Chapter 1:*Alex's Point of View*

I backed up into my wall as my father walked towards me. He had came home drunk again. It was a new routine between the two of us. I would cower in fear and he would hit me until he though he heard Max walk by and then he would leave the room. He loved Max with all his heart and wanted Max to think that he didn't do this stuff to me that's why he told me to never ever tell Max about him getting drunk. He always said the same thing to me when Justin was here. He loved his sons but me nope, he always wanted to have all boys, but he was upset he didn't get what he had wanted. He had a girl. He didn't want me. Story of my life. My mother on the other hand, had always wanted a girl and loved me with all her heart. You may be wondering why she wasn't stopping my father from beating me. Well she was working late like she always did. Since my father would never go out and work my mother had to provide for the family. So now my father would beat me until I got loud and he thought that Max would be able to hear. Then he would leave me alone.

"Daddy! Please stop!" I screamed. I knew that if I was loud that he would stop and leave me alone. "Daddy, please, we'll wake Max up! Please just stop!" I screamed loud enough that I knew that Max would wake up. I knew it because I heard a door shut very quietly. I knew that one day Max would wake up in the middle of the night and he would hear our father beating on me. But I also knew that he wasn't stupid enough to let Dad know that he knew about all of this.

I saw Max look into my room in horror as he saw me crying and my father hovering over top of me. The look in his eyes was of pure fear, he was just now seeing what his father was capable of. Since me and Max are so close I can just give him a look and he can tell what it means, I gave him the 'run-before-he-sees-you' look. And he did what he was told to do. After I saw that Max had left, I started bawling. I had never wanted for him to see what I have to go through. I am just so glad that its me and not him. My father normally hits me for a good twenty minutes just so I know that he can hurt me. And normally after he leaves I run over to the door and lock it. Even though I know that he has a key for the room and that he could and would unlock it if he wanted to.

I slid down on my wall like I always did and I crawled over to my dresser that I kept my journal that I have been writing ever since my mother started working nights. I always wrote in it after he came in. Its full of all my feelings. I keep it hidden so that no-one would find it but I also keep it where if anyone wanted to look for something of mine they would be able to find it with ease. It was kinda my way of calling out. It was my way of reaching out for help even though I knew that no-one was going to come and help me out of this hell that I called my life. I would sometimes actually get blood on some of the pages where he had hit me so hard that I would have a bloody lip or he would hit me in the nose and it would start bleeding. I would never tell my mother because I didn't want her to think that she had to stay home to protect me or she might send me away from Max. Max would never be safe here by himself because he would do something wrong and my father would beat him even though he is his favorite. I know that I take of the blows from when Max does something wrong but I don't care. I love my baby brother with all my heart and I don't want him to get hurt by our psycho father.

So I write in my Journal every night.

Dear Journal:

He came home drunk again tonight. He did what he always does. He came in and hit me like he always does. But tonight something different happened that he doesn't know. Max woke up and saw him. I told him to leave before he got hurt and he did. I never wanted him to ever see what he does to me. Max is most likely terrified and is just sitting on his bed trying to get the memory of our father hitting me out of his head. I'm thinking of going into his room and making sure he is okay. He is old enough to be able to take the truth but I never wanted him to ever see me get hit like that.

~Alex

I got up out of my floor and I started walking down the hallway to Max's room. My father put him as far away from me as possible so that he wouldn't be able to hear him beating me but that really didn't work out to well because he still found out. I walked into his room where I saw him looking at a picture of him, Justin, and I all together one day at the park. We were all so happy.

"I remember that day." I said as I saw what he was looking at. He just looked at me and then continued to look at the picture. "That's one of my favorite memories of all of us together. We were all so happy. Mom wasn't working all night and daddy wasn't getting drunk every night." I told him and he just looked up at me. "The only reason he does those things to me is because he's drunk. He doesn't mean to hurt me he just doesn't know that he is actually doing those things." I said trying to comfort him.

"Is he going to do those things to me like he does to you?" Max asked me with terror in his voice. I knew this was coming. He is so young and he has to know about our father tormenting me.

"No Maxy, he would never lay one hand on you. I would never let him." I told him giving him a big hug. "I promise I will never let him every hurt you. He will never do the things he does to me to you. I promise and one day when we are old enough we will move far, far away from him. He will never be able to think about doing those things ever again. And then one day will tell Mama and she will leave him too." I said still hugging him. "I promise. Maybe we will go to where Justin is and me, you, mama, and Justin will all be one big family again." I starting to cry at the thought of us all being together again.

"Do you think we could?" Max asked getting hopeful again.

"Yeah, I do. We just can't let dad know that you know. He might hurt me even more that he does now." I told him. "And you can't ever tell him that we might move away from him or he may make it so that we will never be able to leave the house again. Okay. This is all our little secret." I told him letting him out of the hug. "Now go back to sleep. I'm going to go take a shower and in a couple hours I will wake you up and we'll walk to school together. Then after school we will walk home and we will have mama back and we will be happy with her until she leaves and then you will go lock yourself in your room until I call you for dinner and then straight after dinner you will come back up here and lock the door again, but when you hear three knocks one after the other you open the door and let me in okay." I told him trying to keep him as safe as possible.

"Okay Alex." Max said getting underneath the covers and closing his eyes. "Goodnight. I love you Alex."

"I love you too, Maxy. Goodnight." I told him leaving his room. I walked down to my bedroom and got some clothes to change into and I took a nice hot shower. Then I went to bed at about two in the morning. Normally I don't till a lot later but since I was extra tired I went to be a lot earlier just to wake up in another day of hell.

XxxXxxXxxX

After Max and I arrived at school, I walked over to Mitchie and Harper my two best friends. They were standing by the locker like we always did before class. Mitchie was staring and Shane Gray like always while Harper was drawing and design on her sketch pad as always. I got into my locker and pulled out my liturature books and the books we have to read in that class, A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. The book is boring but we have to read it.

So Mitchie is only person at my school that know what my father does to me. She is the only person I can actually trust at this school. Sure I have Harper but she can't keep a secret to save her life. So she really isn't the person that you would tell all this stuff to. So Mitchie is the only one who I can tell things to in this school cause most of the student body are either jerks, sluts, or pervs. I hate going here and I don't plan on stay till I'm a senior. I'm most likely seeing if Justin can let me and Max come live with him after I find some way to show my mother that my father beats me and all the other crap he does to me without my father finding out that I'm the one that told her.

So Mitchie and I walked to class together and we walked past the Gray brothers. Nate, Shane, and Jason are basically the guys that every girl in the school wants to be with. Though they already have girlfriends. Nate is dating the biggest slut in the whole school, her name is Hannah Montana. Shane is dating a girl that is not as big of a slut as Hannah but is still a slut, Tess Tyler. And Jason is dating a regular girl who is just a little bit stuck up, she is nice to me and all but when she is around Hannah and Tess she is the complete opposite, her name is Sharpay Evans.

I glanced over at Mitchie who was staring at Shane as usual. She has been crushing on him for like ever now. Ever since they went to that music camp together she has had the biggest crush in the world on him. "Mitchie, its impolite to stare at a guy whose girlfriend is right beside him." I told her trying to get her to look away before Tess notices once again and comes over and says something to her.

"Oh, didn't notice Tess over there. I never do." Mitchie said looking the other way when we passed the Gray's. "So Alex, I've never actually seen you show any interest in any of the guys here. Why don't you actually like them?" Mitchie asked me. She still hasn't got the fact that I have trust issues and that I don't trust people. I only trust her.

"Okay, so how many times do I have to tell you. I have trust issues. I only trust you, I have told you everything that happens at my house. Would you trust people after you went through all the crap I have gone through? I can't wear short sleeves anymore because of him. I have purple bruises on my arms because of him." I told her rolling up my sleeves a little bit to show her the huge bruise on my arm.

"Is this one new? I have never seen this one before, did he hit you last night?" Mitchie asked getting concerned.

"Yeah, he did. But this time, Max woke up and walked past my room and saw everything. He was terrified of our father. I don't know what we are going to do now. He will never be able to look at him the same way anymore." I told her getting a teary at the memory of Max's terrified face.

"Aww poor Maxy." Mitchie said as we walked into our lit class. We took our seats and stopped talking about the whole situation. We didn't want anyone to hear about it because the people at this school are very nosy and don't know how to not to mind their own business. About a minute before class started Nate Gray walked into the class room and sat in the assigned seat that was right beside mine. I had never actually talked to him but he seemed kinda nice.

He sat down and pulled out all of the stuff he needed for the class. I'm guessing he forgot something because all I felt on my arm was his hand pecking on the new bruise on my arm. "Did I hurt your arm?" he asked me after he saw that I was flinching.

"Um, not really its just I fell down a flight of stairs and bruised up my arm really badly." I told him lying like I did everyone that noticed my bruises or cuts.

"Oh, ouch, I'm sorry." he told me acting all sweet and Nateish. "Do you want me to look at it for you? My father is a doctor and I know how to see how long it will take to heel." Nate told me trying to be nice but if he see's the bruise he will see the hand prints on my arm where he held on so tight and just wouldn't let go.

"Um, no thank you. I don't need you to look at it. I'll be fine." I told him but by the look in his eyes I knew he didn't believe me.

Okay, since people can copyright me, i'm going to have to put this. I don't own any of the characters.

Okay so the first chapter is a little bit crappy but i promise it will get better. So since i have most of the chapters already wrote out i'm going to ask for a certain about of review. So i want four reviews for the next chapter.