Chapter Four-New Beginings

Chapter 4

            That night, it was particularly quiet. The kind of quiet that would keep you up all night. I couldn’t sleep, not being able to forget about Kirk, or the fact that there was a complete stranger in my house.

            I remember when sleeping never came easy to me. Out of fear I would lay awake at night and sleep during school not caring to learn. I wouldn’t be able to sleep out of fear of darkness, but of Kirk.

            I got out of bed and walked down the hallway, trying to push the threatening thoughts out of my mind. I stopped at Carmen’s open door. She lay peacefully on her bed, her breathing steady and soft. Through the light of her open window her hair was like a shimmering golden river. She never knew what Kirk had done, she never will. Carmen had gone through so much in her life I didn’t want to hurt her more. She grew up loving baseball and football, unlike the other girls who did their hair and wore dresses every day. Carmen didn’t care what they would say about her, she was unstoppable.

            I left her doorway and turned the sharp corner, I turned on a dim lamp on a table near the couch and walked the cold tile floor barefoot across the room to the kitchen. I opened the fridge instantly annoyed that I had forgotten to fill it with food. I took out the bread and the apple. I threw the bread out and bit into the apple.

            On the couch Don breathed hard. I looked at him wondering if anything was wrong. He gasped and sat up quickly panting and sweating.

“You okay?” I asked him.

“No.” he said flatly, he pressed the palms of his hands to his forehead opening his wound again.

“Wanna talk?” I asked him hoping up onto the kitchen island.

“I have family troubles.”

“You and me both brother.” I said, I took a bite from the apple.

“My brother is over protective and bossy.” Don started to shake, he leaned over to reach for his pack but stopped and sat back, “and abusive.”

“I understand.”

“No you don’t.” he pulled his shirt up revealing a bruise the size of a basketball.

“Geeze, what was it?”

“I don’t remember, but he’s going to come looking for me, he always does and he always finds me.”

“No sweat kid, you can stay here for a while.”

“Wouldn’t do no good.”

“Either way it’s an excuse to keep Kirk away.”

“Why do you hate him so much?”

“He’s somthin’ like your brother, but worse.”

            Problems follow everyone, though I wish they didn’t they still do.

“You got anything to eat?” Don asked.

“Nup, nothin’ asides this apple here.” I took another bite.

“Got a rag?”

            I looked around and found a rag in the sink and tossed it to Don. He caught it and wiped his bloody fingers on it.

“Why’d them socs beat you up anyways?” I asked him taking another bite from my apple.

“Might of thrown an empty beer bottle at their car, and smashed the tail light.”

“Why?”

“Cause them’s socs, they got a right to come pickin’ on us, so we have a right to gain up on them.”

“Cept there was only one of you and what? Three of them?”

“Four.” He smiled, “Man you should’ve seen em.”

“When? When they were beatin’ you up, or when you smashed the tail light?”

“You know what I mean.”

“You sure about that?”

            He lay back down on the couch, “I’m sure, you seem smart enough.” He waited, “Maybe.”

            I tossed my half eaten apple at him, he caught it and took a bite, chewing as loudly as possible.

“Good night.” I told him, I stood up and turned out the light and walked back down the hallway.

            Slipping back into bed the darkness surrounded me. Every corner being covered with pitch blackness. Too many blind spots I could not see, I didn’t mind it. Sometimes the darkness hides all that is bad.