Nicotine | Ashton Irwin ✔

0.7

word count; 1134

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For the rest of the day Ara wondered how she was going to explain Teddy's black eye and bruised cheek, and his swollen lip. She didn't want another fight with Liam. For her brother's sake.

As the day went on, Teddy insisted he was fine, and that he'd be okay, but Ara wasn't convinced that he was. When Teddy was still young, Craig never hit Ara or her mother in front of Teddy. He wanted Teddy to believe that his father was a great man, and not a monster. But as Teddy grew older, and the abuse got worse, he decided he'd had enough. And when he found his fourteen year old sister crying in her room, Teddy got angry. He marched right downstairs, and snapped.

FLASHBACK

Twelve year-old Teddy could hear crying coming from his sister's room late one evening. He set down his things, and quietly tip-toed out of his room, and across the hall to Ara's room. He knocked lightly. "Ara?" he called. He didn't get an answer. Teddy pushed open the door, and peered inside. Far off in the corner by her bed was his sister, crying. Her face buried in her knees. "ARA!" Teddy rushed over to her. Ara lifted her head at her brother's voice. Teddy quickly brought her into a hug.

"I'm okay Teddy." Ara mumbled.

"You're not okay." Teddy said angrily. "He hit you. Again."

"It doesn't matter." Ara sighed.

"DOESN'T MATTER!? Ara, he hit you! A father shouldn't do that!"

"HE'S NOT MY FATHER!"

"Regardless. He still hit you, and I've had enough of it." Teddy stood up, and ran out of her room.

"TEDDY!" Ara stumbled to her feet, tripping once or twice, and ran after him.

Craig sat at the kitchen table with Dana when Teddy barged in. Craig turned his head, and noticing the distress in his son's face made him worry. "Teddy? What happened?" he asked, going over to him. "Are you okay?"

"NO!" Teddy screamed.

"What's wrong then? You can tell me."

"Ara." Teddy snapped.

"What did she do to you?" Craig asked him, his eyes narrowing.

"She did nothing to me. It's what you did to her." Dana tensed in her spot, and Craig stared at his son.

"And what did I do?" Craig asked.

"YOU HIT HER!" Craig laughed.

"I have not."

"Then why is Ara crying, and has a black eye?" Teddy asked his father.

"She ran into the wall."

"How come mum had cuts and bruises every other morning?"

"Everybody falls down now and then son."

"Then mum must be really fucking clumsy." Teddy growled.

"Theodore Manning, don't you use that language in this house." Dana said sternly.

"You don't think I know." Teddy said to Craig. "But I've known for four years, ever since you yelled at Ara in the hallway when I was eight. You're a monster, and you're not my father." Teddy felt a burning sensation in his cheek seconds later. He hit him. Craig grabbed his arm, and shook him.

"I am your father, and you will not disrespect me!" Craig pushed him back towards the floor. Before he could hit the ground, Teddy felt someone catch him. Ara steadied her brother, and glared hard at the man in their lives.

"A real father doesn't hit his children."

END OF FLASHBACK

Ara and Teddy kept to themselves for the remainder of the day, with the exception of Sam who seemed a little shaken up that Ara had taken down the football captain.

Ara made her way to her locker after her last class. She was still in a bad mood, and her locker seemed to have known that because she had trouble opening it. Eventually, after ten minutes, Ara punched her locker causing the door to swing wide open. "You really aren't having a good day." she heard. Ara turned. Ashton was leaning up against a locker not to far from her.

"Go away Goldie Locks." Ara muttered, grabbing her bag. Ashton laughed.

"That's not very nice." Ashton pouted. Ara glared at him for what would be the thousandth time that day.

"What do you want." Ara sighed. She rested her head up against her locker.

"Just seeing how you're holding up."

"Well I'm fine." Ara snapped.

"You sure about that?" Ashton smirked.

"WHY DO YOU CARE!" Ara yelled.

"I don't." Ashton scoffed.

"Then leave me alone." Ara said. She was on the verge of tears.

"You know, for someone who's trying to stay out of trouble, you're doing an awfully bad job."

"Fuck off Ashton." Ara spat. "Just because you think you're all high and mighty, doesn't mean you actually are. You're an arrogant ass who thinks only of himself."

"Says you." Ara gaped at him.

"You know nothing about me, and you don't want to. If knew anything about my past, you wouldn't have said that."

"Is that a threat?"

"If it were a threat you'd know." Ara grabbed her things, and stalked off to find Teddy.

Ashton stood in the hallway for several minutes after Ara left, a little dumbfounded. Calum, Luke, and Michael came around the corner looking for him. "There you are! We've been looking all over for you!" Calum said.

"Sorry." Ashton said. "I got a little, uh, caught up." he choked.

"You okay?" Mike asked him.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Let's go."

Ara and Teddy stood outside the house once more like yesterday, contemplating going inside or not. "He's going to kill us." Teddy said.

"Yeah." Ara gulped. The door swung open, and both teens jumped, but it was only Aaron. He took one look at the two kids standing on the front porch, and laughed.

"You two are lucky Liam is working late tonight."

Cat and Aaron stood in the kitchen while Ara and Teddy sat at the kitchen table. "So . . ." Cat said.

"No." Ara replied.

"You don't even know what I was going to ask." Cat noted.

"You want to know how this happened." Teddy said. "It's always the same questions."

"Who did this?"

"How did it happen?"

"Why did it happen?"

"Why were you involved." Cat and Aaron watched the two go back and forth.

"Wow, okay." Aaron said. "It sound like you've done this before."

"We have. We don't play nice." Teddy said.

"It's day two, and I already want to kill someone." Ara muttered.

"Well, we won't say anything to Liam if it makes you feel better, but I don't know how you're going to explain the bruises."

"Dodgeball." Teddy muttered.

"I fell down the stairs. I can be pretty clumsy if I want. I get that from my mother." The teens stood up.

"That was quick."

"When you have Craig as a father, you learn to come up with as many possible excuses as possible."