Highly Inappropriate

41.

There was blood all over the living room floor.

Just by the entrance was my mother, sitting on the ground, her back resting against the wall as she stared off in the distance. Next to her was Chase in his stroller, screaming at the top of his lungs and crying his eyes out. He was terrified.

I fully entered the room, in the middle of which was my father, straddling and repeatedly hitting my brother Matt who laid there unconscious and covered in blood.

"Where's the money, you useless kid?! Tell me!", my dad shouted, grabbing Matt by the collar of his shirt and shaking him harshly.

"Dad, stop!", I cried out, rushing towards him and trying with all my strength to get him off of him but to no avail. I could smell the alcohol from a mile away. "Mom! Mom, do something!"

But she didn't even flinch. She just kept staring in shock at what was unraveling before her without even budging.

"Stop! You're going to kill him!", I cried out again, successfully tackling him to the ground.

"Where is it?!", he growled, straddling me this time and not allowing me to move as he grabbed my wrists and pnned me to the ground, a maniac and haunted look in his eyes.

"We have no money.", I hardly breathed out as his weight on me wasn't making it easy for me to speak. "You drank it all."

"'We have no money. You drank it all.'", he mocked me, harshly cupping my face with one hand and forcing me to look at him dead in the eyes. "Tell me where it is or I will beat the shit out of you just like I did with that waste of space also known as your brother."

"Please dad, stop.", I screamed in fear, struggling under him. "We have no money, I told-"

"Fine.", he gritted, raising his fist and getting ready to hit me. "Don't say I didn't warn ya."

"Alex!"

"Please don't!", I pleaded, suddenly opening my eyes just to be greeted by Ashley's face, concern and panic written all over her features as I quickly scanned my surroundings and realized that we were in my room.

"Hey, hey, look at me.", she whispered, cupping my face as I struggled to breathe. "It was just a bad dream, okay? You're safe honey."

It wasn't just a random bad dream. And this was definitely the worst night ever to have her sleeping at my house.

It's been a week since lunch with her parents, and being Saturday I asked her to spend the night with me. Needless to say I was regretting it cause if she asked about the dream I was screwed. I would've been forced to tell her.

"W-what time is it?", I mumbled in a trembling voice, averting my eyes from hers as I looked everywhere but her.

"It's-"

"What's going on?", Jess barged into my room, breathless and evenly concerned.

"Why is your nose bleeding?", Ashley questioned, thankfully rushing to her side and examining her face, allowing me some time to get my shit together.

"I uh- it's nothing.", Jess replied briefly, but felt compelled to explain under Ashley's confused glare. "Well, I heard Alex scream so I jumped out of bed, but my feet got entagled in the bed sheets so I tripped and fell face first on the floor."

I would've laughed my ass off if it wasn't that I was completely overwhelmed right now.

"I'll go get you some tissues and a pack of ice. You hit it pretty bad.", Ashley weakly smiled, glancing towards me for a split second before disappearing downstairs.