Hiding {h.s}

Plays

"What's happening?" I asked breaking the silence between us.

"What do you mean?" Alice asked looking at me as if I had gone mad but I knew she knew what I meant.

"Why did you call Jessie Poppy?" I sighed waiting for an answer. I didn't like the game she was playing with me and I genuinely had no idea what was going on with her.

Alice breathed out and turned her head away from me as if she was ashamed. It was obvious I wasn't going to get an answer out of her easily.

She was either deciding on what to say or what excuse to use or she was pretending she didn't hear me.

"I don't want to talk about it right now" she mumbled.

I could understand where she was coming from but how could she expect me to think nothing of it?

"It's just that, Jessie is sick right now and who knows when she's going to be better, I'm not in the right frame of mind to explain it" she excused.

It's was true, Jess was really ill and Alice was heartbroken over the news, of course she wasn't in the right frame of mind.

I waited a few minutes before I spoke up again, praying to god I wasn't pissing her off.

"What are you doing with three girls in a one bedroom flat?" I asked wanting the truth this time.

She took a deep breath as if she was scared of letting me in her life.

"Hiding" she whispered.

I looked at her confused as she confessed. I was expecting her to tell me everything but I wasn't sure if she would open up that easily.

"It's stupid but I ran away from home with my sisters" she chuckled lightly and rolled her eyes.

"So you're not their mum?" I questioned without evening thinking.

She shook her head and shrugged her shoulders. How could I have been so stupid? Of course Alice wasn't their mum.

"I know you want to ask a lot of questions but let me explain first" she said before I could even talk. I nodded and let her continue.

"A few months ago we were all at home with our parents in Sheffield" she begun.

"Mum had me quite young and whoever my dad is left when I was young, or at least that I was told"

"Then mum found someone new and she had Lucy, well she's called Mia but I'll explain the name thing later"

"And then she had Jessica or Poppy and Chloe who's actually called Heidi, and when Heidi was born our mum became really abusive to their dad"

"She would hit him all the time and he just wanted to protect us from her because she was so violent, and one night" she paused taking a breath.

"One night when the girls were all asleep" she stopped again with tears in her eyes. I held my hand out to her and squeezed it so she knew I was there.

"It's okay baby" I smiled at her.

"I saw her hold a knife to his throat" she sobbed.

My eyes opened wide in shock,