Life of a little sister - available on Amazon

Chapter 9

*Monday Morning*

"MOM I CAN'T FIND CONCEALER!" I shouted from the bathroom to my mother who was downstairs making breakfast.

"Lydia it is way too early in the morning to be yelling," Joseph said, walking into the bathroom. He grabbed his toothbrush and began brushing his teeth.

"Shut up Joseph!" I snapped, pushing him away so I could see better in the mirror. I heard my mother coming up the stairs.

"Sweetheart you can't put anything on your cut, it will get infected," She said walking through the bathroom door.

"I'm not gonna put it on the cut just on the bruising," I whined.

"What's going on?" Marcus' head popped up in the doorway.

"She's whining, that's what," Greg said, coming out of nowhere.

"Greg!" I yelled.

"Lydia keep it down, some of us are trying to sleep," Leo had gotten out of bed to yell at us for being loud.

"Go back to sleep Leo baby," My mother fussed over him.

"Way too many people in the bathroom, everybody out!" I yelled.

"I'm bruffing mer teef," Joseph protested.

"Other bathroom, out!" I snapped.

I shut the door as soon as everyone had gone and took a deep breath. I looked in the mirror and exhaled. I walked out of the bathroom and back to my room.

I sat on my bed scrolling through my phone to pass the time, it was 6:40 and I had woken up at 6 to figure out a way to cover the bruising. People were going to see the stitches inevitably but I thought I had some control over the bruising, clearly I was mistaken.

I started texting Lexi about Lacey, Marcus' girlfriend, and about my trip to the hospital and my mother's weirdly calm reaction. I wanted her to be fully updated before she saw me at school.

"Hey," Melvin said groggily walking into my room ten minutes later.

"Hey," I said and he came and lied down next to me.

"Sorry," He mumbled into my shoulder.

"I told you it's okay," I tried to convince him, "What's not okay is explaining this today at school. What are we going with, I was attacked by rabid lions, or I got into a fight with Marcus' girlfriend?"

"Neither!" He laughed.

"Whatever you say," I chuckled.

*Breakfast*

"How are you feeling?" Felix asked and poured milk into his cereal.

"It's fine, if I cut up the waffle in little pieces it's easier to chew," I explained.

"Ciao my lovelies, I will see you after school," My mother said kissing us all on the cheek.

She had taken yesterday surprisingly well, she hadn't murdered, or even brought up Melvin's part in my injury. When I asked her about it later she said, "Bella sometimes the guilt of hurting a loved one is worse than any punishment,"

My mother was quite possibly the wisest woman I knew, she was strong enough for everyone in this family, I didn't know how I could survive without her guidance. I guess Felix Leo and Greg had taken a similar route the night of the incident. Melvin didn't have a scratch on him and they refused to tell me what they did to him, if anything.

"Marcus, Melvin, Lydia, Joseph, let's go, out of the house you're going to be late," Greg said, hustling us all out of the house once we had finished our breakfast.