopeful for my foster home, believing all of the promises that my social workers had told me.

My house wasn't ice cream, and loving parents like I'd been promised.

I was placed in a home without a mother, only a man named James to look after me.

He was a raging alcoholic, not unlike my actual father.

Also like my father, when he got drunk, James would beat me. Sometimes he did it with a belt, sometimes with glass bottles, and sometimes with his hands, but he did it every night without fail.

After two months of being beaten and starved, James had abused me so badly that I stopped breathing.

He called the Gardai and fled Cork immediately.

When I was taken to the hospital, the doctors managed to restart my heart, and shortly after I was placed into a different foster families care.

I was placed with a family of three. I had a loving mother and father, and an older brother.

They cared for me and nursed me back to health, feeding me three meals a day and giving me clean clothes and a bed, treatment I had never received from a parent ever.

Less than a month into my stay with the family, I was returned to the care of my mother due to an "increase in mental stability".

It was then that I found out about what had happened to my eldest brother Darren, all of the surgeries that he had to have to fix him, and all of the abuse that he had suffered in his foster home.

After only three months in care, both me and my siblings were placed back in the care of my mother, and less than a week after, she took my father back, and the abuse resumed.

Twelve years later, and I still lived the same life. I still lived with my mother and my father, I still received daily beatings, and Darren was still gone.

I nearly collided with someone, pulling me back to the present.

My eyes widened as I watched an older boy smirk down at me, clearly having run into me on purpose.

I smiled back at him, feeling mildly unsettled by his actions, but not wanting to be rude.

I rushed away from him, barely making it to class on time.

I sighed when I sat down in my first class, quickly catching my bad attitude and promising myself to fix it.

I began to do the same, an ill feeling in my stomach as I did so.

When I started to write the next problem down, I felt his heated gaze return to me.

I could feel him staring at me for a long while before someone spoke.

"Ronan stop sizing her up you freak, she doesn't want you", Abby spoke sternly, now glaring at the boy.

He glared at my friend, before his gaze flicked to me and then back down to his work.

"Hey", he shrugged, "Since Kavanagh took the other Lynch, I might as well take my chances with the little one" Ronan said, acting as if I wasn't there.

"She's hotter anyway" He continued, either not noticing my discomfort or not caring.

Abby sighed, giving the boy a disgusted look before looking over to me.

"Marci do you want to date Ronan?" Abby asked me, her stiff tone targeted towards Ronan but her soft gaze directed towards me.

"No thank you" I replied politely, praying he would just leave me alone.

My prayers were not answered.

"Ah come on", he sighed, "Ya know you want me"

"No really I'm good" I responded again, tone still polite.

"Yeah, well you won't be doing so good when I have you screaming my name by the end of the week", he said, his language and tone taking me aback.

The bell rang just then, signaling the end of class.

I remained in my seat for a moment, shocked at his words, standing on wobbly legs, not because of the boys words, but because of my aching ankle.

Since my incident last week, it had turned an awful shade of purple and swelled to the size of an apple... wait... no not an apple, a cantaloupe?

I snapped out of my thoughts as I swung the doors of the second Tommen building open just as the bell rang.

Ugh.

I was late.

I was trying to stay positive, but it was hard considering my ankle was throbbing so badly that I had been holding back vomit all day.

I sighed lightly, looking around to make sure that nobody was near me as I bent down in the middle of the deserted hallway, and untied my right converse (my blue one) to reveal my discolored ankle.

I reached into my backpack and pulled out a bandage (which I had become very accustomed to carrying due to my weak ass ribs), wrapping it around the very top of my ankle and tearing the excess off, and tying my shoe.

I winced as I tried my best to stand back up, and a horrible sense of deja vu ran through me as I ran into a boy and fell onto my ass.

Authors Note
I'm sorry I haven't updated!!! Took me so long to write this, then I scrapped it and rewrote the WHOLE THING. anyway ily all!! I hope you all had a great holiday season and happy new year! I'll make sure to grammar check this later today and maybe even write some more? Ty for the support!

WC- 1130

-Author