My father picked up his plate and drink and stormed into the lounge to finish his food, muttering something about us being ‘the worst kids in the world’ and ‘how the hell did he get stuck with this life’.
I crawled over to my brother and wrapped my arms around him tightly, clinging to him as if my life depended on it. He groaned and pushed himself up to sitting, hugging me back, rubbing his hand across my stinging cheek, hissing through his teeth.
“I’m so sorry, Jake. I’m so sorry,” I mumbled quietly, crying onto his shoulder.
He shook his head. “It’s alright, Ambs. It’s not your fault,” he croaked, giving me a small smile and trying to get to his feet, groaning. I jumped to my feet and helped him up. I could hear movement so I glanced up to see that my mother was frantically clearing the table.
“Take your dinner to your rooms and eat, OK?” she instructed, kissing us both on the cheek. She needed to go to my father and do damage control, he would be in a temper in there from my mistake and she needed to calm him down before anything else happened. “I’ll see you tomorrow morning. I love you both. Please be quiet, and whatever happens, stay in your rooms,” she ordered, quickly kissing us again and handing us our half eaten dinners, before pushing us towards the back hallway.
We had a nice house, four bedrooms and it was all on one level. My father earned good money so we lived in a nice area, but I would rather the house was smaller so he wouldn’t have to work in his job. Maybe then he would be like the old dad, taking us to the park and buying me toys and candy. Jake came to my room and we ate in silence, sitting on the floor near my bed. He held my hand tightly when we heard my father shouting at my mother from the lounge, something smashed, and I winced. This was entirely my fault.
I started to sob so Jake wrapped his arm around my shoulder, squeezing gently. He always seemed so much older than me; he was so much more mature than I was. “It’s OK. Everything’s OK, Ambs. Don’t worry,” he cooed, stroking my hair. Once I had calmed down, and the shouting had stopped, we played snap cards for a little while.
When we were in the middle of the game, we heard stomping coming up the hallway, Jake stiffened as the footsteps went past my door. They didn’t stop though, thank God. I let out the breath I didn’t realise I was holding and looked at Jake, who smiled a small smile. “I’d better go to my room, it’s after seven,” he said looking at my alarm clock. “Lock your door. I’ll see you in the morning,” he said with a wink. He left the room and I watched him creep across the hall to his room, he turned back to me. “Lock your door, Ambs,” he whispered, waiting there, watching me.
I shut my door and locked it quickly as he told me to. Putting my ear to the wood, I listened to make sure that Jake did the same to his. I ran back over to my bed and threw myself on it, crying silently. I couldn’t stop, I was sobbing and sobbing. I had been stupid tonight and I got my brother hurt again! And probably my mother too, by the sound of the noises from the lounge.
Suddenly, there was a scratching, tapping noise on my window. I snapped my eyes up to see Liam outside, looking at me sadly. I got up and ran to the window unlocked it and slid it up quietly wondering what on earth he was doing here. Shouldn’t he be at home?
“Liam, what are you doing here? You need to go, now!” I whisper yelled at him, shaking my head fiercely. But the stupid boy just climbed into my room through the window, closing it silently behind him.
I held my breath, looking at my door with wide eyes. If my father caught him here he would go crazy, he didn’t like Liam to come over and play at our house, he always said he was too noisy. “Liam, get out!” I whispered, desperately trying to push him back towards the window. I winced, wondering what my dad would do if he had heard my window open and knew that Liam was here. Liam didn’t budge; he just wrapped his arms around me tightly, and pulled me against his chest. I tried to push him away but he just held me tighter.
“It’s OK,” he whispered, stroking my hair. I started to cry again into his chest; thoughts of Jake being hurt earlier flooded my brain.
Liam was tall for his age; he was ten, the same as Jake. They were best friends, and had been since we moved in four years ago. He had chocolate brown hair, which he usually spiked up with too much gel, and light blue eyes that were like windows to his soul. When Liam looked at you it made you feel like you could fly. He was very cute; all my friends had crushes on him for some reason. Liam and I didn’t get on at all though. He teased me all the time, he trips me, pulls my hair, and he has this annoying habit of calling me Angel for some reason, he’s called me it since the moment he met me and it really makes me mad.
What on earth was he doing here now? And why was he hugging me? Maybe he thought this was Jake’s room, maybe he went to the wrong window – but that couldn’t be right, because Jake’s room was on the other side of the hallway, his window faced onto the backyard.
I pulled back to look at him. For some reason he looked so sad; he had tears in his eyes as he just continued to hold me. He knew about my father, Jake had been covered in bruises once and had blurted out the truth to him. Jake and I had both begged him not to say anything though, and he never has.
“What are you doing here, Liam?” I whispered, wiping my face, but the tears continued to fall.
He pulled me onto the bed, rocking me gently, just like Jake always did when I cried. I looked at his chest and realised he was in Power Rangers shorts and t-shirt. I frowned, a little confused as to why he would be wearing that, it was freezing outside. Then it dawned on me that he was wearing his pyjamas. I looked at the clock to see it was almost half past eight. I’d been crying for over an hour.
“I saw you through the window. I just wanted to come and make sure you were alright,” he whispered back, still hugging me tightly.
I looked back at the window. Liam’s room was directly opposite mine and I could see into his room, which meant that he could see into mine. I bit my lip, oh God he’d seen me crying, I must look so weak to him. The only people I ever cried in front of were my mother and Jake.
“I’m OK. You need to go,” I whispered, pushing him again, trying to get him off of my bed.
He just shook his head. “I’m not leaving until you stop crying,” he stated, pulling me down so that we were now laying on my bed, facing each other. He had his arms wrapped around me so tightly that I couldn’t even squirm away. I felt safe and warm. I scooted even closer to him, pressing my whole body into his and sobbed on his chest.
I woke in the morning, still tightly wrapped in his arms; I gasped and looked at the clock 6:20 a.m. “Liam!” I whispered, shaking him.
“Ahh, what, Mom?” he asked with his eyes shut.
“Shhhh!” I hissed, quickly covering his mouth before he spoke again. I can’t believe we fell asleep, this is so bad.
His eyes snapped open and he looked at me, shocked, then looked around my room. “Oh no, did I fall asleep?” he whispered, sitting up and rubbing his hand through his hair, which was sticking up everywhere but actually looked better than when he has all that yucky gel in it.
“You need to go home, Liam. Quick!” I hissed, pushing him towards the window. He opened it and started to climb out but I grabbed his hand making him stop. He looked up at me a confused expression on his face. “Thanks,” I whispered, smiling gratefully at him. I really needed that hug last night, that was probably the nicest thing Liam had ever done for me.
He smiled back. “You’re welcome, Angel,” he replied, smiling and climbing out.
I watched as he went through the hole in the fence and climbed back into his own window. He closed it and waved at me, I waved back and then went to go get dressed. The thought of Liam sneaking over here and being in the house when he wasn’t allowed, made my stomach hurt. We were so lucky not to have gotten caught. I dreaded to think what would have happened if his parents had gone into his room in the night and saw his bed empty, or what would have happened if I hadn’t have woken up early. I shuddered at the thought of what my father would do if he had walked in here to find Liam in the house at night-time.