Chapter Two

When I walk up to my house after school, I can see my dad's car parked in front of the house. Great. I sigh sadly and walk slowly up to the door, fearing what is going to happen next. I gently push open the ratty door and enter the hallway, removing my sneakers.

I can hear the TV on in the living room, so I peak in. My dad is passed out on the couch, most likely an alcohol related sickness. I don't dare to disturb him. I'm grateful he's asleep. The more drunk he is, the more beaten I get.

I walk to the kitchen, and search the empty cabinets for some type of food. There needs to be dinner when my dad awakes, or he'll kill me. Also, I'm feeling pretty hungry myself. My dad doesn't usually let me eat much, so I often sneak food up to my bedroom. He never comes in my bedroom.

I find some stale bread, and a couple slices of old cheese, and make grilled cheese sandwiches. I have to work with what I got. I find a half empty bag of potato chips, probably old, but I don't bother checking the date. I pour some on his plate, and some on mine. I leave his plate on the table with a glass of milk, and run upstairs with my food to eat.

The grilled cheese isn't very appetizing, but if you're hungry you'll eat anything. I remember how good my lunch looked at school today. I felt tears coming on when I remember where it ended up.

I don't get how Kira could be such a bitch to me. I never did anything to her, so why does she treat me like shit and make my life miserable? I'd rather be unnoticed than so extremely hated by the entire school population thanks to her.

I finish my food and hide the plate under my bed, just in case my dad makes a rare appearance into my room. I sit on my cot, and take out my homework, writing each word neatly and slowly. After I finished that, I laid back onto my pillow, closing my eyes. I suddenly hear him wake up downstairs.

I quietly get out of bed, careful to not make any loud noises, then bend down and press my ear against the wood. I hear his footsteps stumble into the kitchen, and I hear the screech of his chair as he takes his seat at the table to eat his meal, I suppose. I sigh in relief and then settle back into my bed.

Suddenly, however, I hear a loud screech of the chair and loud footsteps pounding up the stairs, coming closer to my bedroom. Was he actually going to come in? Sure enough, my door flies open, and he's standing there, half sober half drunk, with a crazy look in his eye. I shoot up immediately off the bed.

"WHY DIDN'T YOU CLEAN THE HOUSE?" he shouts. I didn't know how to answer him, so I remain frozen. "ANSWER ME!" I gulp nervously and then stutter out, "I did it yesterday." He shakes his head, "YESTERDAY WAS ANOTHER DAY. NOW GET YOUR ASS DOWN THERE!"

I feel it before I see it. His fist makes contact with my left eye. Pain radiates through my entire head, as my hand flies up to my face, to soothe where he just punched. He lowers his fist and makes contact with my stomach, punching me hard. I scream a loud bloodcurdling scream as I fall down to the ground, smashing against the hard, concreted ground. He laughs bitterly, and then kicks my limp body. I moan in pain, and try to get up, but I keep falling back down. There is a large pool of blood around me. Suddenly, he rips me off the ground, and drags me down the steps, my legs banging wildly against them. He throws me onto the hard kitchen tiles, and tosses a broom at me, and heads to the living room to watch basketball.

More blood spills onto the kitchen floor as I cough it up. I shakily peel myself off the floor, and began to sweep the floor, weakly. I fall a couple times, due to my weakness, but I manage to successfully clean the kitchen, along with the bathroom. Finally, I'm allowed to go to bed. My floor has blood stains all over it. I take a quick warm shower, laying on the floor of it, too weak to stand. Afterwards, I limply fall into my bed, covering the white sheet all around my frail body. The tears rapidly begin to spill out, until finally I fall asleep.

The next day starts out fine. My father is not home, much to my pleasure, and I also successfully avoid all the popular kids on my way to my locker. I make it through all my morning classes, and eat my lunch.

Now it is time for gym class, and a sickening feeling in is my stomach. I don't want to do this with Austin Moon. We head outside, me limping along behind everybody due to an awful pain in my leg from the step banging scenario. We stop at the track where Coach Cobb explains that tomorrow we will need to play against another partner pair in basketball. Today, we are to train with our partner.

I limp over to Austin, who rolls his eyes at my limping. Luckily, I have my sunglasses on, so he doesn't see my bruised eye. I'm surprised he didn't see it in history class. I must have done a good job concealing it with my hair.

We walk to an empty basketball court on the park, and he begins dribbling effortlessly. I watch as he perfectly shoots the ball and it swishes through the hoop. I sigh enviously. I couldn't play a sport if my life depended on it.

Austin still hasn't spoken a word to me yet, which is fine. I don't feel like playing, hell I could hardly stand, so I make my way over to the fence and slump down against it.

Austin looks over at me and makes a face. "Aren't you going to train? I really want to win, you know, and something tells me with you on my team, that ain't gonna happen."

I sigh and then stand up, moving slowly towards him. He offers the ball, and I shoot, missing the basket completely. Austin rolls his eyes, and goes to retrieve the rolling away ball.

"I can't do it," I whine as he walks back. He laughs, "You can't do anything dork." I look down embarrassed and suddenly my knees give out, and I almost hit the concrete, but Austin's muscular arms grab me before I can. He pulls me up onto my feet and a perplexed expression appears on his face.

"Ally, what just happened?" he asks, confusion covering his face, "Are-are you alright?" I can't believe he has the nerve to ask me if I'm alright. "Yeah, I'm fine," I say, even though I'm anything but. I obviously fell because I don't have the strength after last night. I feel myself stumble forward again, and I catch his arm, gripping it tightly.

"Something's definitely wrong," he says and searches my face for answers, but I'm not giving any away. "Can I sit?" I ask, feeling a sharp pain forming in my stomach. He nods, and follows me over to the fence, where I sit down and lean against it, clutching my stomach. Austin sits a couple feet away from me, sipping his water.

We remain silent for awhile, but then Austin speaks up. "Ally, why are you wearing sunglasses if it's not even that sunny out?" I gulp, "It's still bright." I answer a little too shakily. He gets up and walks over to me, and kneels down in front of me. Why does he even care so much?

He reaches forward, and a shiver runs down my spine. I protest, but he gently removes my black sunglasses, gasping when he sees my bruise. "Who did this to you?" he immediately asks, anger flashing over his face. "Nobody, I-I fell." Austin shakes his head, "You didn't fall. I know you didn't."

"Why do you even care?" I shouted. He shrugged, "You know what? I don't!" he screams. He stands up and starts walking away, but I start coughing which causes him to turn around. Blood shoots up through me as I cough, and splatters out onto the pavement. Austin freezes, his mouth hanging open wide. Suddenly, he whispered. "Somebody punched you in the stomach."

I can't lie anymore, but I can't tell the truth. "It's nothing." Austin shakes his head. "No it's not!" he screams, "It's not just nothing!" "Once again I don't see how this has anything to do with you! I don't know why you even CARE!" He sighs, "I DON'T CARE, but I'm not just going to sit here and watch you fall with bruises covering your face, coughing up BLOOD!'

I burst into tears then. I can't help it. I start crying hard, and his expression softens as he walks towards me. "I-I'm sorry," he says, looking down at where I'm sitting. "It's not you," I sniffle, "It's me." He sighs, and then sits beside me. "Look, I don't know what happened to you or anything, but how about we get you to a hospital and get you checked out, alright?"

I shake my head. "I can't," I say. His eyebrows crinkle. "Why not?" he asks. "Because I cant!" I scream through tears, "Can't you mind your own damn business? Seriously. Why would I tell you anything? You'd just go tell it to all of your friends, and they'd all make fun of me because of it."

His jaw is dropped, obviously shocked that I confronted Austin Moon. It's like a law not to talk back to Austin Moon. His mouth becomes a hardline and he walks off of the court. "Suit yourself," he calls back. I shake my head, wondering what the hell just happened.

Austin's POV

I know this is a wrong thing to do...but I'm following Ally Dawson home from school. I have no idea what happened on the court today, and I'm desperate to find out.

I don't know why I'm so worried about it, I just feel like I have to know. It's not like Dawson and I are friends or anything, but I'm curious as to why she was so injured today and a little pissed at the person who did it. I mean, she's like the smallest girl ever. Who would want to hurt her?

I remember her tears on the court and the immediate shattering of my heart. It hurt to see her cry, especially because of me shouting at her. Why do I treat her the way I do anyways? I don't hate her or anything so why do I treat her like absolute shit?

One word: Kira. I need to be mean for Kira and for my rep, to be honest. I can't be seen being nice to Dorkson, I mean how embarrassing!

But I never did consider her feelings. I mean, she might really be hurt by our bullying, in fact ,I know she's hurt by our bullying, but I can't risk my rep just to be nice to some girl I barely know. I want to stop, but I can't.

I follow her a few more blocks to a shabby looking double house. This is where she lives? It's a lot different then the huge beach house my parents own.

She walks inside, and immediately I hear slamming and screaming. My heart starts pounding. Is somebody in there hurting her? I gulp, and walk a little closer. I can hear her cry through the door, and with each sob, my heart breaks a little more. What if she is really hurt? Should I call the police?

I decide against it, because Dawson seems to be okay everyday she comes to school, and I don't want her to think that I'm spying on her or that I care about her or anything. Suddenly, the crying and screaming and banging stop, much to my relief. I listen in more, hearing nothing else.

I remember her words from yesterday ring through my ears as I walk away from the house. "You'll never know half the things about me."

I'm starting to believe she's right.

So sorry it was so short. :) promise I'll make the next one longer :P PLEASE REVIEW :DD