Aly's POV
Oh God. I can't believe I went back to that.
I promised everyone I cared about I wouldn't. I promised myself.
But it felt... good.
It's sick that it felt good. It's sick that I'd want to do it. To need to do it.
But it was good to be back.
I rinsed my mouth out in the still running sink, since me having barf breath would sort of tip off anyone who knew about my dirty little secret. After I spat the disgusting taste out, I turned the sink off and looked in the mirror.
Oh my God. I hadn't even realized how fat I had gotten...
The bell let out its rhythmic ring, and it was just then that I realized I had spent the entire lunch period poking and prodding my stomach and retching my breakfast up. Beck and Gwen would probably think I spent it with Sean, so maybe they wouldn't be too suspicious. The only problem was, now that they've been through this once, they'll know the symptoms and be more suspicious than ever.
But I need to do this. I need to show whoever wrote that note just how wrong they are.
I'll just be more careful this time.
I know I will.
/ /
"And then she had the nerve to to walk up to me and say hello to me. The lady doesn't even know me, and she acts like we're best friends."
"Jade, you were at a Walmart. She was a greeter. That's kind of her job."
Jade rolled her eyes at my brother as he pulled into her neighborhood. "You always have to defend the people I try to tear down, don't you?"
Beck smirked. "Somebody has to."
While Beck and Jade continued their somewhat playful banter, Gwen looked over at me. "Hey, where were you at lunch?"
The bathroom. "I sat with Sean and his football friends."
"Really? I could kind of see his table from our usual spot. I didn't see you there." Her eyebrows crinkled in confusion.
I shrugged, looking out the window. "One of the bigger guys was probably blocking me."
"Maybe if you weren't such a stick, you'd be easier to spot," Gwen said with a smirk, nudging me slightly.
Usually, I'd hug her for such a statement, but it just sort of made me feel sick.
Oh, Gwendolyn. If only you knew.
Beck pulled into Jade's driveway and they did their usual amount of making out. Before getting out, she turned to us and gave us a Jade Smile. "Later Aly, Smokey."
Jade shut the door and walked toward her house, and Gwen glared at Beck. "You told her?"
Beck half-smirked. "Maybe."
Gwen huffed, crossing her arms. "Come on, it was a one time thing. You're not Mr. Innocent either. Remember the Christmas of '04? Cousin Mark? The one who still isn't speaking to you?"
Beck's grip tightened on the steering wheel, but you could see the guilty glint in his eyes. "He had it coming... He ate my gingerbread man."
I let out a laugh at the memory. I still can't look at egg nog without busting a gut. And our cousin still probably hasn't gotten all of the dairy-ish substance out of his ears.
It's one of those 'you had to be there' things.
Once we arrived at our parent-free abode, Beck followed us inside. "They should be home soon..." he said. Gwen and I sat at the breakfast bar while Beck raided the fridge. "I wonder how they're going to work when they're all busted up..."
"They'll figure out a way," I mumbled, rolling my eyes. "We're talking about people who go into work when they've got the chizzing flu."
Beck nodded as he pulled out a two-liter of Wahoo Punch. If he drinks it, then I can't. "You've got a point. You two want anything?"
"Is there a bottle of diet peach mango green tea in there?" Gwen asked.
Beck pulled one out and handed it to her. While pouring himself a glass, he looked back at me. "Als? Anything?"
I looked up from the counter. "Uh, no. I'm fine."
Beck shrugged, shutting the fridge. Okay, Aly didn't want a drink. No big deal. Aly barely eats at dinner? I barely eat anyway. Aly goes to the bathroom right after minuscule amount of food is consumed? They'll definitely know something's up. I'll have to figure something out.
"Do you think Mom's okay?" Gwen asked, twisting the lid off her bottle of green tea. "We haven't really seen her..."
"She can't be too hurt if they're letting her go," I said, playing with the bowl of wax fruit in front of me.
Gwen sighed. "I guess." She gave me a look, like she was concerned about me or something. "Are you okay? You've been acting kind of... weird today."
"I'm fine, Gwenny." Ugh, this girl can see right through me.
Luckily, she can't see through me that well.
"You do seem kind of off," Beck commented, taking the stool next to mine. "Did something happen today?"
God, it's the few times like these I wish I wasn't so close to my siblings. "I'm okay, really, guys. I'm just kind of disappointed that there's going to be adult supervision in this house again." I tried my best to smirk and Beck let out a chuckle and went back to drinking his carbonated liquid sugar. Gwen looked sketchily at me for a moment, but let out a giggle and went back to drinking her beverage.
And, of course, our parents chose that moment to enter the house.
Man, Mom was a mess. Her left arm was broken, her neck was in a brace, and her head was all bandaged up. I'm actually surprised that's all that happened to her.
Aunt Lea was helping my dad, who was on crutches, sit down on the couch. When he was all settled and she saw the three of us peering at her from the living room, she gave us a big grin and ran toward us. "Hellooooo, my lovelies!"
Yeah. Aunt Lea's one of those aunts.
She gave us each a big, lipsticky kiss on the cheek and excitedly chirped, "Oh, how are you three? Has everything been okay?"
No. Far from it. "You bet!" I lied, giving her my best Hollywood Arts acting classes smile. Beck and Gwen nodded in agreement, only partially lying.
"Oh, that's fantastic!" She clapped her hands together. "Beck, how is that wonderful girlfriend of yours?"
"She's great, Aunt Lea," Beck said with a smile. He was better at fake smiling for generic relative questions. Or maybe it was a real smile. Beck's a better actor than I am.
"Actually, Beck's not the only one of the Oliver kids with a special someone," Gwen practically sang. Lea always was her favorite aunt. Probably because she's the only person I know who's perkier than she is.
Aunt Lea gasped. "Gwenny! You have a little boyfriend?"
"He's far from little," I muttered, earning a glare from Gwen.
"Well, Aly has a boyfriend too!" Dang it. Maybe I shouldn't have made that crack at David's height.
"Oooh, you two will have to tell me all about these lucky guys over dinner!" I could see Beck roll his eyes at that. He probably didn't want to hear us gush about them when he constantly had to keep himself from snapping Sean and David's necks. Well, too bad. Aunt Lea always talks about what she wants to talk about, whether the other people wanted to talk about it or not. Which reminded me-
"You're staying for dinner?"
"Yes sirrie!" Our aunt giggled, walking towards the fridge. "I thought your parents deserved a nice meal after being at that bleak old hospital for almost three days. How do you kids feel about chicken penne?"
"Sounds good," Beck said, sitting back down on his bar stool.
"Mmm." Gwen smiled, remembering how good of a cook Aunt Lea is. Well, she should be, considering she's a professional chef and all. It didn't make me happy, obviously.
You're probably wondering why she's busy cooking stuff for us instead of her own kids. I bet she would... if she had kids. Aunt Lea never married, and therefore never had kids. I guess that's why she's so mushy when she sees her nieces and nephew.
And she'd probably be offended if I vomited her meal back up.
I suddenly remembered that our parents were in the other room. While Aunt Lea gathered stuff from the pantry and Gwen hopped up to help her, I wandered into the living room, with Beck behind me. Only our mother was in the living room, looking at her cast and sighing.
Have we finally learned the errors of our drunken ways?
"Hey, Mom," Beck greeted from the entry of the living room, making her look up.
She gave us a small smile. "Beckett, Allison." She slowly stood up and gave us both a kiss on the cheek. With her mouth so close to my nose, I couldn't help but notice her breath smelled like scotch.
Seriously? After driving so drunk that she crashes into a tree, she still drank the stuff?
These people never learn.
"Has... Has everything been going okay without us?" she weakly asked.
"Great. Everything's been better than ever." I smiled, and that smile and the reassurance that things had been dandy without them in our lives made her face drop a bit. She left without another word and walked into the kitchen, which already smelled like grilled chicken and pasta. It made me feel nauseous.
After she was gone, Beck gave me a look. Like, one that said I shouldn't have basically told our mother that she sucked, but one that also had to admit I had a point.
"Don't look at me like that," I grumbled, plopping down on the couch. "You know I'm right."
"I know." He sat down next to me. "But come on, Al, they've been in the hospital."
"Because of their own stupidity," I pointed out.
Beck sighed and said, "True. But try to act a little civil. Okay?"
I huffed, but rolled my eyes and nodded. "Okay, fine."
Before Beck could say anything else, I heard a voice from upstairs scream, "Beckett! Allison! Gwendolyn!"
Oh, I believe our dear daddy wants us.
Beck and I stood up, seeing our father hobble down the steps, using his crutch for support. Despite how furious he looked, his busted up condition sort of made it funny.
Gwen walked out of the kitchen and joined us. "Daddy? What's wr-"
"Which one of you was in my tobacco drawer?" he demanded, seething.
Oh no.
Gwen is dead.
You could just tell that he had had even more to drink at Aunt Lea's house than my mother did. And when he's drunk and mad, nothing good can come out of it.
We were all silent. Gwen was shaking like a leaf and Beck and I just exchanged a nervous glance.
"Well?" he boomed. "If one of you doesn't confess right now, you will all be punished!"
Gwen whimpered. She would never want to get us in trouble, so she took a baby step forward. "Um, it was me, Daddy. I-I smoked one of y-your cigarettes."
Mother and Aunt Lea, who had been watching with wide eyes from the kitchen entrance, both exchanged shocked looks. I would have been shocked to hear her confess that too, if Beck and I hadn't already busted her.
"Gwendolyn?" Father asked, looking at her skeptically. "Was it really you?"
I bet he thought it would have been me. Considering he apparently thinks I'm a tramp and all. Gwen's the good one... Or was. She might have just lost that title.
With glossy eyes, Gwen nodded. "I wasn't thinking, Daddy. It was just one time and I'm never going to do it aga-"
"I don't want to hear your damn excuses, young lady!" he yelled, grabbing her by the upper arm with his free hand. As she cringed in pain, he screamed, "You know that drawer is off limits, especially to you!"
God, it really looked like he was hurting her. "Don't be too hard on her," I said, eyes widening a bit.
Beck stepped forward a little. "Yeah, Dad, we already-"
"Beckett, Allison, go upstairs," our father ordered. "I need to deal with your sister."
"James," Aunt Lea began, looking concerned. "Maybe you should-"
"Lea, these are my kids. I'll handle this," he harshly told his sister.
Something in my gut told me not to leave, but I knew Beck and I would only get in more trouble if we disobeyed him, so we walked back upstairs and went into Beck's room.
"God, I hope she'll be okay."
"Aunt Lea's down there," Beck said, resting his hand on my shoulder as we sat done on his bed. "He won't pull anything with her in there. He won't."
Even he didn't sound convinced.
The walls muffled our father's shouts, so you couldn't understand them, but we could tell that he was really giving it to her. Gwen was crying, from what I could hear, and it broke my heart. She only sobs like that when she's really in trouble.
The poor kid already got a lecture from me and Beck. She didn't need another verbal attack.
"We shouldn't have left," I said. "We should have stayed down there."
"I feel the same way, but what could we have done?" Beck asked, running his hand through his hair and trying not to pay attention to our father screaming something about our mother butting out of it and no, he had not had too much to drink.
It was silent for a moment. At least between me and Beck. We had no idea what to do or say and were just waiting for the yelling to stop. It did. But it wasn't necessarily for the better.
A pain-filled scream from Gwen and the sound of two bodies dropping onto the hardwood floor made Beck and I exchange fearful glances and sprint through the door and down the steps. I was ahead of Beck and what I saw almost made me want to cry.
James was lying on his stomach, his crutch on the floor to his side. Our mother was trying to get him to sit up. He had obviously fallen. The question was, what did he do to make him lose his balance like that?
A crumpled up Gwen, clutching her face and sobbing, answered that question.
I ran past Aunt Lea, who was too utterly horrified to move, and kneeled down next to my sister. "Gwen? Gwen, are you okay?"
Gwen didn't respond with words, but shook her head and continued to cry and wail into her hands.
Beck slowly joined us, crouching down next to me. "Gwenny, let us see your face," he gently said. We both knew she had to have been hiding something, since she never hides her face when she cries. She wouldn't remove her hands, so Beck was kind enough to pry them away from her face for her.
We were greeted by tear stained cheeks and a huge, already purple bruise forming around her left eye.
I'm going to kill him.
