I don't believe what I'm seeing till it's too late and stand up from the couch after it happens. Bethany took her hand, slapped her own face and then flung herself gracefully over the coffee table in front of the couch landing on the floor with a thud. I stood up because I didn't know what to do when I heard the crying. She hit herself and started crying. I didn't understand why she did that until I heard the new voice in the room.
"What did you do to my sister," Mark Jr. growls from the door.
"I didn't do…," I barely speak when Bethany cries out, cutting me off.
"He hit me, Mark, he hit me for no reason," her words chilled me and I felt sick to my stomach.
I've been in a couple fights before in school where a kid didn't like me or thought I was weird and hit me, never did much to fight back mostly because I didn't know how. I have faint memories of my Dad talking to me about how to breathe and think but those are vague and distant. So when my small thin frame is standing confused as the larger high school football defensive tackle step brother charges me the result is a beating that leaves me on the floor of the room with Mark Jr. kneeling on my chest hitting me in the face.
"Never touch my sisters, you lay a finger on either one of them and I'll do this," Mark yells before punching me in the eye.
I don't know how many times he hit me but when he was done I was left crying on the floor. I don't know how long I lay there but I learned a lesson, I have no family here. When I finally picked myself up off the floor I went to my room and didn't see anyone for two days. Rosa the maid used her key on the third day and brought me my meals. On day five I had a pain in my mouth that turned out to be a tooth that was almost knocked out of my head and I spent two hours removing it and putting it away somewhere safe. The total time for the honeymoon is three weeks but I don't speak after day three with Bethany and Mark Jr. or even Abigail who gives me some looks that I don't fully understand but now I don't care. When Loretta and Mr. Delauter finally return home I watch from the upstairs balcony as the other three welcome them home. I watch as Bethany pulls so much of Mom's attention that she doesn't even ask about me. I should be surprised but I'm not, I haven't been her child in years and now she has the children she wants.
I set up my classes and when it came to filling out my paperwork I didn't list contact information for Loretta or Mr. Delauter. Okay I did list contact information but I didn't list accurate contact information. Second I learned that between the three other kids in the house there wasn't an activity that didn't involve one of them or their close friends which meant I did nothing extracurricular. Originally I was informed that Mark Jr. would be the one taking us to school and bringing us home most days when he wasn't doing football but after the first day when he got to the bus stop and had me get out I never waited for them in the mornings. Also because I was a new kid at school and had no family and no friends that weren't somehow connected to the ever popular Mark and Bethany I became a target for the local Mexican gang. They aren't really a gang like you read about or see on the news, more like a bunch of kids who dress the same and stick together in groups of ten to fifteen. First time Hector, second in command to Carlos the leader, confronted me I tried to walk past and ignore him. That was a mistake since as soon as my back was to him he proceeded to beat me on campus in front of a bunch of students and nobody said anything. Even after one of the staff approached me on the ground hurting and told me I needed to get to class nobody did anything. I sat in class with my head down and blood coming out of my nose for a good ten minutes until the teacher saw and sent me to the nurse. I was asked who did this to me and when I said who it was they were brought in and questioned but like a pack of dogs they all said that nothing happened and now I was a snitch for talking. I took to being ignored and spit on regularly for the next three years.
Three years and I've done nothing but plan. First plan came at sixteen when me and the girls were getting our drivers licenses. I wasn't thinking of driving anywhere or running away, I was looking at going to court to have Dad be my parent/guardian. At sixteen I was legally allowed to do that and spent time after school going to the courthouse to get paperwork started. It took a few months but when it was done I filed for myself and just waited. I hadn't seen dad in so long I barely remembered what he looked like but wherever he was and whatever he was doing it was going to be better than this. When the documentation came in I wasn't the one who picked it up first, Mr. Delauter was and without asking he opened it and read it. I was called into his office to sit down and talk with him for the first time alone ever. We both sat at his desk, him in his chair and me in the guest chair.
"Guy I would like you to explain to me why you are filing to have your custody removed from your mother and put in the care of your father," he asked the question but the answer is already there for me.
"I don't like it here and nobody likes me. I just want to go home and that isn't here," I tell him and he shakes his head at me.
"Did you try to make this a home? You sit in your room most days avoiding family, our family, and you have never expressed any problems with any other member of the family," Mr. Delauter says and I shrug.
"It's not like anyone would listen or believe me anyway. They are your kids and I'm not, I just want to go home," I tell him and he slumps his shoulder before turning the file towards me.
"Your father is gone, he's been out of the country for over half a decade and there is no known location where to contact him. Your family is here now so this is what we're going to do, you and I are not going to talk about this to your mother because it would hurt her and you are going to get a debit card like the girls will on your birthday so that you have your own spending account. That way you can enjoy some nice things that you've earned being a good kid," I hear him tell me about my dad and phase out everything else.
Dad is gone, long gone and I'm completely alone. Months pass and I have a driver's license but wait for my birthday party that is supposed to occur on Saturday. Loretta talks about things she actually has planned for me and I become curious about what will happen since I haven't really had a birthday party since I was nine save for a bunch of drunks in a bar singing badly to me when I was eleven. I wake up and start my day running and lifting weights, a gift from Mark Jr. Actually not a gift, they were just in my room one day after he got gym membership and wanted space. I shower and dress in my usual jeans and t-shirt only to find Mom and the girls leaving to go who knows where. I think about what it could be at ten in the morning that they are going to go do. Mark and his father are gone already so I sit alone with Rosa doing her job around the house and wait. Lunch comes and goes and it even gets into the late afternoon when the father and son combination return talking about the game they went to. I see merchandise and souvenirs but both barely notice me watching from the kitchen. The only person who notices me is Rosa and she wants to say something but being the paid help keeps her silent. I can't hold it against her since it's her job. I eat dinner and still nobody is home, no Abigail or Bethany but especially no Mom. I finally return to my room and after locking and barring the door go onto my computer and with headphones ignore the rest of the world. I would like to say that Mom came home with a cake and gifts but she didn't, she came home from her spa day with the girls around five in the afternoon on Sunday. I didn't even bother to come downstairs for dinner figuring I wasn't noticed before and probably wouldn't be noticed now.
That was the last time I tried to live, I have no real life. I don't have anyone I call a close friend, I see Abigail and Bethany at school with it being our senior year. Mark Jr. is in college having graduated years earlier. My regular beatings and the times I got jumped have left me with a collection of small scars, some on my face, most on my back and arms. I call them souvenirs of my time in hell because that is what life feels like some days. I have the debit card that Mr. Delauter gave all of us when we turned sixteen but I took money out at the ATM and put it in a separate account that I set up as soon as I was legally allowed. Both of the girls have vehicles and Mark has his muscle car but I was not surprisingly forgotten about when it came time to get a vehicle. Doesn't matter I don't have anywhere to go so no need for the car and hassle. I still bus to school, I still get pushed around but I don't talk about it or do anything. I've been pulled into the office a dozen times bleeding or bruised but now I shut up and say nothing. They call my Mother and leave a message but the calls actually go to my personal cell phone and are quickly deleted. I don't bother to look forward to the next big thing that is happening at school, Homecoming Dance.