fixing a broken smile

chapter 6

Isaac was pacing back and forth across his room. He had gone to school today, hoping to see Maddie to see how her lip was, but she wasn't there. She hadn't come to school, and like the other times before, he knew that she wasn't sick. She was just too soar and messed up too come to school. Her dad would never let her come when she looked too bad for even her make up to cover it up. He paused in front of his bed room window again and sighed when he saw the light on inside of her own room. It seemed like while his dad was laying off on the punishments, her's was stepping it up a notch with her. He knew that it wouldn't last forever, he still had to walk on eggshells around his dad, but it was nice to go to school without any new injuries for once.

If only Maddie was so lucky.

His eyes flickered down to her drive way. Her dad's truck was gone, meaning that he was working late at the sheriff's station again. It wasn't that unusual for him to be gone at all times of the night, and he knew that Maddie didn't mind it at all. She probably loved when he worked the late shifts. Still, he knew that being in that house by herself had to be scary sometimes. She was all alone, with no one to protect her if something happened to happen to her. Granted, he figured that her dad probably did most of the damage to her, he wouldn't think for a second that she didn't wish that she had someone to protect her.

He looked down at his own drive way to find it basically empty. He knew that his dad was home, but he also knew that he was passed out on the couch in the living room. He was out cold for the rest of the night, and he wouldn't be waking up anytime soon. With one last moment of hesitation, he opened up his window and climbed out of it. He was careful not to make too much noise as he climbed down the tree close enough to the house, only having to hop down the last few feet to the ground. He looked back at his house, just waiting for the living room light to turn on. When it didn't, he knew that he was in the clear. He jogged over to her side of the street and found a few tiny pebble sized rocks to use.

He gave one last glance over his shoulder at his house before taking the risk and tossing the first rock at her window. Nothing happened, so he tossed another one. He saw the curtains move, she was there. He tossed another one, hoping that this one got her to actually open the curtains to see him. He was about to give up when she did just that. He couldn't see her as well as he could have if she was right in front of him, but he could see that half of her face was completely bruised now. Still, even from where he was standing, he could see the tiny spark of life flash in her eyes when she saw that it was him. She looked past him and over to his house quickly before opening her window. "Isaac? What are you doing over here?" she whispered out to him.

It was now dark out, telling her that she had basically hid away from the outside world the entire day, not counting the entire weekend as well, since she had gotten home from the lacrosse game with her dad. That didn't explain what Isaac was doing over here, though. "You weren't in school today." he whispered back up to her, his voice just barely loud enough for her to hear him. "I was worried." he confessed to her before looking away from her shyly. She bit her bottom lip, wincing slightly as she forgot that it was in no condition for her to do as much to it.

She didn't know how to feel about Isaac being worried about her the first time he had said it to her, and she still didn't know how to feel about it now. She shook her head, glancing back over at his house. Her dad might not be home, but she could tell that his own father was. He was just as dangerous, if not just a bit less since his wasn't a cop, then her father was. Especially when it came to the two of them. She wasn't the only one of them that was at risk of getting punished for doing something that they shouldn't be doing here. "I'm alright, Isaac. Really. I just, um, I just wasn't feeling well." she lied to him. She was so use to it. She was use to being able to just saying that she was fine and the be done with it. No one really wanted to know how she was doing. She knew that for a fact.