Beauty & Her Bruises

Chapter Twelve

As soon as I got in my room, I closed my door as softly as I could before I searched the wall for the light switch. When I found it, I switched the light but wasn't surprised to see that the electricity bill wasn't paid - it barely ever was. Instead of waiting for my eyes to adjust to the darkness, I shuffled my way across the room and laid against the rough floorboards. Pulling the raggy blanket I had over me, I let tears finally escape from the corner of my eyes. I didn't shutter or make much movement though because I knew I at least had one rib broken and there would probably be a whole new set of bruises when I woke up tomorrow.

Father wasn't even drunk when he hit me today. I think I like it better when he is drunk though because most of the time he's too slow for me to actually not expect what was coming and if he throws something, he misses 92% of the time. As soon as I set foot in the doorway, his eyes turned red and he charged at me. My first instinct was that he was drunk so I wasn't really worried about it because he gets exhausted fast when he has been drinking. Unfortunately his beating lasted about twenty minutes and there was a lot of mental abuse mixed in with it.

The only real reason I stayed out so late was because I was working late today. Malcolm had stayed with me the whole time to talk about his and Liam's new findings. Although Malcolm had a joyous and humorous tone about it, I knew that Liam had to be struggling with it. He's barely been in school since everyone found out and the times I do see him in the halls, he's rushing past everyone to his next class with his hair a wreck. I want to help him out but he doesn't come to the classes that I have with him. I do know that he often spends time in the nurse's office though with an accusation that he doesn't feel well. I'm sure that the nurse knows what's going on but she knows that if she says something to the principal then Liam will get hurt more.

When I blinked again, no more tears rolled down my cheek and onto my neck. I smiled a bit and turned so that I was on my back. I stared up at the ceiling for a bit when the full pain of everything was starting to sink in.

The broken rib was beginning to make things very painful and uncomfortable for me. I would yell out if I could but I lost my voice from trying to reason with father. He wasn't forgiving that I was home so late and that I made him worry about him. He was drinking now because when I went to scurry up the stairs, I heard the padlock accept and then he opened the fridge. As soon as I heard him open a can, I tiptoed to my room as fast I could carry my broken body.

I didn't have time to react before my door was flung open and a bottle was thrown at me. The door was slammed closed almost immediately after and I felt the shards cut deep into my face and arms. Since it was dark, I couldn't see where the shards were but knew that I could pull them out if I felt where they ripped open any skin.

I find it sad that I like alcoholic father better than my sober one.