Made Of Money

thirty eight

A Late Night Happy Birthday

"Don't fucking touch me!" Finn spat at me, yanking his arm away at my touch. I wasn't hurt at his words, if anything they only made me angry, but not at him, at his piece of shit father who thought it was ok to lay his hands on his kids.

And, though I didn't want to think about it, I couldn't stop myself from wondering if this was the first time Finn's dad had pinned him against the wall like that, or if it was the first time that his dad had ever hit him. 

"Are-" My voice shattered just like the glass bottle of liquor and I fumbled with my hands, trying to keep myself from reaching for him again. "Are you ok?" I managed to splutter out, but I didn't receive the answer I wanted. In fact, I didn't receive an answer at all and I pulled against Yara's grip as she pulled me backwards and let her brother stalk out the door.  

"Yara what the fuck?"I pulled away from Yara's grip as soon as Finn's figure was gone, spinning around to yell in her face and I realized that she, Callum, and Toby were all staring at me with the same concern and confused look, as if they didn't recognize me.

"Just leave him alone right now, ok?" For the first time, Yara's voice wasn't loud and ordering, but quiet and reserved as she spoke and the change made me angrier. Why wasn't she angry about her dad punching her brother in his face, did she think he deserved that too, did she not care? Why didn't she care?

"He's clearly pissed off and he's already hurt you once."

"Are you kidding me!" I ran my fingers through my curls and it took all of my self control not to grab a chunk and just start pulling. "Your dad was just pinning him down and punching him!" I yelled. "I would be fucking pissed too!"

"He was drunk"

"So he deserves to get abused by his own dad." I cut her off in disbelief. I wanted this to be a bad dream. I needed this to be a bad dream and I began to turn into Callum now, pacing back and forth in the doorway as I tried to process what the hell I had just seen and I finally gathered up the nerved to ask the question that had been boiling under my blood since I had thrown Finn's bedroom door open.

I stopped pacing and turned to Yara who didn't seem to want to meet my eye anymore, and I had a feeling she knew what words were going to come out of my mouth next.

"Is that the first time that's happened?" 

The silence gave me my answer. 

"Yara?"

"I didn't think anything of it ok!" She burst and my heart dropped down to my chest. How could she just stand idly by and let something like this happen? How could she not care?

How?
How?
How?

"They're always getting into fights with one another." She tried to explain, but I let out a curse under my breath pushing past my friends having heard enough because the more I stood around their emotionless faces, the more I realized they were suffocating me, and the more I realized that I couldn't breath.

Mr. and Mrs. Rowe were already ushering the part guests out of the pool and through the front door as I padded down the stairs and into the kitchen, but I quickly stopped in the middle of the doorway at the sound of Finn's voice.