Bully (In Edit)

Chapter 16

'My mum used to raise me and my sister, Abi, as a single mum. We have different dads, who both ran off the second they found out mum was pregnant.

But mum had a drinking problem. She used to hit us and abuse us, a bit like your dad does to you.

Me and my sister stuck together for protection and tried to keep each other's spirits up.

"Things will be better soon!" we would always say, but it never happened.

Then, one day when I was 7 and she was 5, social services found out about us.

They took us into care and banned our mum from seeing us without our permission.

We've grown up in care, been living in the home for 8 years, nearly 9."

He looked at me very seriously.

"You could do the same, you know. There's room in our home."

I didn't know what I felt about that idea.

"I need some time to think about it. I don't know if I can leave my dad."

I looked back at him.

"He can't stop you, you know." he said.

"But even if he doesn't love me, I love him. He's all I have left of mum." I sighed, a tear rolling down my cheek.

Ben reached up and wiped my tear away, putting his arm around me gently so as not to hurt me.

"Come on, let's get you home." He smiled and helped me back to my feet.

We slowly walked up the rest of the hill. Pulling out my keys, I slotted them into the door, before turning to Ben.

"You want to come in, don't you." I said softly.

He nodded.

I could see what he wanted to do.

He wanted to face my dad.

"Fine, but you aren't going to see my dad. The stairs are on the left. Go straight up both flights and into the tiny attic room. I'll meet you there in 10 minutes."

Sighing, I pushed the door open.

I had that bad gut feeling that this was going to go badly wrong.