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Ryan has been with the Cohen's now for a few months. Even though he loved living with them he was always worried that they were going to kick him out. His mom had kicked him out a few times but the last time she had meant it. He called everyone but no one took him in for the night. He figured his mom would cool off like she always did and let him back in. Who knew that his call to Sandy Cohen would land him staying here.
Ryan was sitting with Seth playing some ninja game he didn't know the name of on the playstation. Ryan smiled to himself. Things were certainly different then. His brother never sat with him and played games. Ok so they couldn't afford a video game system but they stopped 'playing' when Ryan was six. The only thing Trey did was take him to parties where people got drunk and stoned. Ryan never got it. He could see this at home the only difference here was that 90 percent of the time people didn't hit him at these parties like he would be hit at home. Most of the time at the parties he would go off and hide out in an empty room or closet just to stay out of the way. There was still that 10 percent of the time where a guy at the party would spot him and accuse him of something and start beating on him.
Ryan remembers one of the parties Trey took him to. Ryan was ten and Trey was 14.
"It will be fun Ry. You'll see." Trey said and walked in to the house first. Ryan looked around and saw kids drinking and doing drugs and some were making out. He saw Trey take a beer from one of his buddies. "Want some?" He asked Ryan. Ryan took a sip and tried not to make a face. Trey smiled. "Don't worry you'll get used to it." Trey said. Although Ryan wasn't sure if he wanted too. He looked around to see if he could spot anyone his own age there but wasn't surprised when he didn't. Most of the kids were taller then him and most by a good foot, foot and a half.
The party went on and Ryan was getting bored. He was standing by a table playing with a couple of tops from beer bottles. He wasn't thinking about much, just kind of in his own world. Some one came up and grabbed his arm.
"Hey!" Ryan yelled out and he looked up to see a guy about 17, holding his arm and the guy was a good two feet taller then him. "Let me go!"
"Shut up! Give me back my shit!" The guy yelled. The music was blaring to the confrontation went pretty much unnoticed.
"I don't have anything of yours!" Ryan yelled back. The guy backhanded him across the face. Ryan didn't make a sound. He knew making noise gave them satisfaction.
"Give me back my dope!" He said again. 'Great' Ryan thought 'The guy thinks I have his drugs, I'm gonna get so beat up.' Ryan knew from his experience from his father and now mother's current boy friend that when a druggie thinks you stole their drugs you are in deep shit.
"I swear I don't have it!" He said again. The guy he didn't know hit him in the stomach and then in the face. By this time the people in the room caught on to the fight, well the beating Ryan was taking.
"Hey leave him alone!" Ryan heard someone yell. He looked to his side quickly and saw it was Trey.
"What's it to you?" The guy asked.
"That's my brother." Trey said.
"Well he took my stuff." They guy said and hit Ryan again. Trey was now next to them.
"No he didn't. Your buddy next to you took it!" Trey said and pointed to the guy on the other side of Ryan. The guy looked at his buddy and dropped Ryan. Ryan hit the floor with a thud and saw the guy shake his buddy down. Sure enough the guy had taken the drugs which pissed off the big guy so the big guy began too beat his buddy up. Trey picked Ryan up and got him to his feet. They walked out of the house.
"Sorry Trey. I didn't mean to ruin your fun." Ryan said looking up at his brother.
"It isn't your fault kid. Let's go get some ice for that eye." Trey said and they began to walk home.
It took them about five minutes to get home but when they got there they heard yelling inside the house.
"Shit. Fighting again." Trey said. "Let me go in and get ice and come back out here." He said and Ryan nodded and sat on the old chair on the porch. Ryan listened and heard Trey being yelled at.
"Where's Ryan?" He heard his mom yell. 'Whoa she noticed I was gone.' He thought to himself.
"He's out front mom. He is fine." Trey said. Next thing Ryan knew his mom's boyfriend; Darren was his name, came out the front door and hauled Ryan by the arm into the house. Darren pushed Ryan on to the couch.
"Ryan baby! Are you ok?" He heard his mom ask and come over to him.
"Yea I am fine." He said trying to keep an eye on Darren.
"You have troublemakers for kids. Punks." Darren said and Dawn didn't defend her kids she just sat there and rubbed Ryan's arm. "I'll teach them." Darren said then again picked Ryan up by the arm.
"No! Don't!" Dawn said but Darren didn't listen. Darren grabbed Trey's arm as well and dragged both boys to the back bedroom. He threw the boys down with tremendous force and took off his belt. Trey stood in front of his brother. Darren swung the belt and it connected with Treys side. He winced but didn't make a sound. Dawn was banging on the door that Darren had locked. He hit Trey with the belt again then reached forward and pushed Trey on to the bed and began to beat him. Ryan yelled for him to stop but that only made Darren move on to him. About 10 minutes later Darren got tired and passed out drunk on the bed. The two boys slowly got up. Both were bloody and bruised and they walked slowly to the door and opened it. Dawn was sitting beside it crying. She looked up when the door opened.
"Oh my babies. I am so sorry!" She cried. It was the same thing every time. The boys walked past her and in to the bathroom to clean up. That night it was hard to get to sleep. Both boys were hurt badly and it hurt no matter how they laid on the bed.
That was one of the worst beatings Ryan had ever gotten. Two beatings in one night. Ryan laid in bed with silent tears running down his face. He wasn't making a sound. He didn't want to face Darren again and his brother had just fallen asleep. He wiped the tears from his face gently and winced in pain. He finally passed out from the hurt and pain.
"I Win!" Ryan was brought out of his thoughts by Seth's voice and he looked up to see that Seth beat him. Seth began to do a little dance and Ryan chuckled. He didn't have to worry about getting beat up here. He didn't have to worry about coming home and someone kicking his ass. Ok so he had to worry about the occasional water polo jock but he could take them if needed.
In the back of his mind he worried about being kicked out if he screwed up bad enough and he didn't think that fear would ever go away but for now he was safe and he would try not to screw up.
"Rematch?" Ryan asked.
"Hell yea lets go!" Seth said and restarted the game. As weird and spastic as Seth was, Ryan liked having him as a brother. Ryan smiled.
"Game on!"
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Ok that was the first one shot..... I hope you like it and will review. Reviews give me inspiration to write more. Thanks!!