The Gang Leader And His Library Girl

Chapter 6: A Broken Family

Jessica's POV: 

I hear my bedroom door shut behind me, and only now do I let myself groan in pain. I pick myself off the floor carefully, then walk to my bathroom that is attached to my room. I hesitate at first, but then let myself look in the mirror. I gasp and bring my hand up to touch my right eye. That's not the only thing that's there, but it's definitely the most noticeable. My parents have given me bruises before, but not one this bad. It's huge and hurts every time I even blink. My bottom lip is busted and my nose is bleeding. Not just bleeding, more like gushing. Snapping out of my shocked faze, I get to work. It's more of a routine now. I grab some toilet paper and wipe off the blood that's made its way out of my nose, then quickly stuff more into my nose. I know that's probably not the best thing for it, but I can't really do anything right now.

I grab a washcloth and run it under warm water, then dab it against my busted lip. I hiss and draw away at first, but then sigh and continue trying to get this sort of fixed. It stops bleeding, finally, and I examine my face again. Great. Even more things to make me look worse than I already do. I look to my right, towards the door that is closed, then open it to see what I'm going to have to clean up in my room. I opened the door, and, like I expected, there was blood on the floor. Only a little bit this time. Of course, it's not really good how much is there right now, but it's a lot better than what there usually is.

After wiping the last bit of the blood from my floor, I took the chance to look around my room. Everything is a mess. My desk, which isn't exactly a small one, has literally moved three feet from where it should be. My lamp is knocked over, papers are everywhere, and- seriously? My closet's door has a huge c***k in it. I walk over to it and move it open. It now hangs at an angle and creaks loudly when it moves. Let's just say that my parents were pretty mad when I got home late. Not to mention that they looked through my school papers afterwards. Why did I have to be so stupid?! On a paper that I wrote about ancient Romans, I got a 94%. But I couldn't help it! I was so spread thin that I forgot about writing that paper until midnight, so I had no choice but to write it half asleep. So, once again, I failed at being the perfect daughter that they wanted. I'm pretty sure that they never wanted me, actually. I've heard them tell their friends before that I was an accident, but the only reason they kept me was because it would look bad to have an abortion. Okay, they didn't tell their friends that part, but I heard them talking to Abby about that part. Well, I have no problem believing that.

After getting everything in my room situated, I sigh and sit on my bed. I instantly jump up with a small scream. Good thing it was only a small one, because my parents are still pissed. I quickly walk to the bathroom and lift up my shirt, then turn around and look over my shoulder. On my back is a huge bruise. Getting kicked in the back repeatedly hurts a lot worse than getting kicked in the stomach. I take note of that to remember how to try to defend myself next time. Yes, I know there will be a next time because there always is.

I start to touch it when my phone goes off. I grab it off the sink without taking my eyes off the mirror. I bring the phone to my ear. "Hello?"

"Hey, Jess! Guess what?"

It's Kayla, and I know that I should at least tell my friend what has just happened, but I don't. She's so happy, why would I want to dump my problems onto her? She always says that she doesn't care what's happening and that I should tell her every time something like this happens so she can help, but I still don't believe her. "What?" I say, as if I'm not in severe pain at the moment.

"Derek! That's what's up! He asked me to go on an actual date. He even said it himself."

I smile and finally take my eyes away from my reflection. I hop onto the counter and stare at the bathtub. "That's great, Kayla. You guys are really cute together."

She's quiet for a few seconds, then says, "Jess, what's wrong?"

"Nothing." Damn. I said that way too quickly, basically a dead give away to Kayla.

"Did they do it again?"

For the first time that night, I let my tears fall. "Y-yeah."

"I'll be there in a little bit, okay? Be by your window to let me in."

I nod my head, even though she can't see me, then take in a shaky breath. "Okay."

Well, Saturday is down, now only Sunday to go. I'm not really sure if that's a good thing or not. When the weekend is here, I get away from that hellhole, but I'm stuck with my parents and now my sister. But when it's finally over, I still have to go back to school where everyone bullies me. So, it's basically a lose lose situation.

"Jessica! Get out of your room for once in your life!"

I sigh and rub both of my hands over my face. I just wanted a few more minutes to myself before I had to deal with everyone else. I stand up and open my door, revealing my dad. "Yes, dad?"

He narrows his eyes at me. "Where's your homework?"

"It's in my bag."

"Really? Then let me see it."

I turn around and walk over to my bed where my bag is leaning against it. Secretly, I roll my eyes while walking over to it. I dig around a little bit, then get my math out first. I hand it to him and he instantly opens the book to look over my paper. His eyebrow raises and his eyes look back up to me. "What is this?"

"My math homework."

He stares at me a few minutes, then crumples it into a ball and tosses it into my trash can. I start to run after it, but my dad pushes me back in front of him. "You can redo it, considering that it looked terrible."

"But I worked forever on that! It looked perfectly fine!"

"No, it didn't. Learn how to write with better handwriting so someone can actually read it." He closes my math book, tossing it carelessly onto my bed. "What's next?"

I nod my head, keeping my eyes on the ground, and dig for my french worksheets. I hesitantly handed them to him. "That's it."

He nods his head, looking over it carefully. "Well, your handwriting is actually readable, but," He squints his eyes, then looks at me smirking. "You didn't get any of the matching answers right."

"What?"

He turns the paper around to show me. At the bottom is a box with french words in it, and below that is sentences with fill in the blanks. Also, all of them are in french. "You really should study harder. Your sister took this class and had no trouble with it. I don't see why you're having problems."

I rip the worksheet from his hand. "But, I didn't write these! That's not my handwriting!"

I look back up to him, but he just rolls his eyes. "I figured. That handwriting is a lot better, and guess what? I do not allow cheating."

I shake my head. I finished this worksheet, but I put in all different answers. Someone must have changed my answers! I know that all these are wrong, but I didn't write it! "Please, dad. I didn't cheat. Someone changed my answers."

"Stop blaming other people and take responsibility for once." He slaps me across the face, making my head turn to the right. "I'm really getting tired of all of this slacking. You're supposed to be smart. Not someone we're embarrassed to have in our family." He shoves me down to the ground. I keep my mouth shut, trying not to make any noise. He lets the worksheet fall onto me and I can see another disappointed look being thrown my way. "You don't get to eat for two days. Maybe that'll get it through your stupid head that you should be working harder."

He stomps out of the room, and I watch his shoes walk out of my door. I also see someone else's feet standing there. I look up and see Abby, smiling happily down to me. "Wow, cheating?" She clicks her tongue. "That's pretty low, Jessica."

"Wait, you changed all my answers!"

I sit up to face her, but she just rolls her eyes. "It took you that long to figure it out? Geez, maybe you aren't as smart as everyone thinks you are." She leans over and brings her hand up to one side of her mouth like she was telling me a secret. "Which isn't very much." She whispers, then laughs and walks out of my room.

I sigh and let my head hang down. "Stupid family." After a few more minutes of staying on the ground, I get up and go to the trashcan to pick up my math paper. I unfold it, smoothing it out on my desk, then set down to start copying all the work I already did, but with "neater" handwriting.