Peter- Part 1- Chapter 12

Chapter 12

           Peter heads home after he calms down. He needs to be home for Marc and Cassie. He has to babysit them. Damien isn’t able to since he’s going to be at football practice. He still wasn’t in the mood to be around other people. Peter knows he’s going to be in trouble for skipping school. His mom listens to all the answering machine messages when she comes home. Peter doesn’t care if he’s in trouble or not. He hears the door open and slam.

          “Shut up, Cassie,” he hears Marc yelling downstairs.

          “No, you shut up, Marc,” Cassie yells back. Peter can hear that Cassie is crying. He hates hearing it.

          “I have had to listen to you cry for the last ten minutes. I don’t want to hear it anymore. Just get over it,” Marc yells again.

          “I have not,” Cassie yells.

          “Yes, you have. You are such a baby,” Marc responds.

          “I am not! You are stupid,” Cassie shouts. Peter runs down the stairs. Cassie and Marc are still screaming at each other. Marc raises his hand and is about to slap Cassie. Her eyes go wide, and tears are still falling down her cheeks. Peter grabs Marc’s hand before he can strike Cassie.

          “Stop it!” Peter yells at both of them. They both look at him in shock. Peter has never yelled at either of them before. Peter already has a headache, and he doesn’t want to hear them bicker any longer. He especially doesn’t want to hear Cassie crying. “Go to your rooms. You both aren’t getting a snack today. I don’t want to hear any noise out of either of you until Mom or Dad gets home.”

          Marc is staring at Peter in shock. Peter has never sent either of them to their rooms before. Peter sees that Cassie is still crying. He picks her up, but she tries to kick out of his grasp. He sighs and brings her to her room. “You are being so mean!”

          “I’m sorry, Cassie. Please just do your homework or something. If you need help with anything please go ask Damien when he gets home,” Peter tells her. His tone is really bitter. Cassie notices and she starts crying harder. Peter feels awful for making her cry, but he is in no mood for this today.

          After putting Cassie on her bed, Peter heads to his room. He puts his headphones in his ears and starts blasting music. Peter tries to ignore his two younger siblings. Peter grabs a knife from his hiding spot. He runs it over his wrist. The pain makes him feel a little better.

          His blood starts to drip onto the carpet. Peter is going to try to clean it up before his mom comes home. He walks to the closet and grabs a cloth. He starts trying to scrub away the evidence. Once, he’s done, he just continues to listen to music in his ears.

~

          A couple of hours later, he hears a knock on his door. Damien pops his head in. Peter glares up at his older brother.

          “What do you want, Damien,” he asks. His tone is still bitter from earlier.

          Damien feels his anger starting to rise. He is still shocked that Peter punched him in the face. Peter’s attitude now is getting on his nerves. “I really wanted to talk to you about what happened earlier.”

          “Well, I really don’t want to talk to you,” Peter replies angrily. He puts in his ear buds back in his ears. He tries to block out the world again.

          Damian walks further into the room. He pulls the ear buds out of Peter’s ears. That enrages Peter further. He starts shouting. “Get out of my room!”

          “No, we really need to talk,” Damien replies. He sits on Peter’s bed.

          “I told you before, I don’t want to talk. Just leave me alone.”

          “This is really important Peter. To be honest with you, I’ve been really worried about you. You haven’t been yourself recently.”

          Peter laughs bitterly. His eyes start to grow colder. “You only just started to notice now?”

          “No, I have noticed over the last few weeks. Plus, today you got really aggressive with me. I have never seen you get aggressive with anyone. You’ve always been a nice person. That really stunned me.”

          Peter sighs. Peter starts to calm himself down again. He feels bad for punching Damien in the face. “I’m sorry for hitting you.”

          “Your apology is accepted. Please, tell me what’s been going on.”

          “I really don’t want to talk about it. I just want to be alone right now.”

          “Peter…”

          Peter explodes. “Fine, you want to know! I’ve been getting bullied relentlessly since last year! Kyle and his gang pick on me every chance they get. Other kids point and laugh at me all the time. I get things thrown at me. It’s been really hard for me lately.”

          Damien sits there in shock. He doesn’t know what to say for the first few minutes. “Peter, why haven’t you told any of the teachers? Or an adult?”

          “You really think that would help? It would make the situation worse. That happened once already this year. One of the teachers told the kids to stop picking on me. Someone threw the ball so hard at me, my nose started bleeding.”

Damien feels his anger rising again. He feels the need to hit something. Guilt also starts to eat at him. GuiotHe doesn’t know what to say to Peter. “I’m so sorry, Peter. I should have never assumed that you started that fight. I wanted to get the whole story from you. I understand why you got so angry earlier.  I will talk to Kyle and the gang. I will make sure they don’t bother you anymore.”

Peter sighs to himself. He doesn’t think Damien talking to them will really help the bullying decrease.

“Peter,” the boys hear their mother yell from downstairs. She sounds pretty angry. Peter sighs again and gets out of his bed. He walks down the stairs.

          “Yes, Mom,” he replies.

          “Why did you cut school today?”

          “To be honest, Mom, I really didn’t feel like being in school today,” Peter replies honestly.

          “That doesn’t mean that you get to cut class just because you didn’t want to be there. You’re grounded for a week young man. Also, Cassie and Marc both complained that you were being mean to them. That is very shocking to me,” his mom replies.

          Peter didn’t care that he was grounded for skipping school. “Well, Marc and Cassie were arguing when they got home today. I stopped Marc from trying to strike Cassie. I just sent them to their rooms and told them they couldn’t have a snack.”

          His mom’s eyes bulge a little. Marc has never tried to strike Cassie before. “If you don’t believe me, you can ask Cassie.”

          “I do believe you, honey, I’m going to have to talk to Marc. Now, go to your room. You’re still grounded,” she tells him.

          He nods and goes to his room. He doesn’t have anywhere to go anyway. It’s not like he had any friends to hang out with.

          Damien is still sitting on his bed when he enters his room. “You should have told Mom it was my fault you left school. It was my fault to begin with.”

          “That’s okay, Damien,” Peter replies.

          “Well, I’ll let you get back to whatever you were doing,” Damien says and smiles at his little brother a little.

          Peter nods. He puts his headphones back in his ears. He turns the music up again.

~

          Later that day, Peter hears a knock on the door. “Come in.”

          Cassie walks into the room. She runs into his arms. Peter holds her gently against his chest. “I’m sorry, big brother.”

          “You don’t have to apologize, Cassie, you didn’t do anything wrong.”

          She nods into his chest. He rubs her back lightly. “Can I stay in your room tonight?”

          “Of course, you can,” he replies.

          They play a few games before getting ready for bed. Peter lays Cassie down in his bed when she falls asleep.

          He doesn’t go to bed right away. Sad thoughts are running through his head again. He decides to write them down. That actually helps him feel a little better. He smiles a little to himself, then he heads to bed.