Chapter Nine: Hit Back

After a while of us just sitting in silence Edward spoke up and asked me what happened.

“But I thought Erin told you everything Olivia told him.”

Edward rolled his eyes, “He did, but something about it sounded weird. So I wanted to hear your story.”

“Oh well,” I stuttered, “there are these two boys fighting over me. One is Yomi, the boy you caught me kissing, and the other is Benjamin, who is also a senior. At first, the fight was kind of civil and they’d just glare at each other every so often, or make a snide comment to the other. It put a lot of tension in the air so my friend Justin said something stupid, which got him tackled by his two siblings, and brought me into Yomi & Bens fight. Ben was starting to kind of move in on me, but Justin, Chris, and Ollie were able to get between us and stop him. Then I apparently fainted.” I rushed the words out not caring if Edward caught any of it; he seemed to be staring intently at his door anyway.

It was silent again, but this time I tried to break it. I opened my mouth to say something, but Edward put a finger to my lips.

“Shh, keep silent for just a minute.” he whispered, creeping over to his door. He motioned for me to look on the floor in front of the door. It was dark in Edward’s room so we could easily see the light from the hallway, and the shadow blocking that light.

“It’s Delilah.” Edward hissed. He meant our Mom, but he’d never called her that.

My head throbbed as a memory hit, “She’s the reason you where sent to the asylum when I was six.” I mumbled, but he still heard me.

“Yeah.” He sighed.

Edward stood firmly where he was by the door, and the shadow outside it never moved. For a long while, everything was silent again. I moved to sit at the side edge of the bed, the blanket still wrapped around me.

“Eddy, why don’t you just open the door?” I asked, trying to keep my voice a whisper.

Edward shook his head, “She’ll knock soon. She does this more than you think,” he turned his head to face me, “Lacy, I’m sorry if this is making you uncomfortable, but please try to hold out for a little longer.” He tried to smile, but it was a failed attempt. I could see the anger and sorrow clearly written on his face.

“Are you sure it’s Mom? They could’ve just put boxes in front of the door.” If it was true, how did he know it was our Mom? The shadow hadn’t moved at all.

Edward turned to look at me, perplexed, “You have a good point, but,”

He was cut off by a knock at the door.

“Who is it?”

“Edward, you know damn well who’s at this door. NOW OPEN IT! I want to check in Lawrence-Cyan.”

I rolled my eyes, “Mom, I’m fine.”

“Are you sure, sweetie?” she sounded kind of angry.

“I’m sure, Mom.”

The floorboards outside the door creaked a little as Mom’s shadow moved away from the door.

Edward smirked, “Told you it was her.”

“Yeah, but how did you know it was her?” I asked, getting off the bed and walking over to him.

He put his arm around me shoulder, “Like I said earlier she does that more than you think.” He opened the door slowly, peeking out around the corners.

“What? Does Mom like to sneak attack you, too?” I asked, walking out of the room.

He laughed, “No, but last time I opened the door I hit Dad with it.”

I laughed with him, “Nice one Eddy.”

We then walked down to the kitchen to grab something to eat, where we were greeted with yelling and a book flying at us. Edward had skillfully dodged it, while it had barely missed me by a few inches.

Edward and I stood next to the entrance of the kitchen and listened in. From the sound of the yelling, Mom had just found out now that Erin had broken her beloved cross.

It took her, what? Like three days to figure out that it was missing from above the sink?

Edward stifled a laugh, “Apparently Looks like Mr. Perfect is gonna get his ass handed to him.”

“ERIN! HOW COULD YOU? WHY WOULD YOU BREAK MY CROSS?” our Mom kept frantically yelling. Erin didn’t say anything in his defense. He just stood there with his head down, glasses off, like he was just waiting to get hit. Which is what was going to happen if he didn’t speak up.

“Why isn’t he saying anything?” I whispered, looking up at Edward.

He shrugged, “I don’t know. Usually he’d blame me first chance he got if he’d done something wrong.” His face was full of concern for his twin. And it was true; Erin always lied to get Edward in trouble with Mom, so why wasn’t he doing that now?

“ERIN! FOR GODS SAKE! TELL ME WHY YOU BROKE THIS!” she looked like she was going to cry, “JUST TELL ME WHY!”

Erin lifted his head and opened his mouth, “Because I despised it.” He said flatly.

Mom calmed down slightly, but as the words sunk in she went from looking like she’d cry to looking like she’d sock him.

“YOU WHAT?!” she barked, “HOW COULD YOU SAY THAT? THAT IS NOT HOW I RAISED YOU!” she grabbed him by the collar of his shirt.

Erin looked blankly at her, unfazed by the screaming, “I said I hated it. I have nothing else to say to you, Mother.”

He was able to wrench himself from her grasp and walked a little more than a few inches before Mom grabbed his arm. He’d turned around slightly so he could force her hand off him, but Mom had different ideas. When he turned around she smacked him in the face. Had she not had his arm in her hand he might have flown across the floor.

I tried to run to him, but Edward held me back, “Don’t! You know how Delilah can get.”

I leaned my head against the wall, “I know how she gets, but it’s usually you who’s getting hurt. The only difference between you two is that you fight back; Erin wont.”

Edward wrapped his arms around my shoulders, “He’ll be fine.”

We stayed hidden behind the wall were Mom couldn’t se us, but we could hear her. Her voice was starting to sound hoarse as she kept yelling at Erin. We heard him take every hit she dealt until we heard a thump.

“Must have hit the floor.” Edward whispered.

We held our breath as Mom walked by us, exasperated. We ran into the kitchen as soon as she was up the steps.

“Erin!” I gasped. He looked up at me from his place on the floor. His lip and nose were bleeding; bruises were slowly starting to show on his face.

He smirked, “I’m okay Lace. I just need some ice to stop the swelling.”

“You took a pretty good beating there, Erin.” Edward smirked at his twin as he helped him up as I walked over to the freezer to get an icepack and he sat Erin down in one of the kitchen chairs.

“Why didn’t you fight back?” I questioned as I placed the icepack on Erin’s swelling cheek.

He wiped the blood from his mouth with his sleeve, “I’m passive. I don’t believe in violence.”

“And that’s what’s gonna get you killed.” Edward laughed, leaning his arm on Erin’s head.

While Edward and Erin talked I focused myself on a cut on Erin’s forehead. Concentrate. Concentrate. I thought.

There was a tingle in my fingers as the faded green light appeared, then disappeared along with the small wound. It was quick so I was sure they’d just thought I was wiping the blood off.

Yeah, I was wrong. I’d looked up and they were kind of staring at me.

“What?” I said, trying to play dumb.

Edward and Erin looked at each other, “What do you mean what? We should be asking that.”

“Huh?”

“That green light. What the fuck was that?” Edward grabbed my left hand to inspect it.

I started to panic and stutter, “It’s...umm...ah...”

Erin waved his hands, “Never mind, I don’t care what it was. It healed that painful wound on my forehead,” he cocked his eyebrow, “can you do it again to the rest of my wounds?” he asked.

I shrugged, “Sure. I guess.” I placed my left hand over his mouth and nose, and my right over a gash that was on the side of his face. I closed my eyes half way and started to concentrate. I felt the tingle at my fingers and heard Edward gasp.

“DUDE! That is so cool. How’d you it?” he asked once again grabbing my hands and intently looking at them.

“I’m not supposed to tell. In fact I think I could get in trouble for showing y...”

I blacked out.