****Don't own anything so I'm just going to get to it.****
Chapter Song::: Girl Next Door—Saving Jane for Sadie and for Chris the song is Pieces—Sum 41
****SADIE****
I was screwed.
"Fresh meat." He snarled. "Pretty little thing like you shouldn't be hanging around with shit like them." I hadn't gotten off the ground and he was coming towards me. He flicked open his switch blade and grinned as I tried to crab crawl away.
"What the fuck, man!" I tried to scramble to my feet but he kicked me back down.
"Oh now you're making things difficult." He stepped forward with his knife pointed at my neck.
"Ace!" I looked around for the new voice and saw the blond girl from earlier.
"Regina, go away." He snarled. The girl called Regina stepped in front of Ace and I.
"Zachary." She growled. "Leave. The. Girl. Alone." He held the knife to her throat but she didn't even blink.
"Why I oughta."
"Do it." She challenged. "I. Dare. You." He lifted his hand to smack her and she held his wrist. "Go home, Acie. Torment someone else. Just go." She placed her hands firmly on his chest and pushed the large boy away. He scowled and walked away with his head still hung high. I heard the girl sigh as she turned to me.
"You okay, honey?" she helped me up.
"Just fine." I let my voice shake for the first time and I looked down at my arms. They were red and I could see bruises beginning to form in the shape of his fingers. My side ached from where he had kicked me and I was sure I had pissed myself.
"He doesn't mean any harm really. Just likes to feel all big and bad. It's a complex honestly."
"I bet." I looked at her and was stunned. She was not only beautiful but she was gorgeous. She was clad in a white mini skirt with white sneakers and a tight fitting purple shirt. Her waist long platinum hair laid flat against her back and her eyes were as large and blue was the Oregon sky. She had the perfect curves painted with the perfect complexion. Automatically I was envious of her as I looked down at my own child like body.
"I'm Reggie."
"Sadie."
"I know. We have math and science together." We were walking out of the road and up to my house. It was only seven oh three but it felt so much later.
"So his name is Zachary?" I asked sitting down on the front stoop.
"Yeah. Little known fact and I'd like to keep it that way. The name Ace comes from his unbelievable luck at gambling." She laughed. "It makes him seem less scary. I'm really sorry. My boyfriend can be a real dick sometimes."
"Boyfriend?" I was astonished that anyone would touch that Neanderthal with a ten foot pole.
"Yeah." She said it as though it was an obvious fact and I should have known. "Recently I have had to keep him on a pretty short leash. I met up with him a couple years ago and it just kinda…works. He isn't so bad, sincerely! You just gotta get to know him really well. Like really really well and even then he can still be an asshole. I have a thing for the bad boys I guess. I've always liked a challenge. That and he's a great kisser." She shrugged and sat down beside me.
"Interesting." I mumbled, not really caring.
"Are you sure you're okay?"
"I will be." I blew my bangs out of my face and looked to Reggie.
"He shouldn't be messing with you anymore. I'll keep him at bay. Or try to. Even the great Regina Barks can't work miracles." We shared a laugh and then an uncomfortable silence.
"Thanks." My voice was small and meek and nearly inaudible to human hears. I hated it when I was a little pansy girl.
"It's what I do." She stood up and twirled to leave. "I'll see you tomorrow Sadie."
"Bye." I took a deep breath and went inside the house with Steven on my mind, the biggest taboo of them all.
****CHRIS****
I ambled home, kicking cans on the side of the road. It was seven and dad would be home opening his seventh or twelfth beer, depending on the nights drinking speed. I chased dad out of my mind and filled my thoughts with Sadie. She smiled three times today, four if you count the malevolence smirk she gave Teddy, and two of those smiles were for me.
I didn't know why she was so sad but for some reason I knew it had something to do with the golden locket she wore around her neck. She played with it often, twirling it in her petite fingers all day. She was so small, but damn that mouth on her. She was like a firecracker with a twisted fuse; you never knew when she was going to go off. I smiled thinking of the afternoon.
"Boy!" my father's drunken bellow broke my thoughts. Tossing my backpack at the door I groaned.
"Yeah."
"Where the hell have you been?"
"Places." He tried to throw a punch but I evaded it and waited for the next one.
"You little son of a whore!" he swung again, this time snagging my right cheek bone with a sharp blow. I stumbled backwards and he had begun. He was screaming curses and pushing me until I fell on the floor where he began to kick me. I rolled over to protect my vital organs, crossed my legs to protect my manhood, and covered my head with my arms to protect what little brains I had.
I felt each blow with agonizing pain and kept my mouth pursed shut, though I want to cry out my torment with all my voice. I knew if I screamed it would get worse. I saw Eyeball come the trough the front door and look at me. He didn't stop dad. He didn't help me. He just left the house again figuring it was a bad time.
They say that blood is thicker than water but I know for a fact that if Gordie or Teddy or hell even Vern would have walked through that door, Dad would have been on the floor in a heartbeat. I was used to my brother abandoning me and I was also used to the feeling of a steel toed boot in between my ribs.
Soon enough dad ran out of beer or just got bored with me. I played dead for a minute to make sure he was gone, then like the pansy I was I crawled to my closet of a bedroom and ducked into bed. Nothing was on my mind except for the blood trickling from my ear and the sharp pain in my wrist.
It was nights like those that made me regret my own birth.
****Please review! Also I am sorry about the horrible editing job last chapter, I was in a rush and didn't take my time. See you next chapter.****
